Using RSForms! to gather information

We use the RSform! plugin to create web forms where visitors to your site can sign up, request information, and otherwise communicate with you via your Joomla web site. This approach is much better than posting a “mailto” link with an email address because:

• Spammers search for mailto links to find new email addresses to spam, which means if you post an email address on your site, you will eventually be flooded with spam.
• RSform can email the form results to you (or any email address you specify), as well as the person who filled out the form.
• The contents of the form are also saved to the form database, which means you have a record of all the forms filled out in a format that you can download and review using a program such as Excel, in addition to any e-mails you receive.
• RSorm automatically displays a confirmation message on the website as well is sending an e-mail out to the specified addresses.

For more information on what you can do with RSform, see RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Introduction to RSform!.

The RSForm! User Guide contains detailed instructions on how to set up, manage and update your forms, mostly in the Getting started section. This post provides a quick overview of how to create a new form in RSForm, assuming that it has been installed correctly (see Installing and uninstalling for details).

Create a New Form

To create a new form:

1. log in to your sites administrator backend,
2. select Components > RSForm!
3. click on the Forms Manager button. You’ll see a list of all the forms in your site.
4. click [New] on the toolbar. This opens the Edit Form page with the Form Edit tab selected.
5. in the Form Title field, type the descriptive name for your form. This will appear on the form itself and also be used in e-mails.
6. In the Form Name field, enter a memorable name for your form that does not include any spaces.
7. Click the [Apply] button on the toolbar to save your work.

For more information, see: RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Creating a new form

You will probably want to add a Return URL as well. This is the page that appears after a visitor submits the form and then sees the confirmation message. Most likely this is a page in your site. To fill out this field accurately:

1. open a new browser window
2. go to the page where you want to send people after they’ve completed the form
3. copy the URL out of your browser’s address bar
4. switch back to the browser window with the Edit Form page
5. paste the URL into the Return URL field.

Adding Fields

To collect any information in your form, you need to add fields on the Form Edit tab (on the Edit Form page). To add a new field:

1. Click the [New Field] button on the toolbar to open the Add Field page.
2. Enter in the short descriptive field ID using letters only (no spaces or other special characters).
3. For the Field Title, enter a short descriptive caption, which will appear on the form next to the field.
4. You can also enter an optional Description of the field that will appear to the right.
5. For special and mandatory fields, select a Validation rule. the most basic rule is “mandatory,” which means a visitor must fill out the field to submit the form. The “e-mail” field is also very handy, and you will want to use this if you will intend to capture the visitors e-mail address.
6. Most of the time, you will want to use the text Field Type, but RSform supports a variety of field types including radio buttons and checkboxes. You also need to create one “submit button” field in your form, so visitors can submit the form for processing. For detailed information on setting up special field types, please see RSForm! User Guide – Manage the fields – Adding a new field
7. the Additional attributes and Field Style fields support advanced HTML, CSS and JavaScript options but are not necessary for most forms.
8. click the [Save] button on the toolbar to save your new field.

Tips

• Review the Field preview area on the right side of the page to see how your field will look as you create it.
• You can also use the form preview link to see a sample of your form.
• be sure to add a submit button at the bottom of your form. This is a type of field, so just follow the steps above to create a new field and select “submit button” as the field type.

Adding a Thank You Page

After you have created all of the field you want in your form (including a submit button), create a Thank You page that will display after the visitor submits the form.

1. On the Edit Form page, click on the Thank You tab.
2. In the standard Joomla edit box, enter the message that will appear after the visitor submits the form.
3. Note that you can include information from the fields by enclosing the field IDs in curly braces. \See the bottom of the Thank You page for details, or review RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – The Thankyou Tab
4. Click [Apply] on the toolbar to save your work.

Setting up the Notification E-Mail

RSform will send a notification e-mail to any number of e-mail addresses that you specify. You can also customize the confirmation e-mail using data submitted in the form. Note that if you do not send a confirmation e-mail, RSfoms will still save your form to the form database for online review or download.

To set up the notification e-mail:

1. On the Edit Form page, click on the Emails tab.
2. In the E-Mail Form data to field, enter the e-mail addresses, separated by commas, that should receive the notification e-mail. See below for details.
3. for the E-Mail Form data FROM field, enter the e-mail address of the person who can respond to inquiries about the form. This is the e-mail address that will be used if someone replies to the notification e-mail.
4. In the E-Mail from Name field, enter the persons name or the organization name that will appear in the e-mail header.
5. Enter a descriptive E-Mail Subject.
6. To keep things simple, we recommend using Text as the E-Mail Mode.
   

If you want to send a confirmation e-mail to the person who submitted the form, be sure to include a field named email on your form, set its validation to e-mail, and include this e-mail address in the e-mail form data. For more information about setting up the notification e-mail, see RSForm! User Guide – Getting started – Setting up the e-mail.

Creating the Email Text

The e-mail text can contain any text you like combined with the data submitted with the form. To include form fields in the e-mail text, type the form id, enclosed by curly braces, in the text of the e-mail.

When you are done editing the e-mail text, click [Save] on the toolbar to save your work and return to the Forms Manager page.

Preparing Your Form for Launch

Before you link your form into your site, test it extensively. The easiest way to do this is to click on the Form Link on the Manage Forms page. This usually looks like: index.php?option=com_forme&fid=X, where X is the form of ID number. You can also use the Preview link on the Manage Forms page.

Things to Test

• does the form appear correctly on your site?
• Are the correct fields set as mandatory?
• is the notification e-mail going to the correct destination(s)?
• Does the notification e-mail include all the fields you want?

Often during testing, you will want to go back to the form editor and make updates.

Linking your Form

When you are satisfied that the form operates the way you want, at a link to it in your site. the most common way to link your form in your site is to create a hyperlink in the text of a specific article. To create a link to your form in an article:

1. In the Form Manager, click on the correct Form Link. Your form should open in a new window.
2. Copy the form URL, minus your site’s domain, exactly as it appears in the Form Link column. This usually looks like: index.php?option=com_forme&fid=X where X is the numeric ID of your form. Note that you don’t want to include any slashes or your domain before “index.php.”
3. open the article where you want to link to appear. You can do this in the back end using the Article Manager, or use the front end in-line editor.
4. When you open your article for editing, select the text that you want to use as your hyperlink.
5. Click on the [Insert/Edit link] button, which looks like two chain links with a green + superimposed.
6. Paste the form URL into the URL field.
7. Click the [ Insert ] button.
8. Click [ Save ] on the toolbar to save the updated article.
9. Now, view the article in your browser and test the new link.

You can also Add a form to a menu.