I just downloaded ChronoForms V4 for Joomla 1.5, including Component, Plugin-Mambot, and Modules. Created my first "test form", following the instructions in tutorial "how to create your first form..." as well as the YouTube Greybeard tutorial, "Chronoforms V4: A First Form". I do just fine until I try to see the form front end. Tried two different times; each time I get a message "Form name can NOT be empty."
Well, my form name is NOT empty. The tutorials and on-screen instructions are a bit inconsistent -- one says you can use underlines and hyphens, the other says not. I tried both ways, saved each; still I get that same message, "Form name can NOT be empty."
Suggestions?
What's worse, now my whole website seems to be down. I deleted both of those test forms, but navigating to my website now just gets a page that says "Form name can NOT be empty." What gives?
Hi cellolaw,
There's no obvious explanation for your site being broken like this. You don't say how you were linking to the forms which make it harder to diagnose. You can get this message most often if you use a menu link with no name in it; or if the form is unpublished.
Form form names, underscores, letters and numbers are safe - but names should start with a letter. I think that dashes are safe in ChronoForms v4 but I avoid then anyhow.
Bob
I did get my site restored by dis-enabling the Plugin and Module. Also, I have now created a test form that shows up on a new page of my website, with no sign of the previous troublesome message (see my earlier posts under this title). But I'm having difficulties getting the form to show up anywhere else.
I don't understand your comment "how you were linking to the forms" -- nothing in any tutorial I have viewed (and I've now seen all your YouTube tutorials -- thank you) says anything about linking to the form. I did re-enable the plugin, and saw the instructions about inserting the form into a content page using the code, {chronocontact}my_form_name{/chronocontact}. I've done that, inserting that language (with the name of the test_form I have created) in an article. But when previewing the site, nothing shows up on that article page except the code I typed in.
I'd buy your book, but it doesn't appear to be the right thing for V4, and I'm not skilled enough to figure out how to deal with the different administrative interface, and certainly not to modify any code.
Suggestions? Thanks for any help you can give me.
Hi cellolaw ,
By 'linking' I just meant are you using the 'Frontend view' link in the Forms Manager which is a basic URL; or a Joomla! Menu item; or the plug-in; or the module.
The {chronocontact}my_form_name{/chronocontact} syntax is from ChronoForms v3 so you may have the wrong versions of the ChronoForms Plug-in installed. If you are using CFv4 then it would be {chronoforms}my_form_name{/chronoforms}
Bob
Ah, success! Thank you so much. (I picked up the V3 version from one of the tutorials...) I did have the correct plugin, and when I changed the code, it worked like a charm.