Written
Simple forms with a few inputs are very easy in ChronoForms. But many forms have tens, sometimes hundreds of inputs and then it can become difficult to build in the Form Wizard Preview box. Here are some suggestions for making it easier to build large forms.
There are several suggestions here. Which is the best one for you to use will depend on your form design and the flow of entries in the form.
Long forms can be complex and difficult for the user to complete. Wherever possible break them up into smaller sub-forms and consider saving the form data for each sub-form to allow the user to continue later if necessary.
- You can break multi-page forms into separate forms each of more manageable size. You can then use the 'Session to Data' and 'Data to Session' actions to pass data between them.
- You can use Container actions to group pages or sub-pages together. The Containers can conveniently be fieldsets or just plain empty, they allow you to collapse chunks of the form and so make the dragging and dropping easier.
- You can try the Show Form action to include one form inside another. This looks very useful but I haven't so far tested it out.
- You can, as you suggest, edit the Form HTML in the Form Code tab. You need to set the Form Type to Custom if you do this to allow you to continue to use the Wizard to manage the actions without over-writing the HTML.
- Rather than the Form Code tab you can use the Custom Element element to include chunks of HTML either entered in the element Code box or included from external files. I find this a more flexible approach than the previous suggestion as it allows you to mix and match.
- In an emergency I've found that you can move form elements around by editing the Form Wizard data in the database table. I don't recommend this but it can be a life-saver if you find that your form is damaged and the Form Wizard no longer allows you to edit elements. The Form Wizard database entry is an array of element arrays - with care you can edit and move the element arrays around. Note that you need to re-load the Form in the Wizard after editing and then re-save it to re-create the new Form HTML.
