Edit Visforms data in the frontend
Note: These features are part of the Visforms Subscription and are not included in the free Visforms version.
Visforms is a platform that you can use to create applications that exactly map your processes. This also includes demanding use cases with sensitive workflow. Even large specialized Joomla components are often replaced with Visforms.
Visforms is used instead of an extensive but unfortunately often inflexible event component. You are actually only planning a small event, but the registration for it should be completely individual.
Or instead of an extensive shop component, Visforms is used. Because you really only want to sell a few different products. However, the handling of the sales process should then be controllable in detail. There are many such examples.
An important functionality in this process is, among other things, the possibility of being able to edit the transmitted form data in the front end.
What you should consider if you want to edit submitted form data
There is a big difference between a dedicated component for a specific topic and a “homegrown application” built with Visforms. A designated component for a specific topic usually has a predefined fixed structure, fixed forms for user input and just one clear business logic.
With Visforms, on the other hand, you can combine anything with anything and even change the form definition after user data has already been submitted and stored in the database. This is a perfectly reasonable use case for many Visforms applications. In principle, a designated component for a specific topic is always able to ensure the validity of transmitted user data, albeit at the expense of flexibility. This is not structurally possible with Visforms due to its generality and changeability.
Notice: So here's a big warning. If you use Visforms in the sense of your own application for your processes, then the transmitted user inputs usually have to be saved, displayed and also edited. In these cases, you need to ensure that you don't make any changes to your forms that could result in inconsistent data.
Visforms will not prevent you from changing the form definition
Visforms will not prevent you from changing the form definition even in these cases
- if data has already been submitted for the form,
- if this means that the transmitted data is no longer valid or
- if there are problems with the display and editing.
A number of such harmful changes would include:
- change field type,
- Change field to mandatory,
- Tighten field validation (e.g. add minimum length or maximum length)
- Remove multiple selection option,
- change option values for a field of type listbox, radio or checkbox group,
- and much more.