# User driven form creator?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 28, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074 "2009-10-28T20:18:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/1 "2009-10-28T20:18:48Z")

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Hi All,

I need to add functionality to an intranet site where users can design  
basic forms such as leave forms, change of details forms, request for  
printing forms, etc via a web gui where they enter the label, select a  
type, possible values (for tick and select boxes), etc. I’ve had a  
look around to see if there are any plugins for this but can’t seem to  
find any.

Anyone know if such a thing exists or if there are any good pointers  
as to how I might go about it? Doesn’t need to have user driven  
validation or rules, just simple data capture stuff that I can then  
drive an email from.

Thanks,

Steve

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**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/2 "2009-10-28T20:37:39Z")

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steve bell wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I need to add functionality to an intranet site where users can design  
> basic forms such as leave forms, change of details forms, request for  
> printing forms, etc via a web gui where they enter the label, select a  
> type, possible values (for tick and select boxes), etc. I’ve had a  
> look around to see if there are any plugins for this but can’t seem to  
> find any.

Are these user-designed forms supposed to work as Web forms, or are they  
just supposed to be printed out?

> Anyone know if such a thing exists or if there are any good pointers  
> as to how I might go about it? Doesn’t need to have user driven  
> validation or rules, just simple data capture stuff that I can then  
> drive an email from.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve  
> Best,  
> –  
> Marnen Laibow-Koser  
> [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/3 "2009-10-28T23:07:23Z")

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Hi Marnen,

They would be web forms. Plan is that the intranet administrator (who  
is non-techie) can define the form by specifying the fields and then  
the users get the form presented to them to fill in as a web form.  
When they have completed the form the details would be emailed for  
processing.

Steve

On Oct 28, 7:37 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/4 "2009-10-29T04:29:20Z")

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steve bell wrote:

> Hi Marnen,
> 
> They would be web forms. Plan is that the intranet administrator (who  
> is non-techie) can define the form by specifying the fields and then  
> the users get the form presented to them to fill in as a web form.  
> When they have completed the form the details would be emailed for  
> processing.

E-mailed? Srsly? At that point, one might almost punt to Google  
Spreadsheets’ form generator.

Or maybe a CMS…

> Steve
> 
> On Oct 28, 7:37�pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/5 "2009-10-29T13:37:59Z")

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steve bell wrote:

> Yup, email as the delivery as it fits with their current workflow.  
> However I’d still keep the data in the system in a table for audit  
> purposes. The rest of the intranet is a custom RoR app that I wrote,  
> so at this stage I’d like to keep the functionality there rather than  
> linking off, but I’ll have a look at google spreadsheets.

I do understand wanting to keep this in Rails. Does the editing  
interface have to be graphical, or can it be HTML-ish?

> Steve
> 
> On Oct 29, 3:29�am, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/6 "2009-10-29T09:37:45Z")

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Yup, email as the delivery as it fits with their current workflow.  
However I’d still keep the data in the system in a table for audit  
purposes. The rest of the intranet is a custom RoR app that I wrote,  
so at this stage I’d like to keep the functionality there rather than  
linking off, but I’ll have a look at google spreadsheets.

Steve

On Oct 29, 3:29 am, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@steve\_bell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/steve_bell)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-driven-form-creator/178074/7 "2009-10-30T08:27:31Z")

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It could be htmlish, as long as it would be something that a business  
type user could learn.

On Oct 29, 12:37 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-