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Elgg Form Builder Plugin |
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Version 0.2 |
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20 April 2008 |
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For Elgg 0.8 and higher |
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Kevin Jardine |
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Radagast Solutions |
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http://radagast.biz |
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kevin@radagast.biz |
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Warning: this is an alpha plugin and is currently provided for testing |
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purposes only. You might lose profile data in a production system if you |
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use this plugin. So be careful! |
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The form module allows you to create full-blown Elgg surveys and to export |
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the results in a CSV (comma-separated value) file. |
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You can also use the form module to import your profile.config.php file |
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and to manage all of these fields through the web, both for community |
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and personal profile forms (as well as your registration form if you have |
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the regext plugin installed). |
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The form module also requires the prfext module. Both the form and prfext |
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modules should work just fine with Elgg 0.8 and higher. |
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You should make sure that you have the latest version of the prfext module |
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(either from SVN or the plugin download area). |
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After you install the form plugin, it creates a number of tables and adds a |
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"Manage forms" option to your admin menu. Currently only site admins can |
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create forms. |
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You can create any of the standard Elgg or new prfext field types (including |
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the new profile_radio_group 2D radio button grid) except for the rather |
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complicated group select ( profile_selectg). |
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You create a new field by adding it to an existing form. However, field |
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definitions are independent from forms. The same field definition can be |
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used on multiple forms and continues to exist even if the forms that they |
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are associated with are deleted. Removing a field from a form is not |
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the same as deleting the field definition. There is a separate page to |
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list / edit / delete field definitions. There is also a page to manage "orphan" |
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fields that are not currently on any form. |
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Both forms and fields must have unique names. |
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You can also import your profile fields. Simply import the profile fields |
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(there is a one click option to do this), and then comment them out in |
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profile.config.php and replace them with the single line: |
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form_handle_profile(); |
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After that you can maintain your person and community profile forms through |
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the web. The form plugin does not handle foaf or vcard fields, so if you do |
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use that stuff, you will need to leave those field definitions uncommented |
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in profile.config.php. |
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If you have regext installed, you can also manage your registration form |
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through the web as well. You can even use it to manage the title, blurb |
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and response text for the registration form (and the title and blurb for |
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the join form that collects the email address). More details are in the latest |
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version of the regext plugin. |
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If you use the form builder plugin to create your own surveys, you can preview |
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the survey, get a public link to it that you can promote to your site members, |
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and export the data collected as a comma separated file. You can also specify |
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for each form whether you want to be notified each time someone submits the form. |
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Comments, bug reports and suggestions for improvements are always welcome. |
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Please send them to kevin@radagast.biz |
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