Introducing JRapid WebForms (Part 2): Embed forms in Ning Networks

Hi ! In the first part of this post I introduced JRapid WebForms which, synthetically speaking, allows non-programmer users to embed and manage web forms in their websites.

In this post I will explain you how to embed a WebForm in a Ning network as a Ning App.

First things first… what is Ning and what is a Ning App?

Ning is an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Ning networks are Facebook like, people can register in your network, make friends, leave messages in peoples “Wall”, share photos, write in a forum, etc. As well as Facebook, Ning created the Ning Apps which allows creators to add extra functionality to their networks.

Okey… and how does WebForms fits in all this stuff?

You can embed a WebForm as a Ning App and allow network-users to submit any kind of information like feedback, polls, product orders, etc !

Note: Currently, the JRapid Community site (which is a Ning network) uses four Ning apps: “Views”, “Widgets”, “Transformers” and “Templates”. These are not WebForms but are Ning Apps created through JRapid.

You can find them in the “Plugins” tab.

Nice ! How simple is to embed a WebForm inside a Ning network?

Extremely easy ! So easy that I will not explain it…

Okey… I will explain it.

Follow the 5-steps creation process as if you were creating another WebForm. Stop in step 5 and look at the bottom, you will see something like this:

Click in the “Do you want to use your forms in Ning?” link.

A form will appear below. Complete it with the name of your Ning network and press ‘Tab’.

Finally, add the Ning App to your network.

You should not have any kind of problems !

This is the result:

Try it !

Don’t doubt to leave comments !

Introducing JRapid WebForms (Part 1)

Hi ! I’m back again. In this post I’ll present you a new tool you will find extremely useful for adding user interaction to your web pages, no programming required.

A few weeks ago JRapid released WebForms, which basically allows no programmer users to create and manage web forms in their web pages. The forms you create are stored in an own JRapid project so you can keep your work online and access it whenever you want. Publishing is just a one-click action which automatically deploys your project in JRapid’s scalable servers.

As said above, no programming is required, WebForms are modeled in JML (JRapid Modeling Language) which is plain XML. If your are not much familiarized with XML you can use the “Design” mode which is quite intuitive.

Usually designers depend on programmers to simply add a “Contact me” or “Poll” like forms. I always say, “designers should desing and coders should code”. Of course both should know about each others world but be realist, designers know nothing about server-side programming and coders just don’t have designer’s “eye” !

JRapid WebForms allow designers and low level skill programming users to embed web forms in their pages following a really easy 5-steps guided process.

But, what does it mean embed a form? What does WebForms really do? We are so used to see forms in web pages that it’s common to forget what happens inside ! Having a web form in your page where users can submit information implies having, somewhere around the world, a database to store the data, client-side (browser-side) programming to send the data and server-side programming to store the data in the database. Finally, a simple HTML form which is what final users see.

But… where does these data goes? As I said before, to your personal database in JRapid’s servers. These data can be accessed through your administration’s panel which is automatically created after the form. This panel comes with some cool charts and listings for displaying the data, and if you are a JRapid developer you can embed maps, BI, etc.

Check it ! Hope it helps you to get rid of unskilled PHP developers !