Category: zoho

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Zoho Creator Tutorial – Part 3 ( Design & Share Custom Forms)

What is Zoho Creator | The Basics | Design & Share Custom Forms
Be the real world, or the virtual world, have you ever wondered how prominent forms are? The very act of handing over a form translates into to some kind of “organised” activity. (How organised is it really… is a subject of debate). What is the first thing you do when you get connected to the internet ? … Of Course!, check the mail ( what a dumb question .. isn’t it ?). But hey !, wait there is much more between that. As soon as you connect to the internet, you open your browser ( IE / FF / Safari / Opera). Then you view your signing in page for the mail. Now STOP!. What do you see… A FORM that asks for your UserID and Pwd. It is only after this you get to reach your inbox. So you see, there is no escaping from Forms. If you intend to collect data , then you need an interface to collect them. Forms provide just this. So, gear up to design your custom form.

Designing the form using Zoho Creator :-
Remember :-

  1. Forms accept data & Views display the data
  2. Both above actions happen only in live mode.
  3. Designing Forms takes place in edit mode.



As soon as you login at zoho Creator, you will be greeted by your dashboard which lists all your applications.

Zoho Creator not only allows you to create your custom forms, but also reduces the work load by providing ready-to-use fields for specific data types.

Say, the 123Number field-type will only accept numbers. Any Text will be rejected by the system (without you having to write code to validate.)

Earlier, there was just one field NAME. Now lets customise the guest book form with some basic elements.

Feel free to explore the possibility of using other field types such as Radio – for Male / Female , ADD NOTES – to have a standard piece of text by way of explanation etc etc.

If you wish to edit the existing fields ( Change NAME –> To –> YOUR NAME )
Another EDIT EXERCISE: – Edit the Blog URL field & Remove the tick mark from “Link name required”.

We have experienced those moments of ” OMG! .. I Forgot to Save”. Not anymore. Coz, zoho creator does it for you without having to click on any “SAVE Button”. ( … actually… you wont find any save button).

Once you are satisfied with you form’s design, fields etc, go to the live mode using the ACCESS THIS APPLICATION link.

  1. Go the form in Live mode
  2. Add few data and submit the form
  3. Locate the view for this form ( don’t remember how, Read again )
  4. Confirm if all the data you have entered are seen

Now that you have designed the form & have tested it, it is time to test it in real time.

How to put Zoho creator form in Webpage / blog ?
Once you are in the live mode of the form, notice the More actions link at the top of the form & follow 1 & 2 as directed below

It is wise to share the forms using the url that is generated after Access form without login. Use the code and paste it in your blog.

You can use the HTML/Javascript element & paste code. If you want the form to appear right inside the post, then write a new post, and paste the code snippet in the EDIT HTML mode of the post.

Invite your friends to sign your guest book. See your form in action.
If you have any problem, drop me a word, I shall be glad to help.Your appreciation is my motivation Thanks in advance for linking to me at your blog.

What is Zoho Creator | The Basics | Design & Share Custom Forms

From Deepa’s Template Tips

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Zoho Creator Tutorial – Part 2 (The Basics)

What is Zoho Creator | The Basics | Design & Share Custom Forms

Welcome back ! I believe that by now, you would have your zoho creator login so as to proceed further. I will not be surprised if some of you have already started to explore its interface, get to know the workspace etc. Way to go !..

So, lets start from the beginning. As I have mentioned in my previous post, Zoho creator allows you to create forms & store the data obtained via these forms, and also do scores of other things. Before we start on those, it is essential to know the elements associated with zoho creator. This is get used to the terminologies. But before you start, open up Zoho Creator and login with your User ID and Pwd in another tab / window.

Applications :-
It is much easier to realate Zoho Creator Applications as Excel work books. Understand that you are allowed to create only 10 Applications (~workbooks~ notice the red bar on the top that says this) with free membership. However, with paid membership, you can have unlimited applications. From what I have seen, 10 applications are more than sufficient for individuals and small business owners.

Inorder to create an application, use the Create New Application link in your dashboard.

Lets start off by naming it as “My Personal Application”. As we progress with this zoho creator series, we will be using this application to add forms and do other stuff.

Zoho creator allows you to create 10 applications for free. Please lend me one, during the course of this zoho creaor series.

Forms :-
After creating the application , you will be automatically redirected to the My Guest book – form area where you can design your form. Although we will be seeing this in details in the upcoming posts, lets start of with a single field.

Do you notice the INSERT FIELDS in the left & Drag and Drop fields on the right. … So it would be appropriate to say here that You are in the EDIT MODE of the form.

Add a single line field , & give the Label Name as NAME

For the moment, lets have only one field . We will be adding more fields in the upcoming posts.

Live Mode :- (Run the form)

From here, things begin to get technical. There is no need to get perturbed, you will get used to it in course of time.Now, you have your first form ( with a single field NAME).It is time to use this form to gather date.

Use the ACCESS THIS APPLICATION link in the top to go into the LIVE MODE.This will take you to the LIVE MODE where data is entered into the form.

Go ahead, Enter a few names and click submit. AS soon as you Submit the form, you should notice a message that says “Data added successfully”.

Views :- Where does all the data go ?

Zoho creator uses “VIEWS” to strore the data collected via forms. Views are nothing but tables that are automatically populated with data is added to a form.

Every form by default has its view. The name is usually [FORM-NAME] & View. Just as in this case “My Guest book View”. The View displays the data only on Live Mode. In the upcoming posts, we will be learning more about how views behave in the edit mode.

Now, that you have located your form’s View, Go ahead and click it. You should be presented with something that looks like this


Lessons Learnt :-

  1. Create a new application & name it as “My Personal Application”.
  2. Create a new form & name it “My Guest book”.
  3. Add a single line field to above form and name it “NAME” — This happens in the edit mode of the form
  4. Use the ACESS THIS APPLICATION link to go into the LIVE MODE
  5. Add data into the form and click submit… “Data submitted successfully” confirms the submission
  6. Locate the view that is autogenerated for the form , It is named as “[ FORM NAME ] & View”
  7. See the data entered via form in a tabular format.

Things to Remember.

  1. Zoho allows 10 free applications
  2. One application can have any number of forms.
  3. Data can be entered only in Live mode
  4. Entered Data can be seen only Live mode …. Use VIEWs for seeing the data.
  5. You can also Add / edit / delete data from the views directly.

It might take a while for the information here to sink it. If you feel overwhelmed, take a break and come back again. I assure you, once you get the hang of things, it will be next to impossible to let go. Your time will be worth every second while you aclamatise yourself with zoho creator.

Feel free to share your thoughts, I shall be gald to respond.
Your appreciation is my motivation

What is Zoho Creator | The Basics | Design & Share Custom Forms

From Deepa’s Template Tips

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Zoho Creator Tutoral Series – Coming Up

I hope you remember my earlier post 5 months back, Zoho Creator :- Only intuition, no programming. (You couldn’t have missed it, coz I didn’t really post anything after that). As promised, I am here again with the intention having a zoho creator series for all those who are not afraid to try.

Not all are programming experts and not every one can say the difference between relative fields and relational databases I get confused more than i am credited for .. thats the way it is . So, this is for the common man, who can read write and understand English. You see.. Zoho creator is in english & I am blogging about it in english…Oh!.. btw, they have a Japanese version of the sitetoo.. but “iie – arigato gozaimus” .. I don’t speak anymore than this in Japanese.

The idea is to walk you through the process of building an application using zoho creator from scratch.

Walk with me.. let me know if I can be of assistance.

Zoho Creator – What is that ?

Before I answer this question, tell me how extensively do u use MS Excel?. The reason I ask is, a layman’s concept with zoho creator is somewhat based on based on this. Hmm.. lets see… the rows and columns reduce half the work load. The auto filter in excel allows you to sort / organise your data. Perhaps you are even familiar with using formulas ( basic math – to – advanced formulas). Lets say we have an excel sheet like this & call it Guestbook.

Date Name Email BlogUrl Comments
         
         

But, if you want to gather data using excel, then you would have mail it as an attachment ,OR share it as excel sheet with other users using some file sharing platform. This will work great, if you know who is going to use them. Plus, you have to be sure that the people who are using this excel are within your network and trustworthy… That is to say, the “data is private among trusted users ” & “there is no way to gather data outside this small network of friends”…

So, ….Are you with me so far ????..

Now, think about this. You have a Form & this form reflect the “structure” of the YOUR excel sheet.


This has all the elements that you want the user to add. Yet, none of them can see the actual data. Now, this is your “web form” that you have customised to suit your needs. So what happens next, You can either embed this form within your website As Shown above , or share the permalinks of the form via email. (There is more to sharing.. .lessons follow…)

What zoho creator does is to “allow you to create forms” using their WYSIWYG editor. (.. lessons follow..) And, this also allows you to view / edit the data collected via these forms at Zoho Creator. ( .. lessons follow…)

In short – Zoho creator allows you to build custom database application using WYSIWYG editor.But, inorder to start, you need to Signup with Zoho Creator. So go ahead, Register yourself and get a login, You may also signin wiht your Google Account.

Thats pretty much for the introduction,
See you soon with your login at zoho creator.
Your appreciation is my motivation

From Deepa’s Template Tips

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Zoho Creator :- Only intuition, no programming.

It has been a while since I posted anything here. I was waiting for something worthy enough that is usable and feasible. I must say, my wait did not go in vain. I came across Zoho Creator, and have been trying it out for the past 6 months before making my first post about it here. I proudly admit the fact that I have integrated Zoho into my actual working environment, which has taken the load of report maintenance off my shoulders. These days, I spend only 2 hrs a week to consolidate my report. I use the free version, but sure have the plan to switch to business version soon enough.

Zoho Creator is one of the many products in the Zoho Family. ( I shall be talking about each of them in upcoming posts). ZC allows you to create forms that can be embedded in website and blogs ( see below). The data collected via this form is stored within your Zoho-View section

The advantage of Zoho lies in the fact that

  1. There is no huge download or installation.. Because this is a WEB APPLICATION
  2. The Registration is free
  3. You need not have any programming knowledge
  4. The interface is exceptionally intuitive
  5. Drag – and – drop allows you to design custom forms
  6. Logical flow of events will guide you to do the scripting.
  7. Embed the form in your blog and collect data
  8. Various choices on how you wish to process the data collected ( HTML, Excel, JASON, AJAX, Pdf , ) for novices and advanced users alike.
  9. The feeds can be integrated into feed readers, HTML displayed wthin iframe,.. possibilities are immense.
  10. Applications can be shared with any number of users ( say you have created the application and want you friend to moderate the content… go ahead and share it)

Here is the catch :-

  1. Only 5 Applications allowed for free users
  2. Unlimited Application for premium users + Custom Logo integration.

What you see below is a Form that acts as my GuestBook. Feel Free to share your thoughts with me.

Application Name : – Personal ( This has abt 8 forms, one is shared with you here)
Form Name : – GuestBook.

All you have to do is, Enter the details and submit. Take a look at the HTML display of data collected using Zoho Form.

I shall tell you more about creating custom forms using Zoho in the coming days.


You can develop a simple form like Guest Book , which has minimum scripting ( auto date ), or , developing a complex form that allows you to generate and send email-verification code right from zoho form, which involves more complex scripting.

Bloggers have long loved interaction with their readers. After all, isn’t that why we enable comments? Here is something to take this level of interaction a step further. How about developing a custom application to cater to your needs?. Well, if you feel lack of programming knowledge, and the mind boggling software installation ( not to mention the price) is pinning you down, not anymore. Try Zoho Creator, I am sure you will eventually end up using it. So, how about hsaring what you have in mind… ? ?

Your appreciation is my motivation

From Deepa’s Template Tips

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