Creating Forms and Xara Web exports

[CQDX]

Jeez no way, LOL! Nothing as complicated as in your example. For Hosts running vDeck 4 Control Panel software, it is painless and far easier:

1. Create a new mailbox on the host
2. Select webmail (YUCK) or POP3 (which I prefer - and I know this will kick off comments - but THAT'S another topic!). For POP3 it auto-populates the requisite info, including ports.
3. Then if you wish, you can add additional email delivery addresses which will also receive the email.

And that's about all there is to it on the Host side of things. I'd dare say almost all Xara users could do this. Plus, a well written document with screen shots would get it done (not to mention the online help most hosts have).

After setting up the host email account, you can setup a POP3 email account on your phone or computer (and I walk our customers through this all the time, plus I have a PDF instruction sheet for them). Again - a Xara user could do this with proper instructions.

This is not hard to do, but I realize it can be scary for some the first time. As a web developer, this is done all the time with our customers. Most do it on their own, some do it with me on the phone assisting, and for some it's done with a 2-way remote control Audio/Video connection.

Form Widgets are good for some people, but they are SEVERELY limited, and/or require subscriptions, and/or require you to use a web based cloud application. All of these I perceive as negatives - YMMV.

[CQDX]

... I believe the most productive use of a back and forth on new, web-specific features, would be to see how well Xara can play with 3rd party programs ...

I fully agree - integration between two excellent products is sometimes better than one product trying to be, as you said, "all things".

[Gare]

I fully agree - integration between two excellent products is sometimes better than one product trying to be, as you said, "all things".

I really should post this on the v 11 Wish List thread (and probably will); there is a given amount of time to develop a new iteration of a product, therefore it's just a of of static in the process to be strident, bull-headed, self-centered, narrow-minded, defensive, or political using any other means or attitude.

I wish you folks all the best of luck getting some progress hashed out of this dialog (polylog?) here.

I'm returning to the other thread now.

Trying real hard to glean the balance between opinion and constructive criticism,

Gary

[Acorn]

I like the concept.
The site has a lot of useful detail.

BUT

The download tab actually downloads the executable - I like to choose what I have appearing on my machines.
It scanned clean but I deleted it anyway.

BUT

There is a free guide link, which has a form to request the guide.
I thought I then see an example of the products code; the forms are in IFRAMEs

SO

I followed one's source to view-source:http://www.simfatic.com/forms2/ebook..._from_iframe=1
and viewed its source.
It was clean but relied on JQuery 1.7.2 without checking for other versions.
It uses other JQuery plug-ins as well so it's hard to see where the added value resides.

AND finally

It might not work.
Platforms: Windows® XP/Vista/7/8 with no mention of Windows 10.
€59 is probably fine for a one-man band but ongoing support is not mentioned anywhere.

Simfatic Forms is a desktop application that runs on Windows XP/Vista/7/8. The form processing code generated by Simfatic forms is in PHP. Your web server needs to support PHP (PHP 4.3.0 or above, including PHP 5 and above).
Please note that your website could be running under any platform ( Windows or Linux ). The only requirement is that it should support PHP.
PHP( http://www.php.net ) is a free, open source server-side scripting language.

That said for unlimited use, it would pay for itself very quickly.

Acorn

[xtom]

I tried simfatic trial a while back and it was pretty good. Hopefully someday we can create forms in Xara.

[CQDX]

...That said for unlimited use, it would pay for itself very quickly. Acorn

TRUE.

Don't know about others, but for me if $69 (US) solves a problem that otherwise would take me an hour or more to resolve, it has paid for itself right then and there. When a customer requires something that is differnt, I have to have the solution. Nothing within Xara does this for me. Absolutely nothing. When there is a void, you go looking.

[Rob-Xar]

Sorry to say but it really doesn't appeal at all. you have to set up a PHP server, Mail server, and the form looks like something from the 90's. It's basically a UI for this: https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer , and all for $69?

The features are riddled with false information:

First spammers spam via your form, then automated "bots" find your email address in the form's code, sending you MORE spam. They even send you spam from your own email address!

Really? The email address is stored in the PHP mail config file... bots can't read this. A mailbox hack is something different to spam as well...

Your form can now be secured against spam even without CAPTCHA.

Seriously? BIG mistake. I've had web servers taken down through forms that had Captcha but the bots got around it. Google have built a Captcha though that works very well: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html

It's just marketing rubbish.

Granted, it's wysiwyg, unlimited to use and easy to use but the results don't justify the effort and price.

[CQDX]

Regardless ... what does Xara offer that is better? Anything? I believe nothing ... and Simfatic is way better than nothing, does a good job filling a need for complex forms, and does so cost effectively. If you don't like Simfatic for whatever reason, or don't need it - don't buy and use it - simple as that.

But if you refer to the post where my initial post was moved from, the first post's topic mentioned a need for Xara to provide better forms - which is what got me to offer the info about Simfatic. Obviously there are other users who are looking for something like this.

Over and out.

[Acorn]

Over and out.

It is not your place to dismiss others' opinions. Disagree by all means. Rob-Xar and I pointed out some areas of concern and you have one, xtom, who went as far as trialling it, but didn't purchase.
Wait out to see if there are other positions. That way the whole TG corpus benefits.

Acorn

[restless]

We have been using MachForms for a few years now. It cost $59, and you host it on your own server - php and mysqul. We use it to accept registrations and payments for our seminars. We searched for a long time for a decent event registration system that didn't cost a lot of money, and never found anything even close to what we can do with MachForms. We use it for normal contact forms too. It gives you the option of 3 kinds of code to insert into your web page, so if one type doesn't work on mobile, you can use another. We use an iFrame, which is very easy to insert into Xara. You can check it out at www.appnitro.com (this is not an affiliate link - just a very happy customer).