The Perdox Rant

What does it do?

As its name suggest, Form Builder (FB) lets you create complex forms in WP. The beauty of it is that you do not need to alter any files in your theme. Have you seen the form that you have to fill in when leaving a comment on someone’s blog? Have you used a contact form to send email to the blog’s owner? Well, you can use FB to create and implement such forms for your website. It is a very easy plugin to use and very powerful.

Installation

I installed this plugin using the WP 2.7.1 Plugins installer. Select Plugins > Add New and enter Form Builder in the search field. Once activated, the plugin appears under the Tools tab with the name FormBuilder (one word). The plugin can also be found on the TruthMedia Internet Group website.

Configuration

Creating a form is very easy and the panel in which this is done is very well laid out. And there is some hidden treasure. You can create an auto-response to a form that is submitted by the user (see below, In My Opinion). Brilliant.

The screenshots below show the main settings panel and subpanels used in creating my password request form.

[View with PicLens]

Documentation

The authors of this plugin are as rare as hen’s teeth. They actually have step by step lessons to help you create your first form. Did you get that? Lessons! Other plugin in authors don’t seem to want to know you (see below) but not these people.

Support

Usually, the plugin authors have a forum that you can use to find answers to problems you might be having. The FB authors have a slightly different approach. Every time an update is released, people leave comments and the authors respond to the comments. See this page for example. The comments here are in relation to the 0.77 version of the plugin. See below for further support information.

Summary

The plugin is very easy to use. Once I worked through the lessons on their website, I was off and running. See their sample form for some of the things that FB allows you to do.

I have used the plugin to create my contact form and another form that users have to submit in order to obtain a password for protected content. I also set up an auto-response to this password request form which was very easy to do and is extremely useful. As soon as the user submits the form, they get an instant reply with my personalized message and the password. No intervention on my part. One less hassle to worry about.

Nine times out of ten, I have visited websites that looked like they were put together in a blender. I would click on the link that says ‘Plugin home’ and land in a cat’s dinner bowl. Half the time, I gave up trying to find where on the website the post or information about the plugin resided. You would think that the link would take you straight to … well … the plugin’s dedicated page, yes? Think again. It’s too logical. This plugin’s website is an example of what a website should be. Easy to navigate, easy to read.

Some authors set up a forum for helping users with troubleshooting. The way that the people at TruthMedia treat support issues is a much better method and one that I have seen on many websites. I like the commenting method; with forums, you have to register (another username and password to remember) and then troll your way through many areas and threads to find your solution (if one exists).

Another unique method for obtaining help for this plugin is by contacting the authors via email (I bet the contact form was created with FB). This is rare. My experience has been that you leave a comment on a website or create a thread in a forum and wait and pray that you will get a response. I actually left a comment (see the entry by perdox) on their website and received a very quick reply.

I would strongly recommend this plugin to others wanting to create forms for use on their WP website. This plugin is a real gem. I am sure that as my experience with WP improves and my needs change, I will be using this plugin for my form generation in the future. Thanks to the people at TruthMedia.