I have a requirement to implement a "simple" web-based form designer that allows "simple" users to create their own web-based forms. I've come across these things in rich clients, such as Outlook and Acrobat, but my requirements are much simpler and must be web-based.
Pretty layout, custom validation, complex fields and types are simply not a factor. Ideally I would like to find something that is neat like this very SO question composer, in which I'm typing right now, plus the ability to drag a text input box or a checkbox right into the text. Output could be as crude as this:
What is your name? [Fred Bloggs]
Do you have an internet? [x]
I'm using asp.net but the backend technology doesn't really matter as I fear this is all javascript! No need to consider old browsers. Any examples links would be helpful, as well as suggestions for existing open or commercial components. Thank you!
Tried Frevvo ?
Here is a pretty neat one based on jquery Ajax Form Builder
Try FormThis. It allows you to create an Online Web Form at no cost. Drag & Drop designer, Unlimited Fields, Submit/Responses, Calculations, Validation, etc. Can output to PDF if required.
Related
I am developing a website where I need a captcha control and I want to develop the captcha control itself, so in the future I can change its length, type, color, and have it be easy to manage as well.
So, suggest me which technology used for to develop the capha control and how.
I am using asp.net platform with vb.net as the language.
You can try reCAPTCHA.
Check out this (free): http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/10/an-aspnet-captcha-server-control.html
Or Telerik has a great Captcha product (not free).
BotDetect CAPTCHA is excellent. I just used it on a big project. http://captcha.biz/
There are lots of existing options you could use (as others have pointed out). But, if you want to roll your own, you might want to consider WPF/Silverlight. There are a lot tools in there to manipulate/transform letters and numbers that you could utilize.
You could apply a random (or several random) transformations to each letter/number of a randomly generated string of letters/numbers.
I have an Administrator that needs a dynamic form generator with layout capabilities on an ASP.NET page so that they can add, edit and change layout of questions that will be filled out by users whose responses will be saved into the database dynamically. The format is very important as there will be an offline piece that will be generated using Adobe Acrobat and both forms need to be very similar in format. The online portion also needs to be fully printable so that the end user can keep a copy for there personal records. Does anyone know of any ASP.NET controls, free or otherwise, that I could use to complete this functionality? Or what would be the best technology to solve this problem?
Not sure I see a question. This is more of my opinion of what you should do:
Im working on something similar. My form generator had a LOT of complicated fields and data to handle and I decided to go with silverlight. I very happy now, despite the learning curve, and the madness async api, because it would have just been hairy to do it with asp.net, pure asp.net with postbacks would just be bad UX and then putting ajax in between would've just been scary.
If you have great Ajax/asp.net experience go with it, but if not, Id suggest silverlight. I got up to speed pretty quick.
I have large documents (HTML or Text) (think legal documents/regulatory documents etc.) that need to made readable i.e. paged, with some rich-text markup, allowing user highlighting and annotation etc.
I was thinking of using a Scribd style rendering or as on Secwatch.com (see here). Any thoughts how I can go about it? We are on ASP.NET.
Found one article that does something similar:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/ckrause/Ajax-browser-based06162006015526AM/Ajax-browser-based.aspx?ArticleID=548dfae2-4251-4c9a-b659-bfe88fd55c62
Needs some plugin, am not sure if you are OK to go for a third party control.
EDIT(s):
1) Just realized that Scribd runs of Ruby on the Rails. I guess that could be a starting point if you want to look at developing something on your own. (What does RoR have that ASP.NET doesn't for this particluar case?)
2) Scribd provides an API, but mostly for interfacing your app to sribd.com. However, it might give you ideas.
I thought the web page designer screen in 2005 was mediocre until I used the one in 2008 which I think is bad. There is an interesting white paper here:
http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/484172.aspx
I've gotten very used to these WYSIWYG designers over the years, but I am looking now for a new way.
I make business web apps which call for data entry forms. I don't need anything particularly artistic, but I do need to be able to line up text boxes etc on input forms so that they lkook orderly and are convenient for the user. I use Telerik controls, and my skills with CSS are approaching passable.
People often mention that they don't use the designer, but they rarely state what approach they DO use.
What are some of the alternatives to using the VS designer?
I don't use any WYSIWYG editor for WebForms. I've found that there are no good WYSIWYG editors for HTML, let alone ASP.net.
My suggestion is to learn enough HTML/CSS/ASP.net that you care code entirely without the WYSIWYG editor. If you can't or don't want to do this, then you'll just have to put up with a marginal editor.
I think a lot of the time when people say they don't use the designer they just use the source view the majority of the time. The reason for this is the designer often generates extra HTML code you don't need or it can even be a hindrance such as adding extra css styles directly to your page, I have also had it create technically invalid html by putting bold tags in the wrong places inside a table (Although it displayed ok in most browsers).
If you are not comfortable with just the source yet, I suggest split view then at least when you are using the designer you can see what it is creating and edit to get it perfect.
Don't trust the designer over seeing your website in a few different browsers.
I'm writing a asp.net web application in which I want the users to be able to apply simple formatting to the text they enter in text areas.
One of the possibilities is to use a javascript wisywig editor (like tinymce). However, to keep the text html-clean and readible, I'd prefer that the users have to do the formatting themselves in exactly the same way as it is done in wiki's.
I can't find a free or not too expensive control on the web. Has anyone used a third party control before? any advise on this?
You can use a markdown editor like this:
http://wmd-editor.com/
Then you want to be able display the result in HTML with this:
http://aspnetresources.com/blog/markdown_announced.aspx
Essentially this is what StackOverflow does (with their customization). They discuss how they do it in their podcast.