Form Maker Overview

Modified on 2009/07/29 18:20 by Charles — Categorized as: GUI

Table of Contents [Hide/Show]

   Form Maker Overview
      Why use Form Maker?
      Form Maker Features
   Layout View
   Getting Started
   Displaying your new Form

Form Maker Overview¶

Form Maker is a visual design tool for building simple Jetfire programs. The image to the right shows the Form Maker in design view. For information how to use FormMaker, check out Tips for using FormMaker.

Why use Form Maker?¶

Form Maker is a simple tool for creating your own programs. You can use Form Maker to iterate between design and layout. This makes it simple to get to the 'right' form that combines what you are looking for and what looks good on the page.

Form Maker in design view

Form Maker Features¶

The main features include:

The form designer can select programs that are already uploaded. This is represented by the drop down lists for Namespace and Class name. These drop down lists are optional and can be hidden.
- This allows the user to build applications based on previous programs.

The form designer defines a Folder and Title for the Form. This is used so that the form can be found later. These names are also used in the Namespace and Class name drop down lists.

Commands are used to create action
- Show Form Layout places the form in layout mode. See below for more information.
- Add a property to build the form. The Add a property button is the default action of the form, i.e. if the user presses the Enter key, a new property is added. A property has a name and an expected input.
- Verify the input of the form. This is useful to get a quick assessment of how filling in the boxes is going. This action validates the form, checks the proposed name of the form and optionally displays the Jetfire code.
- Save the input of the form to Jetfire. This action validates the form, creates a reference copy of Jetfire code, parses the code and saves it to the Jetfire ecosystem. The save action results in One-click deployment of the form, as it is now ready to use.
- Clear form maker. This makes Form Maker ready to design a new form.

Properties belong to the form.
- Enter the name of the property.
- Identify the property type (text, date, duration, integer, and more)
- Delete a property that no longer serves a purpose.
- Reorder properties within the list. Just grab the block at the left side of the property and move the row to where you want it.

Form Maker in layout view

Layout View¶

The form that is displayed to the left is Form Maker in layout view. It shows a DVD input form. This is similar to the DVD demo page on the jetfire site, because Form Maker is using the same code to create the form.

As the user designs the form, it is useful to page between the design view and the layout view. Layout shows the form designer how the form is displayed when deployed. This is useful to get an idea of how the form is used.

The importance of the expected type of answer is clear when the layout view is shown. In this mode, date, date and time, duration or time span, text (single line or multiple line), integers, decimal input is shown.

Note that Tags has no display. The expected answer for Tags is a List. For the DVD, this may be comedy, romance, drama, action or whatever tag you add to categorize the DVD. This form does not support the List answer yet.

Getting Started¶

This section contains tips for getting started.

Before starting to use Form Maker to design your form, think about:
- The purpose of the form
- The information that you want from someone filling in the form
- How you will use the information

When starting using Form Maker to design your form,
- Add a property with a property name and expected type of answer
- Switch to the layout view to get an appreciation of how the form looks
- Fill in the form to see what the form looks like from a user perspective

When finished designing your form,
- Review the form in the layout view
- Fill in the form as if you were a user
- Think about reordering properties. Does that make the form more understandable?

Displaying your new Form¶

Form Maker is used to design and deploy your form. One-click deployment literally saves the form to the Jetfire ecosystem ready for use.

The next step is creating a home on your website for the form, where users can navigate to and fill in your form. Jetfire WebParts are an easy way to deploy your form.