Hi all!

I'm here in the middle of finalizing iWiccle 1.20, and also orienting our new developer to the mysteries of the systems. Here's a feature preview I wanted to share with everyone.

As you know, we didn't have built-in support for feedback forms and the such in earlier releases. This has now changed — and I hope the form building options here are sufficient to keep everyone happy. Still a bit of dusting to be done with the front-end of the feature, but I'm quite happy about how it turned out.

Forms built from this are available through the builder tool, and can be used as 1) stand-alone units, 2) AJAX popups, or 3) included inside other custom units — as any other unit of any other type. Lots of new goodies coming up!

Hi Markus

That looks brilliant, it will allow users to increase the functionality and ease of use of their sites enormously. Just from looking at the screen shot above you can see that the feature has an intuitive feel to it.

Simon

Thanks Simon!

I am hoping to take this one step beyond a generic feedback form builder --- it will also sit in to expand our API. With action options 2) and 3) you can do a lot more:

1. Send e-mail is your regular, expected feedback form functionality with all the usual bells and whistles.
2. Redirect the form data to another page using a) an identical copy of this form to receive the data, or b) a page with a custom unit/function to receive and process the data.
3. Pipe the data directly to a custom function and have the response output instead of the regular e-mail processor and message.

Aside that, you can have backups of all sort of form data logged into the database, browsable from the admin panel under the form's entry. Thanks to combined CAPTCHA + internal randomized verification, the forms should also be quite safe from the common volleys of form spam you get.

Looks like that will be really useful

Looking forward to the release

We've just cleared off and wrapped up (98.5%) two site launches (Galway Taxis and West Ireland Cycling), more local Wiccle business pioneers from Galway City. Pretty much every feature you see anywhere in there is available with our next release, and while I have been brushing them up I have also had a good deal of time to work on preparing the code for release. While I still have a bit of miscellaneous on my desk, I am back in full framework and release development mode, and the pieces of our startup puzzle is coming together gracefully.

What's pending with 1.20 release preparations — I need to fill in some blanks in the admin panel, review the module layouts, add in a couple of bells and whistles that are hanging in mid-air, whip up a couple of fun extra skins (I have designs ready, and coding them to templates with the new systems takes an hour or so with a clear head), tidy up a bit, package, and then release. I am hoping to be at the end of the road sometime in the late hours of tomorrow.

Markus, I really like the West Ireland Cycling design. Different and very cool.

Aside providing original business solutions, we have hoped to turn all these different sites into a proof-of-concept of the fact that if you want, you can use our software to go wild and create just about whatever you can think up. It's so tiresome to see "standard installations" — and as I noted the new templating system should make a major difference in how easy it is to get things rolling and looking like yourself.

Since templating has grown quite a bit, there will not be a direct template convertor (builder layouts will convert upwards of course). If paid license owners want to have their current 1.11 look modifications upgraded, I can do the template conversion for you. Just contact me once the release is out.

The form builder works well. I've created a multiline form, I've set it up to be piped to a function my_idea_proc.

As a complete layman how do I pull that data back out and have the form input contents shown please?

Thanks

Piping data to a function in layman's terms? If you're a layman with a solid grasp of PHP functions, the following should make sense if you read it and look over the corresponding code.

The most common use for custom forms built with the Form Builder is the delivery of results by e-mail. The whole process happens in /core/class_custom_forms.php. Here's how it works:

function get_custom_form() — The process begins here with loading the custom form from the database. If data is submitted, parse_custom_form() is also called.

function parse_custom_form() — Based on the form action defined, there are three options:

• Send by E-mail: Validates form details and returns a result — send_email switch, processed by validate_form_details() and further custom_form_mailer(). Returns an array of three values, $data (array of form field key/value pairs), $parsed (array of form fields with HTML), and $errors (array listing missing required fields).
• Redirect to Page: Forwards the request directly to another page — redirect_to_page switch, processed by forward_form(). Returns nothing and exits after forwarding.
• Pipe to a Function: Directs the request to a (class and) function you define. They can exist anywhere in the system. The function is called with one parameter like send_email(), receiving  array with the details of the custom form from the database.

If you want to return something from your custom function to be included at the top or in place of the custom form after it's submitted, you will need to modify the custom form class to make it possible. (Return of output to form response after piping to function will be supported in the next build; coded it in as I typed this, need to test a bit more though.)

Before I go on at more length about how to implement form piping to custom functions and providing a response for output, let me check that this is actually what you're out to accomplish. What do you plan to do with piping it to a function?

Hi Marcus, can you hook up with Michael/Dexcode in Oz with this please? Thanks