V2.0 Getting Started Guide
From Frevvodocs
Contents |
Step by Step
This guide takes you through the process of designing, deploying and using your first simple frevvo form. You'll quickly see how easy it is to create forms with frevvo. To use this guide, follow the steps below starting with Logging in. Each step below contains links to more detailed information.
If you'd rather jump directly into more detail documentation describing how to design, deploy and use frevvo Live Forms™ click on one of the components in the chart below, or use the navigation links to the left.
Logging In
The first step is to access the frevvo application in your browser and login. Point your browser to our frevvo hosting site: http://www.frevvo.com
Login by clicking on the “login” link in the upper right hand corner of the home page. If you do not already have a username and password, please Sign Up for free.
Create an Application (XML Edition only)
frevvo forms are organized into Applications. Applications contain one or more forms depending on your needs. Applications also contain other projects elements such as form submissions, schemas and themes. If you are an XML Edition user, before you create your first form you will need to create an application.
Your First Application (XML Edition only)
Upon successful login, you will see a page labeled “Applications”. Click the 
icon to create your first application. It is given a randomly generated name. You can add additional applications here or delete the ones you no longer need by clicking the 
icon next to your application’s name.
First, rename your application to something more meaningful by clicking on the properties 
icon below your application. Give your application a new name and a meaningful description so that when you see it in your application list you’ll be able to quickly tell what it’s about.
The properties page also enables you to set your application’s theme and base URLs. For this simple example, use the default theme Clear. And leave the base URLs empty.
Themes (XML Edition only)
XML Edition users will also see a Themes tab. Themes are the frevvo way to customize the style of your forms so that they fit into the look & feel of an existing web application. Most customization can be accomplished using the Form Designer and using one of frevvo's default themes.
Building a Form
For Standard Edition Users your are immediately in the Forms page as soon as you login.
Add/Edit a Form
- Standard Edition users just click New
to launch the Form Designer and start creating a new form. Or, to work on a form you’ve already started, click the name of an existing form or click the Edit 
icon below the form name.
- XML Edition users, start by clicking New to add your first application. Then click the name of the application or the Edit icon and click New to create your first form.
Here is where you design your form by dropping and laying out controls such as input text boxes, phone number, dates, radios, dropdowns, etc.. controls from frevvo's palette or from your own schema.
First, modify the name and description of your form. At the top of the Forms Work Area click the toolbar (where you see the Finish and Cancel buttons) to access the form’s properties, which are shown in the lower-left portion for the Forms Designer. Give your form a new name and description.
Add Controls
Initially, a form is created with no controls except for a Submit and Cancel button. You must add controls to the form in order to make it useful. Controls can be dropped from the palette or generated from a schema.
Controls are added from the frevvo control palette by clicking a control button, like text or number or phone, and dragging them onto the form's canvas area. Drag a few text controls and a money control onto your form canvas now.
Editing Controls
Each control is given a random label indicative of the control’s type. Click once on a control to select it. Click again on it's default label to edit it. Controls have many properties in addition to the label property. These Form Designer's Properties will display all of them.
Arranging Controls
You can organize and rearrange the controls in your form by dragging controls and dropping them in the appropriate place. Click on the control to drag it to another location on the form. As you drag your controls you will see visual indicators helping you place your control where you want it. Read the section on Drag & Drop for helpful details.
Preview your form
The Form Designer toolbar, at the top of the form canvas area, contains several buttons. The preview 
button displays your form as it will look when deployed for use. In Preview, notice that any panel grouping elements you may have added to your form are not displayed visually.
Saving your Form
To save any changes to your form, click on the finish 
toolbar button.
Using a Form
Once your form is created, it’s time to try using it. From the forms page, click on the test 
icon below your form. This brings up your form on frevvo’s web server. Go ahead and enter values into your form. Notice how each time you tab to another field frevvo immediately validates the data in the prior field and immediately displays an error message and color indication when there is a problem. For instance, try to enter a text string in an input that is a numeric control. See the Validation section for details on validation rules
frevvo prevents submisson of incomplete forms by keeping your form's submit button grey'd until all required fields are filled in. As soon as all required fields contains values and all of those values have valid data (eg: phone fields contain aaa-bbb-cccc format) the submit button will become clickable.
Submitting your Form
Where does the form data go when the user clicks the submit button? This is controlled by your form's Action properties. Let’s go back into the frevvo form designer for one of your forms. Initially all we changed was your form’s name and description. Now we’re going to use the properties: Form Action, Message / URL, and Doc Action (XML Edition only), E-Mail Address / URL
Set the Form Action property to Get URL. Set the dropdown to the right of that to parent. And set the URL property to http://www.google.com. For the XML Edition, set the Doc Action to E-mail document, and put your email address in the E-mail Address property. For the Standard Edition simply put your email address in the Email Results field. Click the finish button to save your changes. Click the test button to use your form. Now when you click the submit button rather than navigating to a page with a default message "Your form has been submitted", you navigate to www.google.com. And also the form's data will be emailed to you. This is of course a simple example.
Making Forms Public
By default your forms are private and only accessible when you are logged into frevvo. While developing your form, you can test it in use mode by clicking on the icon to the right of the form's name. Once you are satisfied with your form you can make it public by clicking on 
icon on the Form page to the right of your form's name. Public forms are accessible to anyone who knows the form's URL. If you want to make the form private again click on the 
which replaced the when you made the form public.
Using Your Own Schemas (XML Edition only)
Frevvo can quickly and easily create forms from your own XSD schemas. First, upload your .xsd into your frevvo applications. From within your application, click on the schemas link in the frevvo header. Next click on the icon on the Schemas tab. You can add as many schemas as you want. Each time you will enter an upload dialog window where you can browse to your schemas on disk and give them a meaningful name and description. You can delete schemas you no longer need by clicking the icon next to each schemas name.
See the form designer Schemas section for details on adding controls from schema types into your form.
Styling Forms
Once you create the forms you need, you’re going to want to give them your own custom styling touches. Most required styling can be done by choosing one of frevvo's build in themes like Clear or Professional Blue and in the Form Designer's form style properties and the control style properties. But when more extensive customizations are required, you can download on of frevvo's themes and modify it to suit your requirements. See the Customizing Forms for details.
Integration
Eventually you will want to integate your cool new frevvo forms into your existing web application or with other products such as a Database, BPM product, SOA, Web Services. Because frevvo is XML compiant and schema aware this is a straight forward task. See Integration for details.
