Generic Forms on-the-fly?

[Selden McCabe]

I have an application where they want to create numerous forms (for example,
an expense reimbursement form, a book availability form, etc.). The idea is
someone would create a form for a user to fill out, and after it's filled
out, the user would click "submit" and the completed form (or at least the
user-supplied information) would be emailed to someone.

Of course, one approach is to just program each form in ASP.Net.

But I was wondering if there are any solutions to this problem which would
save time.

One idea I had was to create each form using MS Word, then store the word
document in the database. When someone goes to the web site and requests a
form, the word doc is pulled from the database, and displayed on the web
page. Then the user would fill in the fields, and click "Submit." The
filled-in Word document would then get emailed to the appropriate email
address.

(I have lots of experience with saving and retrieving Word documents from a
SQL Server database, so I feel comfortable with that aspect of it, but the
rest I'm not sure about...)

Is this feasible, or are there other generic solutions already out there?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

---Selden McCabe

 

[Marina]

Well, I think that really depends on what tools you have at your disposal.
How do you want this form to be designed? What are the options for the form?
Will it only have text fields? Multiple choice? Checkboxes?

I mean, you could roll everything yourself, have the designer fill out a
page where they can add fields. Maybe for each field they get a choice if
it's a text field or a checkbox, and the label for the field. You store all
that in a database, then retrieve it and create appropriate controls
dynamically.

I think what you posted is kind of open ended, since all this can vary
greately depending on your specific requirements and restrictions.

 

[MWells]

/agree

There are lots of tools & tech that mimic the capabilities of traditional
paper forms; you'll need to narrow your requirements a bit before you make a
final decision.

Some possibilities;

+ Exchange Server
+ use Exchange Server forms. Easy to create. Easy to email.
+ Custom web app
+ ASP.NET
+ Individual custom forms, each with separate logic.
Stores and emails content
+ General forms concept, driven by an XML forms spec you
define
+ General forms concept, driven by a plain HTML forms spec
you define (i.e. the form is defined in HTML, but your .NET app loads it and
gives it intelligence)
+ General forms concept, driven by DOC files. Fields are
parsed and an email constructed on send
+ General forms concept, driven by XLS files.
+ Third-party
+ Adobe Acrobat forms
+ other
+ Other
+ Microsoft InfoPath

 

[Jeremy Chapman]

Look into InfoPath. it might do what you need.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Fetching a Word document from a database is easy. However, using a Word form
in an HTML page is virtually impossible, and definitely impractical. As for
saving time, forget it.

Is this feasible, or are there other generic solutions already out there?

Generic solutions for what? Building WebForms? No. By now you could have
built 2 or 3 yourself!

Assuming that these forms are all handled in much the same way, you could
help yourself out by building a base business class that handles forms the
way you want to, and deriving inherited calsses from that for use with
individual forms.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Neither a follower nor a lender be.

 

[Guest]

Hi Selden,

I have an application where they want to create numerous forms (for example,

I believe this article I found might help. It's called "Creating Dynamic
Data Entry User Interfaces".

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/dynamicui.asp