HOWTO: How to include forms that accept user input, not just the Feedback form

[Foxy]

Hello,

Does anyone know how to include in CMS Pages forms that accept user input and when the user clicks the submit button to process that form and display the results in the page.

As far as I realised displaying a form is not a problem but how I integrate it with CMS Made Simple frame work.

Thank you!

[megabob3]

Hello,

Does anyone know how to include in CMS Pages forms that accept user input and when the user clicks the submit button to process that form and display the results in the page.

As far as I realised displaying a form is not a problem but how I integrate it with CMS Made Simple frame work.

Thank you!

To do that you need some knowledge on programming.
Right because the input must processed!!!

You have to create or a simple plugin TAG or a module.
So you need to know a bit of PHP.


Bye

[Foxy]

Thx for your quick reply!

Well I know PHP but I am new to CMS in general and CMS Made simple in particular.

I need a prety quick solution so I do not have the time to write a module. So custom tags might work for me.

But I did not figure it out what hidden parameters the form should have to make sure I get back in the right page, template and so on.

So the form must get me into a code that will process the input and from then I must redirect to a page that would display something usefult but making use of the templates.

So any guide lines on how to integrate the form processing with the CMS Made Simple or some link where I could read some documentation about the CMS Made Simple framework.

[Ted]

The absolute easiest way to handle it is...

1. Make 2 pages in cmsms.  One will be the form.  One will be for the results.  You'll probably want to set the 2nd page to not show in the menu.
2. On the form page, just make an html form as normal.  It's probably best to make a "namespace" of sorts for your parameters so that they don't get any conflicts with the internal CMSMS stuff.  And also, make sure the action points to your second page.

Code: Select all

<form action="processpage.shtml" method="post">
<input type="text" name="myform_name" />
<input type="text" name="myform_address1" />
</form>
etc.

3. Make a user defined tag.  Call it process_form or something along those lines.  In it, do something like:

Code: Select all

$name = '';
if (isset($_POST['myform_name']))
{
    $name = $_POST['myform_name'];
}
$address = '';
if (isset($_POST['myform_address']))
{
    $address = $_POST['myform_address'];
}

//Do something with this data here...

4. Put the {process_form} tag in your second page.
5. Done (hopefully!)

Obviously, that's as simplistic as possible, but you should get the idea.

[Foxy]

It's that simple 

I stat to feel bad about my self 

I thought that the form's action parameter must be something realy complicated like the one generated by "Feedback Form" and I was troubled because I did now know where to get those parameters.

Well... then I'll try just with the name of my page... hope it works....


Thanks!

[Ted]

Yeah, the URLs are only complicated when the module API generates them.  For the handcoded stuff, we try to keep it as simple as possible. 

[Foxy]

Yeah it Works!

For those that may be interested in this the action path was something like:

"?page=process_form"

where "process_form" is the alias of the page that calls that custom tag.

Many thx to all of you! It wat that simple!