Joomla Webform alternative: JForms

I don’t use Joomla, but sometimes a friend or a colleague of mine ask me some tips. My answer could be: in Drupal it will take 5 minutes.

Since I’m very open-minded, today instead of replying in that awkward way I try to found an alternative to a very useful module for Drupal called Webform. I’ve found a limited but working equivalent for Joomla called JForms.

Tested on:

• Joomla 1.5
• JForms version 0.7 RC1

Installation:

1. Install the extension using URL installation and paste the extension link (zip file from link above).
2. Create a new form (see the visual howto below) with at least one field, one button, a form title, and a Thank you page (eg. index.php)
3. Save the form.
4. Create a new menu item from Menu > Main Menu > JForms > Standard forms  and fill the Select Form field.

Now that you’ve a form, you can use it from your site (click on menu item written created on (4) ).

If you have to link two forms together (eg. Customers -> Company), you have to use the DBList field.

1. Create the Firm form
2. Create the Customers form
3. On Customers form add a DBList field

DB List field must have these values:

• Table name is the table name (mydbprefix_jforms_9c7aa) with the placeholder #__ instead of mydbprefix_.
• Field key is id. The form select value will be set to an univocal id instead of the raw value.
• Field value: value as displayed by the user.
• Field sort: sort the list by this field.

HTML result:

<select style="width: 70px;" id="h4443_14" name="h4443[]">
<option selected="selected" value="1">Barilla</option>
<option value="2">Parmalat</option>
</select>

When creating a new customer, you’ll see a dropdown with a list of companies from the Company table and the two forms are connected.

See also:

• JForms
• visual howto
• http://jforms.mosmar.com/wiki/0.7/elements/dblist (partially wrong howto)