Thanks for your review! It was excellent

I am struggling with this right now. There seems to be a ton of great extensions for Joomla to do almost anything you could want, but forms seems to be a gaping hole. I have looked at the free ones and one of the commercial ones and been extremely disappointed. Perhaps because I have used the great forms module for Wordpress, CFORMS II. I have no relationship with its developer, but I feel like he needs to move into the Joomla space. Surely someone out there has the need or the inclination to create a decent forms module for Joomla, but if it's out there I have yet to find it.

I have not tried BreezingForms. If I could see some screen shots or a video (many have this) on how to use, I might drop the $5 to download it. I think a better model is donations, as the inability to try it without spending $5 is a real stop sign for me. I know on the WordPress front, I have made a number of donations to program authors for plug ins that I find valuable and use.

Since this post is from June 2008, I would like to hear if you have any new words on this topic, or which Forms module you are using today.

In fact, I can not give you much update information. I'm still using ArtForms, as I'm quit pleased with that one. I don't know if there is anything new available.

I installed it successfully. I would like to update it. How?
I tried to upload it in install/uninstall, but did not work

I think you should upload the new version to the directory where artforms is installed (components/com_artforms). But to be sure, you should check with the guys from artforms

Hi,
Do you perhaps know how to turn on the "thank you for submitting" text, which shows after the user submits data? I've filled out the "Text after sending" part, but after submission as a user I get a blank screen, although the form is sent successfully.
10q. Ivan

I don't know this. You should ask this to the people from artforms.

have been trying RSForm?
i have tried. But its not free

Thanks for your suggestion to use artform..

I have download it..

I went to download artforms, but it had so many files to sort through to download, i hesitated. It's not that i don't know how to get what i need, it's just that i was just about ready for bed and didn't feel like doing that much reading at the moment. I looked up breezeforms and it is a commercial extension now. Guess I'll put some coffee on and get back to artforms.

artforms is simple for 1.5. there is only one download file. All components and mods are packaged inside for an easy install.

hi,
i want to create a form for an university
student will enter the registation number and the user should be displayed their respective results which is to retrived from database

ex:
Enter Reg No: 200983

Telugu : 60
Hindi : 29
English : 09
..
.
.
.

kindly help me which extension package should i use in joomla
and how to create a suitable database

mail it to : shakir544@gmail.com

You don't need a form component for this. A form component will aks users to enter certain information and send this by mail to whom it concerns. For what you ask, you should maybe look at components like community builder. I'm not that familiar with these kind of extensions, so maybe you should check this out on the website of community builder

Hi,

Breezingforms is partially commercial. The current version is commercial while the previous is "free as beer". Both still GPL. You just support the projekt by this, otherwise the rapid development and more important - the support - wouldn't be possible in that quality. Thanks to all supporters!

Regards,
Markus

Thanks for this post! Was very useful!

Steven

hi
i want to add my own PHP pages to joomla(forms etc).

so kindly help me in this regard



thanks

Thanks for saving me the time of trying out some of these. I used to use perForms which worked beautifully but from what I've read there were several vulnerability issues and I encountered problems with it when I upgraded to Joomla 1.5. Thanks again!

Indeed a great form editor, but it seems to lack a very basic functionality that keeps me busy for too long. I can't open the form directly from a menu. After assigning it to a menu (mainmenu in my case) it just offers a new link like the following: ArtForms, Select a form [showing name(s)of form(s)to choose]

Others have this problem as well. I did not find one solution. I just want to open the form directly after pushing the menu option. This problem shows up on the web for several month now.

With such a nice tool I can't imagine that a solution is so difficult. Do you know about this and if a solution already exists?

Solved the problem in previous message simply in the 'menu' option. Problem as being a Joomla starter and working without any ArtForms manual, is the repeating of wrong steps. In my case not corrected by results of searching on the web.
Don't bother to remove this and previous message. ArtForms is great, just waiting for a manual

glad I could help

Yeah, it costs $15 but BreezingForms is awesome.

It was a bit complicated to learn at first, but the author has like 6 tutorial videos on his website and after tweaking around with the software for a bit, this software rocks!!! My personal favorite is the "quick" builder. This allows you to drop in elements and manage your form with sections and element lists. After playing around with it I figured out how to do those drop down lists like you see on pro sites (like pick your state or your country). You can totally customize the drop downs to take any kind of data you want. The other killer feature of this package is that every form entry creates a record in your MySQL database and you can export this data to a *.CSV file and then import it into excel. If you are dealing with a ton of data or want to graph things out or put together a mailing list, this software handles all of the grunt work for you. I can export the entry list, import it into excel, grab the "e-mail address" column and I've got a mailing list in about 2 minutes. I am assuming there is a way to automate this process, but my site isn't that big yet.

The other nice feature is the "security code" anti spam validation feature for your forms.

For $15, I am very very happy with BreezingForms. I got this software for handling 2 specific forms on my site: a Feedback Form and a Job Application form and this software handles both of those functions nicely.

The only drawback I can see with BreezingForms is a farily limited data validation functionality (built in), but the package was designed for people to create their own validation scripts and plug them into BreezingForms (if you are a coder).

Hope this helps!

YOu just saved me like 3 hours of extra work. I'll definetely try artForms.
Thanks for the review.

I agree with Louis. artForms is ok but Breezingforms is so much better. I did a multipage form in quickmode and wow, wasn't it a breeze? Pretty fast form builder.

Great article by the way. Thanks for the tips, helped me a lot.

Hi friends , I have installed artforms in joomla1.5 local, I also created a form too, I got a new menu link in the main menu, but when i click that link, i am getting a blank page displayed. Can anyone tell me the steps for creating a form in artform and display it in the front-end or as a menu item to display separately

thanks

I have tried artforms and really like it, BUT for some reason I cannot load more than 12 fields, it simply does not want to add more, has anyone come across this, built all my forms in CK forms, but now I cant seem to edit the properties of forms afterwards, seriously scratching my head.

@stephen: ARtforms is not an extionsion of Ulti Joomla, this is just a review article. So support questions about ArtForms should be asked to the owners of the extension

I am very impressed with this review. Very well done. I have installed JFrom
and I think is an excellent extension.
However I still have to understand how i can render the data that i have collected on my web page.

Cheers

breezing forms is the best. no doubt, worth the few bucks.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/contacts-&-feedback/forms/4709/details

i m facing the prob in joomla ,i can't make my own form, plz tell me the structure of joomla

i m facing the prob in joomla ,i can't make my own form, plz tell me the structure of joomla

@varsha: You just need an extension to create forms. Install the extension and then use it to create your form

I was searching for a good form component and found also this blog.
I can only recommend Mooj Proforms. This is the follow-up software of Mad4Joomla Mailforms. It is brand new and I purchased a copy which I can use as often I want. There are no restrictions.
You can check it on your own. There are some eyecandy demos on the site of proforms. Explore it on your self: http://www.mooj.org

indeed artforms works fine and its simple to figure out how it works. but there are some minor things:
1> Security code check failed! is what i get all the time, no matter which option i choose in the captcha-list in Settings. is this a bug? or more: how can i make it work?
2> if i dont use the captcha option, and i still use the redirection option, after 'send' you end up with a blank page! the information is send though, so it works, but it has some beauty problems.

@jelle vanhijfte: this is just a review article. If you have problems with artforms, you should check it on their site.

me likes breezing forms for joomla http://www.crosstec.de

People looking for Joomla forms may also want to consider the extensions listed under Quiz and Surveys at the JED, because these extensions collect their data using forms.

Very informative article.. thanks!

@Chris7:

sure, but these quiz extensions often miss field types, for instance, see these breezing forms examples:

http://crosstec.de/all-elements-example.html

You rarely find professional looking forms like this for joomla.

sorry, this is the link

http://www.crosstec.de/all-elements-example.html

Great blog! The information you provide is quiet helpful, why I was not able to find it earlier. Anyways I’ve subscribed to your feeds, keep the good work up.

I'm wondering if there's such a component. This would really be interesting in order to increase your interactivity.

10x

Great blog! The information you provide is quiet helpful, why I was not able to find it earlier. Anyways I’ve subscribed to your feeds, keep the good work up.

I had been looking for a good form plugin when I found your site. I had already tried CK forms and mad4joomla and was not pleased with the results. 5 minutes after installation, I was able to have a form on my site with this plugin. I am glad that you found it and shared it.

Really good article but not up to date.
I suggest an overhaul.
If you view all new entries at Joomla Extensions Directory you will see lot of new components.
The latest top form is Mooj Proforms also missing an extensiv review of Breezing Forms and Fabrik.
Although Fabrik is not top listed it is a very good component (for experts).

Hi,
Can I receive guidance on what folder to download from http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jartforms/frs/ to Artforms for Joomla 1.5.I tried a few folders to install through Install/ Uninstall and directory but all of them are giving an error. So let me know how to install em.


Thank you

I use chronoforms. They have a wysiwyg editor and since I dont know html or php (the reason i got joomla in the first place) I thought that would be easy. My problem is not with making forms, its with how to allow the user to change or edit the saved data on the front end after the form is submitted. I have no idea how to allow them to retrieve thier submitted data or change and resave it. Is there an easy way to do that? Does it require an entirely different extension? Im going to have to break down and learn a bunch of coding languages arent I?

Hi,
I should thank you for the review.
What I noticed with joomla is that almost every extension has positive
reviews and user experiences.
I think the developpers hire people to write positive reviews on the joomla website.
When you go on the internet, it seems that CK forms is the form builder to go with.
In 5 minutes you can set up your customized form and even edit the css.
I tried that out. And they are right. In 5 minutes I had my form online.
However the css code that comes out of the box is total crap.
the form didn't look as it should.
The field names were just floating over the page. In order to get it right you need to rewrite the whole css page.
This is not out of the box.
Then I came across your page. so I will try Artforms since it is free and I will also try breezerforms since it has very good documentation and some special features I want.
My tip: don't botherr with CK forms. It will give you more work than needed to recode the css and you will find very little information and support online. In addition to that CK forms has security issues and some hosting companies don't allow you to install this extension.

Peter

Great job, Webmaster! I commend you for your effort.

Taking the time to obtain, install, implement and evaluate the functional merits of any number of extensions in any category is almost as invaluable a contribution to the community as writing code. Many of us daydream about doing just that but always seem to come up short on time.

More than a blind-taste test and subjective review of the 'starred' one or two Forms extensions in the Joomla! repository, you went about it methodically in a manner that is as fair as the process was thorough — with a control point, no less — on the basis of a pre-established set of criteria.

Each extension in the test group had to be:
* Free. And I couldn't agree more. The implied profit motive of outright trading of extensions undermines the spirit of major projects like Joomla! and could well be the undoing of OpenSource. I firmly believe that the proper financial model for the supporting casts of any truly OpenSource project is 'donation' in cash or kind from those who use them. If you don't believe me, ask the MySQL Core team about the upheaval that erupted in the aftermath of its acquision by Sun, and subsequently by Oracle.
* Joomla! 1.5 Native.
* Backward-compatible with older versions of PHP.
* Install easily and work out-of-the-box as advertised.

This is systems analysis, pure and simple!

Granted, these criteria may not be the same as I or anyone else might have used, but they are objective, and they are consistent. Besides, the point of this exercise is not to recommend one over the other. It is precisely to point out some of the shortcomings of extensions in the test group, which can help us all make a more informed decision. That's a real time-saver, especially for those of us perpetually pressed for time or have no idea where to start.

Now, some have commented on this blog that certain worthy candidates, such as BreezingForms, were not included in the test group. To the best of my knowledge, BreezingForms is not free, and, on that basis alone, fails to meet the criteria outlined at the outset.

I happen to use BreezingForms and find it to be quite capable. It has an impressive set of functional attributes. And, more importantly, it is stable. Regrettably, however, other than in QuickMode, it is far more complicated to use than it needs to be. It is unbearably slow, documentation is lackluster and grossly outdated, and support is virtually nonexistent. All in all, BreezingForms has real potential. Sadly, so much of it is lost in translation. It remains to be seen if the authors will take the initiative to clean things up. If it isn't obvious by now, I'm not exactly thrilled to discover that the extension I paid for is less than desirable in so many respects. Had I read this blog sooner, I might've made an entirely different decision. And that's precisely the point.

I think we can all agree that OpenSource is the greatest thing since Microsoft. But there is also no denying that its one Achilles' heel is arguably the virtual absence of an independent, qualitative clearing-house. I truly hope that this individual effort is the beginning of a new movement afoot to inch the community ever closer to that ideal. The Joomla! Core team can't do it all alone. It's up to the rest of us to chip in and help in whatever we can.

Hello:

I came across this thread and thought I'd let you know about an extensive review I've posted for BreezingForms. I mostly cover QuickMode, but I do detail some issues I encountered with client-side Javascript timeouts when trying to deploy forms above a certain level of complexity. (This is the number one issue I encountered.)

You can find my review (along with Javascript details) here:
http://prototaph.com/index.php/Protoblog/Joomla/joomla-extension-review-breezingforms.html

Or here's a shorter URL that also leads to the article:
http://bit.ly/ao3sBg

I welcome any feedback you might have!

You did a great job. All the extentions that you explored...Couldn't have done it better myself.

Thanks,
Bob
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