We’re happy to announce the long awaited release of FormBuilder 0.80.  There have been some substantial changes with this version of FormBuilder including the following:

• Feature: Alternate Email Processing - Allows you to select whether to use the standar PHP mail command (default) or the WordPress WP_Mail command.
• Feature: Form Data in AutoResponses - You can now make reference to submitted form data in autoresponses using variables like ~variable~ where the variable name matches the field names on your form.  More documentation here.
• Feature: Blacklist Form Checking - You can enable checking of submitted form data against the WordPress discussion blacklist. Set blacklisted items in the WordPress discussion settings.
• Feature: DB Subject and Recipient - Forms stored in the database will now include subject and recipient.
• Feature: More Required Types - Added Link and Single Word the the required field types.
• Bug Fix: Attempted to fix link problems on windows hosting solutions.
• Bug Fix: Added Reply-To field to email headers.

Because of the fact that this version of FormBuilder makes some major changes to your WordPress database, we HIGHLY recommend you back up your WP database before installing it.

Download the latest edition from WordPress.org. We would love to hear your feedback, questions and comments below.

We’re very excited to announce the release of the next edition of FormBuilder with the following great new features:

• Feature: Enabled Internationalization of the FormBuilder plugin. This means that we will now be able to provide translators with a special POT file which can be used to create alternate language translations for the FormBuilder interface.  More information here.
• Feature: Enabled exporting of results from a single form in more standardized CSV format.
• Feature: Added ability to capture IP address of form submitter. Disabled by default.
• Bug Fix: Minor HTML tweak to allow for better CSS compatability.
• Code Cleanup: Cleaned up the FormBuilder management dashboard for better viewing and usability.

As always you can download the latest edition from WordPress.org.

We’re back with another release of FormBuilder.  This version adds two new, though related, features to the codebase.

1. Hidden Select and Radio Values
   We have updated the code to prevent someone from viewing the source of a form and being able to see what actual values are submitted with the form data for the Selection Dropdown and Radio Button fields.  This has numerous uses, one of which is addressed with the next feature.
2. Selectable Form Recipients
   We have enabled the form creator to be able to have a special field in the form specifying alternate form email recipients.  This means that you can create a selection box allowing the visitor to select where the form email should go.  For example, if you want to use one form for multiple purposes, the visitor can select which topic they are addressing simply by choosing a selection item and the email resulting from the form data they fill out, will be sent to the appropriate person.  Item #1 above prevents the visitor from seeing the actual email address that the data is sent to, allowing you to protect your email addresses, while exposing this functionality.  You can read more about how to use this feature, here in the FormBuilder documentation.

You can download this latest version of FormBuilder from WordPress.org.

Well, we have been hard at work fixing some bugs and building new functionality into FormBuilder.  We’re excited to announce the following new features:

1. Database Backup Viewing and Export
   Having previously released an extension to FormBuilder which allowed you to store form results in the database, we have now expanded that extension to allow listing the results in the database along with the ability to read archived forms and export date ranges to a CSV file.
2. Multi-page Forms
   We have added the ability to put page breaks into your forms to allow for splitting forms across multiple pages.  This is especially useful if you have large forms you want the visitor to fill out, but don’t want to overwhelm them with one big long list of questions.
3. Minor CAPTCHA Bug Fixes
   There were some minor bugs introduced in the CAPTCHA system which would have affected certain website configurations.  The bugs have been squashed.

We hope you like the improvements.  We’d love to hear your feedback below.  As always, you can download this version of FormBuilder from WordPress.org.

FormBuilder 0.72 introduces some long-overdue features which many of you have been asking about for a while now.

1. Feature: CAPTCHA - We have introduced a CAPTCHA field type which will allow you to verify that your visitors are actually real people rather than bots or spammers.
2. Feature: Database Backups - We have introduced a new feature which allows you to store backup copies of all emails in the WordPress database if enabled.  The data is stored in basic XML format encoded in the same encoding as the blog.  Further development on this feature will probably be done in the future.
3. Feature: New Pre-populated Forms - We have modified the functions which create a new form to have new forms created with some predefined basic contact fields.  This allows the administrator to easily and quickly create basic contact forms.
4. Bug Fix: The “call-time pass-by-reference error” has been fixed.

Thank you for your interest in our plugin.  We hope you like it.  As always, if you find any bugs or wish to make any comments or suggestions, feel free to do so in the comments below.

You may download it from the WordPress.org plugin repository.

We’re excited to release the lastest and greatest edition of FormBuilder just in time for Christmas.  This version includes the following features and enhancements.

• Alternate Form Processing
  One feature we’ve been getting a lot of requests for is the ability to send form results to an alternate form processing system.  In light of that, we have created a new module for FormBuilder which allows for exactly that.  You can now submit form results to a completely different system using the “Alternate Action module.

  If you are using the Alternate Action module, you may specify the full URL of the alternate form processor in the THANKYOUTEXT field of the form.  Once the submitted data has been verified by the regular FormBuilder system, it will be re-posted to this alternate system.  This ability may not be supported on all servers.  Please test before deploying to production systems.

• Dashboard Uninstall
  You now have controls directly on the FormBuilder management page to Uninstall the system entirely if necessary.  This is simply a nicer front-end to previously available functionality.
• Code Streamlining
  We’ve been continuing to work hard at making the code more streamlined and ultimately faster to run.
• Various Small Bug Fixes

We hope you enjoy this new release of FormBuilder and the features it provides.  We’d love to hear your opinions suggestions or questions.  Simply post them in the comments below.

As always, you can download this latest version of FormBuilder from the WordPress Plugin Directory, or download directly by clicking here.

Here is the official release of FormBuilder 0.63.  The goal of this version is primarily to provide compatibility with the upcoming release of WordPress 2.7.  We have revamped the administrative interface to function a bit better with the WordPress CSS styles, as well as fixing a number of bugs which showed up when testing against WordPress 2.7 beta 2.  Additionally, we have restored functionality to allow FormBuilder to work properly when used in a PHP 4.x environment.

We hope you like the improvements and we would love to hear any feedback you might have.

Click here to download FormBuilder from the WordPress Plugin Database.

Here is the official release of FormBuilder 0.61.  The primary focus of this version is to allow the placement of forms anywhere in the content of a page or post.  As such, in this version you can now include code in the form of [formbuilder:#] where # is the ID number of the form to be included in the content of the page or post.

Further to this, we have added the additional ability to place forms directly in the WordPress template using a command like this:

<?php echo formbuilder_process_form(3); ?>

We also included the following features and bug fixes:

• Feature: Multiple Forms Per Page
  You can now include multiple forms on each post or page, using any combination of methods to display forms (ie the dropdown box, forms in the content, forms in the template)
• Documentation: Reverse Captcha
  Documentation was added to the code and interface linking to documentation regarding how to use the built-in “Reverse Captcha” spam blocking technology.
• Bug Fix: Form Redirection
  Repaired bugs introduced when the Form Redirection processes and module were added.
• Improvement: Randomization
  Improved form randomization for forms created to use the Form Redirect module.

We hope you like the improvements and we would love to hear any feedback you might have.

Click here to download FormBuilder from the WordPress Plugin Database.

In these days when automated web crawlers are common inhabitants of the Internet and form-spam is rampant, website administrators are searching everywhere for technology that will help separate the robots on their sites from the real people.  Robots, spiders, worms and hackers are all working hard to find new ways to exploit forms on websites, attempting to submit invalid information in an effort to break into secure systems, or even simply spam the website administrators to promote their products.

We have all seen the additional security measures people have put in place in an attempt to block the unwanted spammers, while still allowing their clients easy access to send in information.  Unfortunately, most of these systems are complicated to use, adding extra work and frustration for the client, such as requiring the person to read letters on a multi-colored graphic and type them into the form.  Then, if you miss a letter or type something in wrong, you have to start over from the beginning.

In FormBuilder, we have installed what we call a “Reverse CAPTCHA“.  Simply put, it keeps the spiders out, while allowing real people in without making their lives any more difficult.

How to Use:

To find and activate the Reverse CAPTCHA controls, go to the FormBuilder interface on your blog, and click to edit one of your forms.  When creating new fields on the form, you will see that one of the FIELD TYPE’s in the dropdown box is “spam blocker”.  Simply select that option as your field type and give it a name.  (something you wouldn’t use on that particular form.. ie. BIRTH_DATE)

The idea of this field is that it is hidden to regular users of your site, so when the form is submitted by a REAL user, the value of that field should be blank.  However, spiders and automated form hacking scripts would see that field and attempt to submit information to it.  If information is submitted in that field, the entire form submission will be ignored, resulting in less spam in your in-box.

For additional spam prevention, you can rename the CSS which is used to identify this FormBuilder Field.  This should help prevent robots from locking on to a particular CSS field and ignoring forms which are labelled with it.  To rename the CSS field, go to your main FormBuilder management page, and change the field value under the Spam Blocker heading.

We are very excited to announce the release of FormBuilder 0.60, featuring many new features you have been requesting.  Here’s a brief run-down:

• Feature: Internationalization Support
  We have incorporated the ability to support internationalization on the forms you now create.  This included numerous database updates as well as code modifications.  See further notes on this below.
• Feature: New Field Type: Followup URL
  Allows you to redirect visitors to an alternate URL in the event that the form is filled out successfully.
• Feature: Duplicate Form Checking
  The plugin will now keep track of the most recently submitted form data, preventing the exact same information from being submitted again from the same IP.
• Feature: Redirect ONLY Module
  Added a new module (found in the ACTION field of the form) which allows the form to simply redirect the user to another page, rather than actually submitting form data or sending an email.  Useful to add a quick button to a page, in order to redirect users somewhere else.
• Bug Fix: WordPress in a Subdirectory
  Previously FormBuilder was experiencing problems when installed on a WordPress site in a subdirectory of the document root. (ie www.yourdomain.com/blog/wordpress)  This bug has now been fixed, and FormBuilder should work well regardless of where in the filesystem WordPress is installed.
• Bug Fix: Prototype.js Library
  FormBuilder has been reconfigured to use the WordPress built-in prototype.js library, rather than including it’s own.  Should help to provide better compatibility with other plugins which may use the same library.

Important Notes:

The introduction of internationalization support in the FormBuilder plugin resulted in some unexpected consequences due to bugs found in PHP version 4.xx.  In certain situations, PHP warnings will be displayed on the form when non-ascii characters are used.  This is actually due to a bug in PHP v. 4.xx and is not resolved until PHP version 5.xx.  The warning in question looks like this:

Warning: cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode()! in /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/blog/wp-content/plugins/formbuilder/formbuilder.php on line 379

Unfortunately, because of the fact that this is a PHP error, there is not a lot we can do to resolve it.  More details can be found here.  If you are experiencing this error, we suggest the following solutions:

• Install or activate PHP 5.xx
  As your website host to upgrade your version of PHP to 5.xx.  As of July 13, PHP 4 is becoming obsolete and PHP 6 is soon to arrive.
• Disable warning notifications on your site
  While the warnings will still exist, they will not display on your pages.

We hope you like the improvements and we would love to hear any feedback you might have.

Click here to download FormBuilder from the WordPress Plugin Database.