Overview of Frontend Display Types
Visforms offers a total of five fundamentally different ways to display submitted form data in the frontend.
The fundamental differences in data display lie in the intended purpose of displaying the data.
Five Fundamentally Different Types
- Using a Visforms » Form Data type menu item.
Objective: Display of all data of a form. - Using plugin of type: Content Plugin - Visforms Data (part of Visforms Subscription).
Targeting: Displaying selected data from a form that matches the content of the current page in a Joomla article. - Using a Visforms » Form Data with Edit Link menu item (part of the Visforms Subscription).
Objective: To show registered users, according to their user rights, the records of a form that they can edit.
Entry page for data processing in the frontend. - Using a Visforms » My Submissions menu item (part of the Visforms Subscription).
Goal: To show registered users all records from all forms that they have submitted themselves.
Entry page for data processing in the frontend. - Using a menu item of the type Visforms » Form data single record.
Target direction: Display a single record directly in the menu.
Protection against accidental display
The submitted form data must be protected from accidental display. Furthermore, you should be able to control in detail which records are displayed using which display type. Therefore, Visforms has a fairly large number of different parameters in this regard. The large number of parameters, with their different validity levels, can sometimes be confusing.
Display types and the individual configuration parameters
Below you will find a complete, brief overview of which display types are affected by the individual configuration parameters.
1 = Menu item of type: Visforms » Form Data
2 = Plugin of type: Content Plugin - Visforms Data
3 = Menu entry of the type: Visforms » Form data single record
4 = Menu item of type: Visforms » Form Data with Edit Link
5 = Menu item of type: Visforms » My Transmissions
| Parameter name | Set where | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allow frontend data view | Form | yes | yes | yes | no | no | |
| Own records only | Form | yes | yes | yes | no | no | Subscription Feature |
| Access Level Group | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| Show counter column | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show IP address | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show ID | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show Modified | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show modified date | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plg Data View can override. |
| Modification date and time | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show transfer date | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plg Data View can override. |
| Transmission date and time | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Show data details | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Title Data Detail | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | Plugin Data View can override |
| Detail Link Icon | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| Title data list | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| Description | Form | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| Display in frontend | Field | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
The first three types
Basic framework
For the first 3 ways to publish the data
- Menu item Visforms » Form Data,
- Content Plugin - Visforms Data and
- Menu item Visforms » Form data (single data record).
you can find the relevant parameters for the representation of the data in
- the form configuration under the tab “Data view in the frontend” and
- the Field Configuration under the “Advanced” tab.
Here you specify the basic framework conditions for what is generally permitted for the data display in the frontend.
More adjustments
Depending on how the data is then actually viewed, further adjustments can be made within these framework conditions.
Additional criteria for data set selection can be made using the parameters of the Content Plugin - Visforms Data. This allows you to filter out a certain subset from the data records that are available due to the general configuration.
The 4th way: Editing data
Using the Visforms » Form data with edit link menu item, you can display all submissions for a specific form.
You can also use this menu item to share the submissions for editing by all users with the appropriate permissions.
Only some parameters are considered
With the 4th way of publishing the data via the Visforms » Form data with Edit Link menu item, only some parameters of the form and field configuration are taken into account. Only the parameters that affect the layout of the views are taken into account here. It’s all about the settings, which fields should be displayed in the overview table and which fields should be displayed in the detail view. Any form options that limit record selection are ignored. This includes the option “Allow frontend data view”.
Control via parameters of the menu item
Instead, the data sets to be displayed are controlled via the parameters of the menu item used to display the data. This includes, for example, the restriction to only those data records that the logged-in user is allowed to edit. The Form Data with Edit Link view for a form can only be called up if there is a corresponding menu item for the form. If you try to call up this view for a form directly via the URL and the corresponding menu item does not exist, access will be denied.
The 5th type: Data from multiple forms
More than exactly 1 form
Using the first 4 ways of publishing data, only data from a selected, specific form can be displayed. Each form contains unique fields. There is no general criterion that establishes a connection between different forms. Each form stands alone, and therefore all of the above views always aim to display the data from a single form.
Map complex processes
In the meantime, however, Visforms is also often used to map quite complex processes. In these cases of a Visforms forms-based application, there are often interrelated business processes that involve a whole set of forms. In the simplest case, these can be “stacked together” by the registered user who enters the data. The prerequisite for this simplest case is that a user may fill out the set of forms only once.
As a rule, it must be possible to process the data further after it has been entered for the first time. In a somewhat more complex case, it can even happen that a registered user is allowed to fill out the set of forms for a compound business transaction several times. The data is then “stacked together” by the business transaction, for example by a clear file number. The file number is identical across all form data of a related business transaction. The file number is then represented in each affected form of the set by a field with the same name if possible. Against this background, this special 5th way of publishing the data can be seen.
All submissions of all forms
With the 5th possibility to publish the data via the menu entry of the type Visforms » My transmissions the parameters of the form and field configuration are completely ignored. Instead, all submissions by a registered user to all forms can be displayed with this type. In this case, which data is displayed and what the view actually looks like is only determined via the menu parameters.
If there are common fields across all forms, they can be used in the overview. In the example above, it would be the field with the file number. The aim is to provide a clear listing of all of a user’s transmissions, with a quick start for further processing of the data. The My Submissions view can only be called up if there is a corresponding menu item for the form. If you try to call up this view for a form directly via the URL and the corresponding menu item does not exist, access will be denied.