The very first steps
Note: You can find Visforms in the backend in the Components >> Visforms menu.
Visforms follows the logical structure of HTML forms and is essentially divided into two areas
- Forms
- Fields (HTML controls)
Since fields are always assigned to a form, there is not always a “Fields” menu item in the backend.
Note: You always have to create a form before you can create a field.
The form
To create a form, click on the New Form tile in the Visforms component dashboard.
Each form has two mandatory fields.
The Title is the title of the form.
The Name is used in the URL when you create your Joomla! Websites that have search engine friendly URLs turned on. Therefore you cannot use spaces, special characters or similar in the name.
After these two mandatory fields are filled, you can save and use the form.
Furthermore, each form has numerous other parameters for individual control. Each parameter is explained in detail in the backend. The explanation becomes visible when you move the mouse over the label of the parameter. The use of many parameters is also described in further articles of this documentation.
Fields
After you save the form, you can add fields to the form. Click the Fields button in the form’s button bar. The overview list of all fields of the form opens, with the title “Visforms - Fields for form [name]".
Click on the New button to create a new field.
Each field has three mandatory fields.
The Description is used in the form as a label for the field.
The field is stored in the database under Name. The Name parameter cannot contain any special characters or spaces.
You must also always select a Field Type from the Type list box. Depending on the selected type, more or fewer parameters are then available to you. These parameters control the appearance and behavior of the field. For some field types such as the checkbox, the listbox, the checkbox group and the radio button, you have to make additional settings. Only then can you save the field. After you have saved the field, it is automatically displayed in the form.
The submit button
Note: The submit button is like a regular submit button type field. It is also created as an independent field in the manner described above.
The text that you enter as a label for this field will be used as the button text. So you can simply give the button an individual text.
Show form in frontend
There are two native ways to display a form in the frontend:
- Shortcut to a menu item and
- Publishing in a module.
Link to a menu item
Create a menu entry in the desired menu in the backend. Select Visforms » Form as the menu item type. Then use the Select a form parameter to select the form with which the menu item is to be linked. Set the Show Page Title menu option to yes if you want to display the form title. The metadata in the menu options Meta Description and Meta Keywords are also evaluated for displaying the form.
Publishing in a module
Create a Visforms type module in the backend under Extensions » Modules. Use the Choose form parameter to select which form should be displayed in the module. Publish the module in the usual way. You can use the Title module parameter to control whether the form title is displayed or not.