PHP : Form Builder / Generator
My work is involving more and more PHP-based forms, so I decided today to find a good form generator to save my time.
Here’s my requirements :
- Willing to pay : I’m willing to pay for the right solution.
- Easy to use : Some of the script actually make life harder for you, go figure. I was looking to save time, not to spend more of it
- Flexible : I still need to apply my own style / formatting. The solution must allow me to do this, while comforming to the second requirement above
- Saving to database : some PHP form makers / generators will only allow you to submit the form to be send by email.
- Validation : surprisingly, quite a lot of the (even) commercial solutions out there are missing this.
- Source available : I need the source code available to me, in case of problems / need for further customizations. Some packages doesn’t give you this.
Too picky ? Well, my needs are quite advanced indeed.
Anyway, I spend almost two hours browsing around with no joy, until suddenly …. to my surprise (again), it seems that the best solution for my needs is an open source one - the HTML_QuickForm PEAR Package.
It’s easy to use (see the tutorial for yourselves).
It’s definitely very flexible; it provides 8 renderers and support several template engines ! It allows you to process the submission however you chooses with the process method - by email, to database, or you can also process it straight away in the same script.
And validations… it’s really sweet. You can choose whether to do it on the server or client side. When you choose to do it on the client, it automatically generate the needed Javascript codes for you. Awesome is not descriptive enough word for it.
There are many ready-to-use validation rules; alphanumeric, lettersonly, maxlength, minlength, etc - and the regex rule fulfill any other needs that’s otherwise not available.
With the source also available, it’s really hard for me to look for anything else. But if you think you’ve found something better, feel free to let me know.
Enjoy.
October 31st, 2006 12:39
Mie, kalo php report generator udah pernah nemuin blom?
November 2nd, 2006 12:01
PHPLens mungkin ? Contohnya bisa dilihat disini,
tapi siapa tahu ternyata cocok.
.
Gak tepat 100% report generator sih
November 3rd, 2006 13:13
Ini ada tutorial HTML_Quick_Form yang lengkap, semua aspek html_form dibahas di sini.
http://www.devarticles.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=801&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=6&hide_js=1
Makasih Kang Harry!
November 6th, 2006 15:45
#2
Aplikasinya sih cocok Mie, cuma bayarnya yang ndak cocok. Kekekekeke..
November 21st, 2006 08:31
Eh, kalo kita hosting gitu bisa gak ya install2 package PEAR? KAlo bisa gimana ya caranya?
November 29th, 2007 04:31
It has been over a year since you posted this article and (presumably) started working with this form solution. How has it worked out? Are you still using it? I have a similar need - I am simply tired of writing code for handling forms. The one key component I want out of these tools is the ability to display data that may already be present in a database. In other words, I want to be able to edit data rather than simply performing data entry.
December 1st, 2007 17:03
Hi Olaf, thankfully there are many solutions for your forms needs nowadays in PHP.
.
The most complete one is by installing Joomla, and then installing one of its many Forms modules (or also called extensions).
By this way, you instantly get rapid form building ability, complete with other needs provided by Joomla framework (security, authentication, CMS, etc)
.
If you’re going to build your own application, fear not, there are standalone form generators (not tied to Joomla). try searching for “dbqwiksite” and “phpmaker”.
These 2 products will generate the CRUD (create-read-update-delete) PHP form codes just by you pointing then to the database table.
Couldn’t be simpler. And at least dbqwiksite is highly customizable; they truly empower you.
.
Hope it helps.
March 25th, 2008 23:21
I would agree with Sufehmi, if you don’t mind switching platform, I would use Joomla as well.