In the form builder, a section is the basic layout tool. It allows you to group related questions (short for input field and label) and display them in a specific way. For instance, a section of type ‘fieldset’ shows a border around its content.

Version 2.3 of the builder introduces two new types of sections: inline and table row. They allow you to alter the default ‘one field per line’ layout.

All the questions (fields+labels) placed inside an inline section are displayed on the same line.

Inline Layout

Inside a table row section, fields appear in their own cell. Labels are shown in the column header and they are not repeated if you have more than one row. The title for the row (left-most column) is the name given to the table-row section.

Table Layout

Duplicate section link

To quickly add rows to your table, copy your first table-row section using the ‘duplicate section’ link (in the section properties panel).

Here are a couple of examples preloaded in the Form Builder:

• Table layout
• Inline layout

web development, web forms

There’s nothing like a rainy weekend for spending some time on the computer, working on a big update for the Form Assembly.

The account structure has just been revamped - we now offer an unlimited-responses, free-for-ever plan. The catch? It’s ad-supported. An advertisement is presented to the user after each form submission (we also left some features out of this plan). The ads are from the adbrite network and are, of course, clean.

This change allows us to simplify our offer (as opposed to the pay-as-you-go plan with the first 50 responses free) while covering the needs of many users who want to try out the service or don’t need the extra features.

In related news, the server has had some hickups lately, due to an increasing number of users. For a bootstrapping start-up that’s a good problem to have… for you, the user, I’m sure you’d rather have reliable service, so we’re upgrading the server. More info about this is coming soon.

Form Builder, Form Assembly

The purpose of this (small) update was to improve the form outline displayed on the left (the treeview). I rewrote the entire drag&drop functionality and added the possibility to expand/collapse form sections.

Give it a try and share your comments here. Thank you!

At the time I started working on the drag&drop feature I couldn’t find any good javascript library capable of sorting nested lists, so I ended-up writing my own. It’s now available as open-source (but not yet bug free).

The lastest version of the script.aculo.us library offers this functionality as well, so if you’re already using prototype, this is a good alternative.

Credits: some icons used in the form builder are courtesy of famfamfam.

wForms is a javascript library that enhances the web form experience without the need for any programming. If you’re not familiar with wForms, here’s a short overview of what it can do:

• show / hide conditional sections based on answers to multiple-choice questions;
• highlight contextual information when a field is in focus;
• validate fields and show appropriate error messages (available in 17 languages);
• repeat form fields;
• and simulate multi-page forms

wForms allows you to make your forms simpler, shorter and ultimately easier to fill out. It is also unobtrusive. If for some reason wForms doesn’t run in someone’s browser - javascript turned off for instance - your form will still work.

wForms 2.0 has improved supports for Mac browsers, a tighter and faster code and is also more modular, paving the road for further enhancements. I will be posting more specific information about the new features in the coming days.

In the meantime you can download it, read more about it and post your feedback here in the comments, or in the support forum.

wforms, web development

The Form Assembly is now out of beta. Our service has been running smoothly for a while, so we don’t really need that little ‘beta’ warning sign anymore. Of course, we will continue to add new features regularly.

Also, this is a great occasion to introduce the new prices for our Response Processing service (*).

• The first 50 responses you will receive are free.
• Once that credit is spent, you have two options:
  1. purchase more credits. Prices start at $5.00 (USD) for 50 more responses and go up to $24.00 (USD) for 500 responses.
  2. purchase a monthly subscribtion at $9, for an unlimited number of responses.

If you have purchased Pay-As-You-Go credits in the last 30 days, you have retroactively benefited from the new prices. Check your account history in the account tab for the notification of the promotional offer. If you are on the monthly subscription plan, your last payment has been partially refunded to match the new monthly rate.

Thank you!

(*) Note: Creating forms on the FormAssembly is free. The Response Processing service is an optional and complementary service that allows you to collect responses without the need for any programming or setup.

FormAssembly.com, Ajax

Well, the conference has been an exciting, draining and invaluable experience. There were a number of great companies presenting. I was really impressed by Flock and SimplyHired. I wouldn’t be surprised if these companies do really well in the future.
For my part I managed to deliver my demo without any major problems. Who knew I could actually type with a parkinsonian-like tremor ?! You can find a summarized transcript here.

Technorati Tags: undertheradar, utr, demo

February is over and so far so good, the Form Assembly is on track. Over the last month a number of new features have been released: charts, an improved form builder, video tutorials and a spam/junk filter on the form processing service.

March is going to be hectic. First I’ll be presenting the Form Assembly at the Under The Radar Conference, in Mountain View, CA. Thanks a lot to Debbie Landa for the invitation! I’m looking forward meeting the other presenters and some of the best known people in the industry.

(On a side note, March 2nd will officialy put an end to 3 straight years without wearing a tie…)

Then I’m flying off to SXSW. If you happen to be there too and see a tall guy with an incomprehensible french accent, stop and say bonjour!

And before the month’s end, I’ll be off to some snowy slopes near Montreal. In between I hope to release wForms 2.0, the long planned update to the open-source javascript library for web forms.

Technorati Tags: Ajax, UnderTheRadar, Web2.0, wForms

The data aggregation feature is now available to all Form Assembly users. You’ll find the ’show aggregated data’ link in the ‘response’ panel, under the list of responses for each of your web forms.

Only multiple-choice questions are displayed in this view (obviously, you can’t make a chart with free-text answers). There are two different graphs, based on the type of your question. A question that allows only one response (radio inputs or select drop-down) will be shown with a pie chart. The percentages for each response add up to 100%.

For questions where several answers can be given (checkboxes and multiple select), the bar chart is used. It shows how often a choice is selected. For instance, in the chart below, about 80% of respondents have a mp3 player.

At this point, this data is only visible to the owner of the form, but you will soon be able to share this view with the rest world (should you choose to do so).

Also, the next version of the Form Builder is just about ready. You can try it out now. The current version will be replaced in a day or two when the tests are completed.

I’m happy to announce that The Form Assembly is continuing to improve its service. Here are the features that will be released this month:

• Aggregated view of responses with charts
• Improved Form Builder
• Screencast Tutorials
• Spam filter

Aggregate View

The charts will aggregate responses to multiple-choice questions, providing a clear report to surveys and questionnaires.

Improved Form Builder

This update will offer advanced control over the layout of the form along with a few interface improvements. The most noticeable change will probably be the ability to select different stylesheets directly in the preview panel.

Screencast tutorials

While we are aiming to provide a service that is easy to use and self-explanatory, we can always do better at explaining what this is all about. These tutorials will help (hopefully).

Spam Filter

Some spammers see web forms as a new way to disseminate their unsolicited advertisments. We are currently testing a spam filter designed to leave those undesirable responses out of your response set. No response is blocked at this point but we flag and report the suspicious ones to the form owner.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed to receive the lastest product announcements.

Technorati Tags: Form Assembly

The Form Assembly now lets you export the responses you collect. This function is located in the ‘responses’ page under the list of responses for each form.

At this time, only the csv format is available. It is compatible with MS Excel and other spreadsheet softwares. If you need more export options, leave a comment here.

Thanks !

Technorati Tags: Form Assembly, Web Forms, Form Builder