Unable to link forms to the menu...

Hello everybody, hello Max !

Ok, so I was needing a form extension, and as I'm a big fan of chronocomment, I've immediately thought about ChronoForm...

But there is a little problem. I have followed this tutorial and managed to build my form, link it to a database and so on...

But when I wanted to display the Form in the frontend (choosing Chronoform in the menu, and adding the form's title's name), the following error message appeared :

There is no form with this name or may be the form is unpublished, Please check the form and the url and the form management

I'm sure that the form is published, and that the name I've put in the menu is the same as the name of the form, so do someone know what seems to be the problem ?

I'm quite lost and hope you will be able to help me out there !

All the best,

Dushan

Hi dushan,

Please double check that the Form is published - right hand column in the Forms Manager.

What happens if you click the form url in the Forms Manager?

Bob

Hi Bob !

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me out.

I've double checked, triple checked, and yes, it is published ! 😲

What happens if you click the form url in the Forms Manager?

I'm arriving in a blank page with the text "New Additions to SCR's" displayed as a title...

Dou you know what does that mean ?

All the best and thanks for your help,
Dushan

Hi dushan,

That headline means nothing to me - is it related to your form or site (well clearly it is somehow)?

PM or email me a SuperAdmin logon and I can take a look.

Bob

Hi dushan,

That headline means nothing to me - is it related to your form or site (well clearly it is somehow)?

PM or email me a SuperAdmin logon and I can take a look.

Bob

Hello Bob !

PM sent, thanks a lot for your help !

Please let me know...

Hi Dushan,

There are two different problems here.

One is a css layout problem - when you see "New Additions to SCR's" it isn't a blank page - the form is here but pushed down below the bottom of the right column. This is usually a styling problem with the clear or height:auto css commands.

The menu problem is I think something going on with the sh404SEF setup. I couldn't work out what the problem is but the formname is being dropped from the menu url. I've done a workaround using an External URL menu link at Demandez un Test 2 ! and that works OK. You might want to try the alpha sef-ext file for ChronoForms that is here somewhere.

Bob

Hi Bob !

So, if I understand you well, the problem of the error message
displayed is linked to sh404SEF ? I can't figure out why because
I have disabled the sh404SEF url rewriting for all the Chronoform
extensions... 😲

I'm not sure I understand what I should do when you say

You might want to try the alpha sef-ext file for ChronoForms that is here somewhere.

Where can I find that file, and what should I do with it ?

Regarding the positionning problem, it is linked to CSS, isn'it ?

This is usually a styling problem with the clear or height:auto css commands.

I can try to check the CSS ou the template, but can you be
more specific about what I should check and change ? I'm
afraid my CSS competences are equaling my PHP's... 😶

Sorry for all the questions, my lack of programming skills
do not help... 😢

Thank you so much for the help !

Hi Dushan,

if this is Chronoforms V3.1 RC2 then the easy solution to the CS problem is to transform it to theme1 style, assuming the form is created using the wizard!

search for the file Bob mentioned, its an extension for SH404SEF to support SEF url for Chronoforms written by Bob, SH404SEf needs an extension file for any extension to work with!

Cheers
Max

Hi Dushan,

Please see this post which talks about using the PlugIn and links to it.

Bob

Hello Max & Bob,

@ Bob : Ok, when I have tryed to add your "com_chronocontact.php" file to the components/com_chronocontact folder, my FTP refuse it and say "critical error", which leads me to think that this may be linked to my problem ? Does anyone know what sould I do about that (is it a chmod problem ?), because I seriously considering to shoot myself... 😢

@ Max :

if this is Chronoforms V3.1 RC2 then the easy solution to the CS problem is to transform it to theme1 style, assuming teh form is created using the wizard!

I've created a new form woth the wizard, but I never saw a place to switch to theme1 style... How should I do that ?


@ ALL : Is someone able to recommand a good SEF extension, because I'm really getting sick and tired of sh404SEF : it's good, powerful and flexible, but it's also really heavy, complex and a pain in the a** when mixed with other extensions... I have permanent trouble with it each time I install another extension, and all I want is a simpler SEF tool that allow me to display clean and google friendly URL as "www.mydomainname.com/my-page-title".

Hi Dushan,

The sh404sef file needs to go into an sef-ext subfolder I think, don't overwrite the main chronoforms files. (Some versions are in a Joomla installer package, I don't know if yours is or not.)

If you have problems FTPing a simple file then it's possible that your site has permission problems.

I don't know anything better than sh404sef for Joomla 1.5 - maybe the default Joomla SEF would work for you? SEF is very complex - take a look in sumisha's code if you have any doubts!!

Bob

Hi Dushan,

Regarding the CSS issue, select the form in the "forms manager" and click "transform form" then choose theme1 and save! if you made any changes to the form HTML after the wizard then you will lose it!

Cheers
Max

Hi Bob !

If you have problems FTPing a simple file then it's possible that your site has permission problems.

I really don't understand the problem, it's the first time it happenned on my test site... The FTP log display the following process :

Statut: Connecté
Statut: Démarrage de l'envoi de D:\01. JANCIK E-XPERTISE\07. FILTRE À MIRACLE\07. SITE WEB FàM\02. Transferts\com_chronocontact.php
Commande: CWD /web/test/components/com_sh404sef/sef_ext
Réponse: 250 CWD command successful
Commande: TYPE A
Réponse: 200 Type set to A
Commande: PASV
Réponse: 227 Entering Passive Mode (84,16,92,36,218,196).
Commande: STOR com_chronocontact.php
Réponse: 550 com_chronocontact.php: Permission denied
Erreur: Erreur critique

I don't understand that stuff, but maybe it's a problem with my hosting service at this level ?


Well, apparently I'll have to stick with sh404SEF ! 🙄

But it's not fundamental if the form is not SEF-optimized : it's not the forms that are the most important for SEO purpose...


@ Max :

Regarding the CSS issue, select the form in the "forms manager" and click "transform form" then choose theme1 and save! if you made any changes to the form HTML after the wizard then you will lose it!

It's working !!! thanks a lot, now the biggest part of my problem is apparently resolved !



Thanks a lot to both of you, Bob and Max, your help is really appreciated ! Please send me an MP with your postal adresses, I'll send you a little something from Switzerland ! :wink:

All the best,
Dushan

Hi Dushan,

That FTP error looks as though you may not have write permission for the folder - or perhaps the folder doesn't exist?

The file itself is very straighforward PHP and shouldn't cause any problems.

Bob

Hi Dushan,

That FTP error looks as though you may not have write permission for the folder - or perhaps the folder doesn't exist?

The file itself is very straighforward PHP and shouldn't cause any problems.

Bob

Hi Bob,

I'll try to install ChronoForm on my production site and use the technique suggested by Max to take care of the CSS problem. Regarding the FTP error I'll see if it's still not working there, but the SEF for a contact form is not necessary anyway...

Thanks a lot for your help !

Ok, a little up here because i've installed Chronoform on my production site, and I realize that I cannot use the "Theme1" and should definitively use the "default theme", which leads to the CSS problem that was mentionned before...

So my question is : how should I do to modifiy the CSS in order to display the forms correctly ?

And more specificaly, which CSS file should I tweak, the one of my template, or the Chronoform's one ?

Can you guide me a little on what should I look for, because I have a lot of good will, but quite a lack of CSS knowledge... 😶

Hi DJLN,

It's really hard to tell without seeing the page and being able to detect what CSS is affecting which field.

I use FireBug in FireFox for this and it works pretty well. You can also make trial changes in the CSS 'live' and see the impact they have.

Bob

Hi DJLN,

You can also make trial changes in the CSS 'live' and see the impact they have.

Bob

Hi Bob,

That's what I was thinking to do, but with my little knowledge, it's really hard to find which file I shloud edit, and where are the lines related to the problem in the file...

Do you think it is in the template.css file of my template (which is Rockettheme's Replicant v2) ?

Hi Dushan,

it's really hard to find which file I shloud edit,

here Firebug is very handy, you inspect any element and it will tell you which CSS is affecting it and which files and which line number and you can change the CSS live and see your changes even before editing any files, but pay attention that these changes are from Firefox's point of view, IE may have another!

Cheers
Max

Ok, I'll try to solve that with Firebug and let you know...

Thanks a lot Max & Bob !

Dushan

Ok, I've installed Firebug and I may have identified the problem...

The related parameter seems to be (in the component/com_chronocontact/themes/defaut/css/style1.css)

.form_item {
	/*border:1px #CCCCCC solid;*/
	height: auto;
}

"Auto" was the initial parameter, which is related to my size problem...

So i've tried to change it, and no others parameters seems to fix the problem (neither percentage nor "inherit").

But when I give a fixed size to it, like 60px, the problem of the too big height seems to be resolved as you can see in that printscreen :



So the next question is : Now that the problematic line seems to be identified, how can I fix the problem without interfering with the correct spaces within the form ? (I edited the form with "<br>" tags to change the space between the different fields).

Hope you can help me to continue, because after finding that I'm pretty much stucked here...

Thanks in advance,
Dushan

Hi Dushan,

The css for the default theme needs some cleaning, I suggest you use the "theme1" css, I mean, transform your form to theme1 layout, is this ok for your needs now ? but pay attention that any changes made to the HTML code of the form will be gone after the transformation!

Regards,
Max

Hi Dushan,

The css for the default theme needs some cleaning, I suggest you use the "theme1" css, I mean, transform your form to theme1 layout, is this ok for your needs now ? but pay attention that any changes made to the HTML code of the form will be gone after the transformation!

Regards,
Max

Hi Max,

I tried already to switch to the theme1, but I'd rather stay with the default theme if possible : it look cleaner, and the other one doesn't fit with my website graphism and the brand I'd like to convey...

But don't you know what I should do with that "height;" parameters in order to find a decent compromise ?

Hi Dushan,

we faced the problem before but there was not a definite solution, try to alter the HTML and don't rely on changing the CSS only!

Regards,
Max

Hi Dushan,

we faced the problem before but there was not a definite solution, try to alter the HTML and don't rely on changing the CSS only!

Regards,
Max

Hi Max ! Do you mean changing the HTML within the form code ? I've already tryed to correct the space between the fields by addind <br> tags, but it doesn't seem to be taken into account... And i'm afraid my coding knowledge are too limited to come out with a lot of ideas about that...

All the best,
Dushan

Hi Dushan,

yes, that's because the form is in divs, divs are tricky, I don't write the HTML/CSS code but I use the services of a pro to do them so I can't help much with them 😟

if I were in your place I would create a similar for using tables, with the help of any HTML editor!

Regards
Max