“Quick Form Processing” Documentation by “Robert Nduati” v1.0


“Quick Form Processing”

Created: 21/03/2011
By: Robert Nduati
Email: robertnduati.karanja@gmail.com

Thank you for purchasing my script. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to email via my user page contact form here. Thanks so much!


Table of Contents

  1. ABOUT
  2. INSTALLATION
  3. GETTING STARTED
  4. ADMIN DASHBOARD
  5. INTEGRATING TO YOUR PAGES
  6. USER AUTHENTICATION
  7. STRUCTURE OF THE APPLICATION
  8. CUSTOMIZING THE LOOK OF THE ADMIN (backend)

A) About - top

There are time when you might need a form that will primarily be used to collect data that will be saved for nothing more than viewing. This script provides you with a framework where you will not need to write any PHP code for processing such forms.

With this script all you will need to do is provide some information relating to the form in the admin dashboard and then copy 2 line of markup to the page that has the form you want to process. It is that simple.

This script would be ideal for a web design with very little programming knowledge or a developer that just wants to save time and effort.

Features:


B) Installation - top

Please follow these instructions to install this script for the first time

  1. Download and unzip the package
  2. Make changes to the file application/settings.php and put in the details specific to your setup
  3. Upload the folder form_process to your server
  4. Using your browser navigate to install.php. This will setup the database tables
  5. Delete the install.php file
  6. If your are using Quick Form Processing for the first time, check the "Getting Started" section of the user guide. The user guide is in the folder named "userguide"

C) Getting Started - top

To quickly setup a form to be processed using Quick Form Processing follow these steps:

1. Sign In to the Admin Dashboard:

Using your browser, navigate to the index.php file in the package. You will be directed to the Login page. For the first time you will sign in using the email you put in the application/settings.php file like this:

Email: the email you entered
Password: the email you entered

After you have signed in click on the "Change Password" menu and change the password to something more secure and that you can remember.

2. Setup a Form to be Processed:

Once you are done with changing your password go to the Home page of the admin dashboard. There is a form there under the title "Set up Form to Process". You will simply be asked to provide the following details:

  1. Form name: This is just a unique name to help you indentify the form here in the admin dashboard
  2. Form Id: This is the id attribute of the form. It is to help the script identify the form when it is submitted
  3. Required fields: These are the fields that the users always have to fill in. Separate the field names using commas.
  4. Optional fields: These are the optional fields. Separate the field names using commas.
  5. Success Message: Message to display when a form is submitted successfully.

If you submitted the form correctly, you will be shown some markup at the bottom of the page. All you will need to do is copy that markup to the page that has the form and you are ready.

3. Integration to the page:

As stated in the previous step, once you have setup a form to be processed correctly, you will be shown some markup at the bottom of that page which you will need to copy to the page that has the form.

That markup can always be accessed in the admin dashboard on the page for editing a form. To get to that page click on "Manage Forms" in the main menu, then select one form from the list that will be displayed.

4. Additional Settings:

There some additional setting for the forms that you might want to do. The settings relate to the fields of the forms.

On the page for editing a form, click on the subnav menu titled "[Fields Settings]". You will be shown a list of the fields for that form. Select on to get started. You will then be asked to provide the following details for that field:

  1. Display name: Most of the time the names given to a field's input markup are not user friendly. You can give the field a user friendly name that will be displayed incase of errors.
  2. Minimum length: Optional. You can set the minimum number of characters for a field.
  3. Maximum length: Optional. You can set the maximum number of characters for a field.
  4. Validation rules to apply: Optional. Check the validation rules that you would like to be applied to the field when the form is submitted..

5. Viewing collected data:

Once you have setup a form and integrated with you page, you will need to view the data that has been submitted by users. To do this:

  1. Click on the main menu item titled "View Collected Data"
  2. Select the form that you want to view
  3. You will then be shown a list of all the submits

D) Admin Dashboard - top

The Admin Dashboard of Quick Form Processing provides you with all the functions that you will need to easily manage the your forms processing

The Admin Dashboard has got it own simple user authentication system that restricts access to its pages. For more information on the authentication system click here


E) Integrating with Your Pages - top

Intergration involves nothing more than copy/pasting a few lines of markup from the Admin Dashboard to the page. At the bottom part of the page for editing a form's details there are instructions for you to copy and paste 2 sets of markup to the page that has the form you want to process.

What you copy and past are script tags to include the javascript files and code that will run the processing. The javascript files include: the Jquery library, and a dynamically generated javascript file that manages the process

Here is an example of the markup that you will copy and paste to your page:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://localhost/page_tour/js/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://localhost/form_process_dev/form_process/submit_form_js/4/"></script>
		

That is all it takes.


F) User Authentication - top

The Admin Dashboard comes with its own user authentication system.

Creating a user account:

You are not able to create an account manually. This mini authentication system can support only one user account at a time. This account is created when the application is installed. The email set in the file application/setting.php will be used to signin.

Initial signing in:

When the application is first installed the email address is used as the password. You will then need to sign in using these details:

Email: the email you entered
Password: the email you entered

Change password:

Once you have signed in you can change the password by clicking on the "Change Password" menu.

Forgot Password:

Incase you forget your password, there is a password retrival link title "forgot password?" at the login form. Click on this link and you will be presented by a form requesting you to enter the email that is set in the application/settings.php file. If the email is correct a new password will be sent to that email address.


G) Structure of the Application - top

This application is in the MVC form. Here is a list of some of the important files and folders:


H) Customizing the look of the Admin Dashboard and User authentication forms - top

The HTML for the Admin Dashboard and Login pages can be found in the "view" folder. The css is in th "css" folder. It is named 1.css


Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this script. As I said at the beginning, I'd be glad to help you if you have any questions relating to this theme. No guarantees, but I'll do my best to assist. If you have a more general question relating to the script on CodeCanyon, you might consider visiting the forums and asking your question in the "Item Discussion" section.

Robert Nduati

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