FAQs

Sometimes the browser validation and captcha are not enough to block spam from a form. Here's a way to add customised filters to 'blacklist' and block text strings that you specify. 

Sometimes it would be helpful to be able to change some of the form action parameters dynamically. This is possible but treat with great care as it is easy to get unexpected results.

If you need to validate credit card data in your form then there is a good free validation library published by Stripe that can be very helpful. This FAQ describes how to add it to your form and gives some examples of its use.

jQuery Chosen is a plug-in that adds extra functionality to select drop-down elements. This FAQ shows you how to use jQuery Chosen with ChronoForms v5.

The jQuery UI library that is included with Joomla! 3 includes a slider (see here) that can be used to select values from a range. This is similar to a drop-down or a radio button group but can be more user friendly. This FAQ describes how to create a simple slider to work in a ChronoForm.

ChronoForms v5 includes an option in the Textarea element to enable a WYSIWYG editor for the textarea. It adds a copy of the TinyMCE editor with some basic options. While this is often sufficient you sometimes need to add extra options or use a different editor. This FAQ show some ways to do that.

Sometimes you do not want to display the text being typed into an input box. A Password Box is one answer to this - that displays a row of *****s. However a user wanted a box for a Social Security number that was hidden using a mask like XXX-XX-1234 where the number is formatted and only the last four digits are displayed. This FAQ shows a way to do this.

A new PHP version 7 was released in December 2015; and a new Joomla! version 3.5 that supports PHP 7 is now released. This FAQ tracks the issues I have seen with ChronoForms on using these versions.

This FAQ describes how to use form data to create a QR code that can be shown on your site or attached to an email.

The validation tab for Text Box and Textarea Box elements in CFv5 has a Custom function box where you can add the name of a JavaScript function that the validation code will use to check the entry. This FAQ includes some examples of functions that you can use or adapt.

Testing Payment Gateway actions can be difficult; user Chris has posted his notes on testing the Authorize.net action in a forum thread - the main points are noted here.

Normally when you upload an image it isn't possible to see it until after the form is submitted. However HTML5 supports a FileReader that makes this possible. User fibernet found  way to use that in ChronoForms v5 and this FAQ is a development of his ideas.

ChronoForms v5 supports Google NoCaptcha - also known as ReCaptcha v2. This FAQ tells how to set it up and gives some suggestions for Debugging if there are problems.

A user requested a textarea that grew longer as more content was entered so that all of the content was visibe without scrolling.