The key feature of Form Reform that you don't get with other forms systems for ConcreteCMS is that
every form element is just another block.
That makes it easy to arrange form elements into the layout you require. It also means you can mix other block type into forms. You can have extra content blocks, maps, images and any kind of block interspersed with Form Reform blocks to design and explain your forms.
This works easily with a single step form that when completed form redirects to another page with a completion message. You don't need to worry about visibility of blocks in form states because you are now on another page with your content thanking a visitor for completing the form.
But Form Reform is incredibly flexible. You can use it to build forms with other workflows. For example,
In those cases, the behaviour tab of each Form Reform block can be used to determine which blocks are hidden, disabled or even not rendered with each step or when the success message is shown.
That is fine for Form Reform blocks, but what about other blocks mixed in with the form? How can we manage their visibility?
Block visibility is managed using some Form Reform classes. These classes are added to the header of any page containing a Form Reform block, adapted for the name of the form on the page. You can add these classed to any block/layout/container or area on the page using block design or the equivalent.
Forms can be in one or more of the following states. Forms begin in Step 1. Each state has an associated class that can be used to hide blocks when a form is in that state. These states are built into Form Reform blocks and can be added to other blocks using block design.
The general format is:
jl_form_reform_[form_name]_hide_when_[state].
The most likely requirement for other blocks used with form controls is to Hide when a Success message is shown.
| Class | Hide When |
|---|---|
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_success | Success message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_warning | Warning message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_danger | Danger / Error message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_primary | Primary message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_secondary | Secondary message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_info | Info message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_light | Light message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_dark | Dark message is shown |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_1 | On form step 1 |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_2 | On form step 2 |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_3 | On form step 3 |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_4 | On form step 4 |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_5 | On form step 5 |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_user_is_guest | User is Guest |
| jl_form_reform__form_reform_hide_when_user_is_registered | User is Registered |
If you are ever wondering what state classes are available for the current form, in Edit Mode have a look at the Submit Block and the Classes Help tab. The tab provides a list of available classes similar to the above.
The above states are specific to a theme, so here they show states specific to Atomik. The states adapt automatically to Bootstrap 3,4,5, Atomik and Elemental derived themes. They may also adapt automatically to other themes. Where they do not, a theme can be adapted by implementing the interface /JtF/FormReform/FormState/AlertLevelInterface in the theme's PageTheme class.
If you need a specialized template or a custom input element, you can design new templates or new block types for form elements as you would any block type.
Blocks are easy for third party addition or extension. Block templates and are the first thing any Concrete CMS developer learns to code. They are one of the easiest things to code. The underlying mechanisms are well established and reliable.
Form handlers are built about the same extensible plugin system as many of my other addons (Universal Content Puller, Omni Gallery, Extreme Clean ...).
The whole system is aimed at easy extension within Form Reform, by third party addons, by agencies and by site building developers.
Handlers can be easily added to do whatever you want with the form data.
Saving form data with Form Reform is simply a handler in the processing pipeline. You can save to multiple locations or just one location.
If you need to save data elsewhere, such as to a dedicated table, a table provided through another addon, to another database, send it to an API, forward it to another server, or anywhere you can imagine, you can adapt or develop a form handler to do so.
The complexity of the code depends on where you are saving or sending the data, but wrapping that into a form handler plugin for Form Reform is straight forward.
The Form Reform handler plugin system is designed for easy extension.
Express is the built in object data system built in to Concrete CMS. Form Reform is way more powerful for forms. Express supports basic object relationships, but is not robust.
Reform the way forms are built. Build a form out of blocks. Take control of how form submissions are processed and how the submitted data is stored. Easy to extend. Easy to reconfigure. Tangible data. Easy to add your own integrations.
Provides blocks and dashboard utilities to List, display, summarize, generate reports and analyze form submissions from Form Reform. Additionally supports integration with Universal Content Puller.
Not just Form Reform and not just UTM! Capture and hold incoming UTM (or other) tags and make the tag values available to Form Reform and/or Conditional Redirect as {{place_holders}}. You don't need Form Reform to use this.
Form handlers for querying Microsoft Dynamics, forwarding and updating form data to Microsoft Dynamics.
A suite of advanced image capture and upload tools. Enhanced drag and drop file uploading. Make screengrabs from within Concrete CMS. Capture images directly from device webcams. Edit images before uploading.
Save submitted forms to Express objects and user attributes. Add and remove users from groups.
Form Reform Image Picker provides an image picking input block for Form Reform. The Image Picker Input is preconfigured to connect to most Omni Gallery gallery and slider display widgets, the core gallery block, and thumbnail showing templates for the core page list block. Advanced settings allow the Image Picker Input to be configured to pick images from other galleries and sliders.
Form Reform Data Picker provides data picking input blocks for Form Reform. Create pickers and selectors from tables or JSON data sources including HTML tables, Calendars, Page Lists, Universal Content Puller and previously submitted form results.
Extends Form Reform with form handler macros. Provides a new dashboard page at System & Settings > Form Reform > Form Reform Macros to manage macros, and form handlers to run macros.
A growing suite of resources to assist those developing blocks, handlers and more complex forms for Form Reform.
While you may have plans to implement some much more complex forms using Form Reform, we strongly recommend you start with a simple form such as our contact form example in order to review the basic principles of using Form Reform before you move onto anything bigger.