Form creation / email form collection system inside of Hype?

Hello there,
what about forms for the new Hype? So it would be a real website-builder, not only for animations :slight_smile:

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You can do forms in Hype, here's a sample...

form_template.hype.zip (17.3 KB)

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Ok, thank you - I looked at this demo, but how did you build it?

All of the HTML / CSS code is in the "innerHTML" of the blue box.

But this means this way can’t work with responsive design, right? So that’s a bad way :-p

you can give the iframe a width in % and make the content responsive aswell I think

No, this don’t work :frowning:

No one else got an idea?

Forms are kind of a mess. To do a form (for example, a form that collects an email address), there’s a number of pieces you have to get right:

  1. Form validation (is this a real email address)
  2. Is this a duplicate entry?
  3. Is a real human submitting the form? (captchas are useful for this)
  4. Has the data been stored somewhere? (you’ll need a database) Does the server support the database?
  5. Do you need to notify someone that the form has been filled in? (Server must be able to send email, or run an additional hook based on a submission)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg – you’ll need to consider mobile devices, autofill values, ‘hint text’, maximum text field lengths, error text, and a slew of other things.

I recommend using Google Forms, or Wufoo to set up your form, since they handle all these thorns (and they’re free). You can quickly embed your form within the inner HTML of any Hype element.

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And they will work automatically on different screen-sizes?

Building forms is available in every piece of software I use to create websites (PC based) and none of these things are a consideration. I have to kindly and respectfully disagree. All of them allow me to place text, edit boxes, radio and check boxes, drop downs and other form elements followed by a submit and reset button. They do not require any coding to send the email to an email address - it’s built in - and my guess is that its a simple php forms mail script.

Surely you could include this into Hype? Considering the ‘Pro’ moniker, I would expect the addition of form elements (and yes, I did upgrade to Pro).

I DESPISE free tools like Google Forms and Wufoo - they make things too complex and gather data that you would never want gathered. I would much rather keep it simple and in-house, so to speak.

I tried editing that form inner HTML example and I can tell you that making it responsive would be annoyingly hard. It would be a little easier to create the form in form creation software or website software in multiple sizes and then copy and paste the HTML into a inner html control in Hype for each responsive size. It would be MUCH easier to just drag and drop the form elements in Hype and create the form for each responsive size.

Please add Form elements, because I would LOVE to use Hype as a legit website creation software and like it or not, forms are a MAJOR part of almost all websites.

Mike

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Thanks for the request. Hype’s heritage is one of building animations and not entire sites, which, along with @daniel’s reasoning, is why forms aren’t a feature yet. Our goal is of course to make sure using forms (or some other technology common in webpages another set of users need) is possible with Hype, which is why we always want to make sure Hype is extensible and you can use solutions that are great at building forms with Hype.

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I agree.
Adding forms and a database connection would take Hype to another level altogether.
It adds another dimension to the potential for interactivity.

Steve

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For our own knowledge, how are you currently doing this and what database do you use? (Use cases will help us in forming the feature). Thanks!

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I’m new to hype so I haven’t implemented database access yet.
Mysql would be the database I’d use.
A database gives your app a memory, so you can track a
persons route and taylor the experience based on that info.
Of course you’d need some php decision making along the way.

Thanks for the details!

This is where your marketing strategy has departed reality. "Animations" for what? Time for crazy flickering Flash sites is over, and Hype is not sophisticated enough to address games or high-end animation markets. Hopefully, I've found one use for it - video-like "how to" product tutorials (basically, a flying cursor). That is despite of the fact that I usually have to make 3-4 attempts to select a small element on the stage, buried behind bigger objects, because keys are used to navigate layer menu (option-command-E or TAB don't work).

What else? Interactive children ebooks? Maybe. There is a big market for page/site building and UI prototyping tools. I'm interested in the latter. So i don't care much about DB connectivity in order to fake forms.

Hi there,
I have a look to your “form_template.hype.zip” and it looks great, but something is missing. I mean, Send boton doesnt work.

None of those pieces need to be created with an implementation of forms within Hype.
It is just the normal responsibility of the programmer to deal with those considerations.
You just have to interface with php and mysql.
Barriers are more mental than real.

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This is true,
Just that from seeing the sort of questions here about forms already and anything else for that matter, if basic form inclusion was added to Hype I suspect there would be even more questions of how to go beyond those basics.
The requests would still go on for more form capabilities.

That @Daniel mentions the above points is a good thing because it shows that the team are not looking at implementing things that will just make do.

I am hoping that Forms are added to Hype but even I would want some GUI that allowed you to enter properties beyond the basics. Even something that would generate a php file on export that is related to the form/s.

fingers x'd

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