Automation of Web Form Creation and Publishing

Apr 11, 2008 14:59 GMT  ·  By

Web forms increase the websites interactivity and are necessary in almost any web application, like login systems, surveys, polls, webmail and more. A web form contains at least two elements: a HTML file that will display the fields used for data gathering and a server side script (form processor) which will process form field data.

They can be built using only a simple text editor, but this method requires more time for development as compared with automated solution for forms creation and publishing. Phantom EZ Form is a Perl application that completely automates the production and publishing of web forms.

Phantom EZ Form will allow you to make functional forms without having programming knowledge, only by following a few easy guided steps, using a very simple and intuitive user interface. The form data processing script can be generated to work on a server having support for PHP, ASP or Perl programming language.

The form general settings require you to specify the form title, the name of HTML file and of the script, the email address where the results will arrive, and the anti-spam protection type. In the next step, the form fields type, descriptions and their default value must be set. The HTML form preview is also displayed in this step.

After you set the action that must be performed after the form has been successfully processed (redirection of the visitor or closing of the browser window) a form installation wizard will appear. It will try to automatically install the form on your web server through FTP after you have provided the FTP access details.

This form generator has the advantage of both form creation and publishing process automation. You can also change the form layout to be compatible with your website design or to use a Flash form as a replacement for the HTML one. The disadvantage is represented by the absence of an option to enable the sending of the form data to a database. The code necessary to insert the form data into a database must be added manually in the processing script.

In conclusion, this application can be used to generate simple forms that will send the data only as email. If you need to work with complex forms, then you might find a rapid solution in this article.