2 Replies Latest reply: Oct 31, 2010 6:23 PM by TCarp RSS

    Need novice advice on forms (html, pdf)

    TCarp Community Member

      Although I've work a number of hobby web sites I'm pretty much a novice.

       

      I'm putting together a site for neighborhood emergency and neighborhood safety.  I want to be able to give residents access to forms for them to provide information (contact, resources, needs, etc.).  This is the working site:

       

      http://www.carpenterandassociates.com/NET

       

      I know html has forms as does Acrobat (PDFs).  My assumption is that if I use PDFs (which I'll have to learn) I will need to transcribe the information (or store te forms on the site).  Eventually though I'd like to make data available from what already exists and then get updates from neighbors storing the update on the site.

       

      Are html forms, filled with existing data and then updating that data via the form, difficult to learn?

       

      I'm very willing to do homework and learn.

       

      Thanks

       

      Tom

        • 1. Re: Need novice advice on forms (html, pdf)
          Nancy O. CommunityMVP

          I prefer HTML forms.  The learning curve isn't high.

          http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp

           

          You just need to decide what should happen to the form data.

           

          Examples:

          1) Email the data to someone.

          2) Post it to a text, CSV, XML file or database on the server for everyone to see.

          3) Post it to a text, CSV, XML file or database on the server to be retrieved by someone.

          4) Any combination of the above.

           

          My preference for form processing is a PHP script.  But your server may have limitations on which form processing scripts you can use.  Check with your web host.  In fact, they may have scripts already on the server you could use.

           

          Forms to Go from Bebosoft (script generating software)
          http://www.bebosoft.com/products/formstogo/overview/

           

           

          Nancy O.
          Alt-Web Design & Publishing
          Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists
          http://alt-web.com/
          http://twitter.com/altweb

          • 2. Re: Need novice advice on forms (html, pdf)
            TCarp Community Member

            As alwys, Nancy, thank you for your thorough response.

             

            Although I'll need to work through terminology, Go Daddy appears to support PHP.  They have something called Easy Database which is included in my hosting.  First look about PHP's relationship to ED talks about proxy and some other terms I'm not familiar with but it appears the capability is there.  They also use the term Data Entry Widgets which it appears I'll also need to learn about.

             

            I may be back for some help on my learning curve.  One thing I'm going to want to do is to pull up existing data, put it in the form, and allow users to update the data storing it back when they're done.

             

            Thanks again

             

            Tom