Basic Question, forms

**jclements** · 12 April 2011, 04:40 AM

Does Designer Pro have a way to create a simple form where a user can sign on to subscribe to monthly newsletter? If not, how could it be done with some custom code?

Can someone provide a .xar file that would provide a simple entry form such as first and last name, organization, street address phone, email address.

I may require some holding of this one.

Thanks, J

**zaphodeist** · 12 April 2011, 05:11 AM

http://www.emailmeform.com/

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**jclements** · 12 April 2011, 01:01 PM

Hows does work and integrate with Designer?

**zaphodeist** · 12 April 2011, 02:33 PM

You enter code via a placeholder, but I've just had a closer look and you're limited to only 5 free forms and only a certain amount of submissions which I don't like. Can't even access help without subscribing. Sorry to have posted it without checking.

**Cloud** · 12 April 2011, 05:55 PM

Try jotform, they give 100 submissions per month, no limit to amount of forms and lots of options such as payment integration, file upload etc and it's FREE. If you need more then they do premium versions, $9.99 per month gets you 1000 submissions, 10GB uploads. Again you just bring the code in as a placeholder.

**issie** · 14 April 2011, 11:43 AM

I use Google docs form...

**samrc** · 14 April 2011, 01:19 PM

Though I have used Jotform, I went back to emailmeform.com (EMF)
The EMF free member can have up to 5 forms, a total of 200 submissions per month, and up to 2mb file upload.
Since I have more than one form/site, the 200 submission limit for free accounts was best. This is plenty for small sites. And the form builder is simple to use.
The paid version is 9.95/mo (discounted more if paid yr at a time) for unlimited forms and submissions on unlimited websites.
Also important to me: with EMF, I can set my response page to appear inside my iframe, leaving the web page intact. Jot form would not allow that.
Take a look at some forms that are pre-built (template) here: http://www.emailmeform.com/builder/templates/demo
THey even have a newsletter signup form ready to go. Of course you can modify the basic template in your own account.

Each company has its own options and you need to look to see which fits you best. Lots of companies offer free form services...

With all these solutions, you sign up for a service and build the form on that site, use their options. Get a piece of code.
I like to take a screenprint of the form when I am done building it. Then put that pic into my design file, choose the web properties for the picture and on the placeholder tab, I place the little form code.
For me, using the pic of the form makes the web page easier to work in the design files.
You can go back to the company to change your form (add/remove a field, require a field, etc)

There are other ways of handling forms directly on your own site with scripts.
They take a bit of coding knowledge and care.
When you do that, you must be careful to choose a secure script so the form can not be used by spammers. If it is, your host may pull your webpage down to protect the server.
That's why these 3rd party form sites are so popular. They have to maintain the scripts. They have to keep them secure. And if a spammer attacks their forms, only their site gets blamed, not yours.

I pulled one of my paid PHP scripts down and replaced it with a 3rd party form. No maintenance and less hassle.

**KultiVator** · 14 April 2011, 04:13 PM

Like Issie - I make use of Google Docs Forms most of the time - for the simple reason that as people complete forms, you can instantly inspect them in Spreadsheet form - even from an iPhone or other smartphone.

Some projects really benefit from this immediacy and convenience - especially if other (perhaps paying) parties want to understand volumes of response, trends, feedback, etc

**samrc** · 14 April 2011, 11:24 PM

Interesting perspective. Will experiment with that feature...

**Cloud** · 17 April 2011, 08:23 PM

Emailme looks good, but for me the file upload is very important, we receive files upto 100MB in size sometimes and jotform gives me 10gb of storage and 100MB per file, making emailme useless for us. I do like the fact that email me allows 200 submissions per month and unlimited for a few quid. Might investigate for using it for my customers websites. With jotform I can inject custom css, can you do this with emailme?

Kash