Forms 1.0.0 Brings a Modern Form Builder to Geeklog

Most websites need forms sooner or later.

A contact form. A quote request. Event registration. Feedback. Support requests. Surveys. Consent forms.

Until now, Geeklog site owners often had to rely on older solutions, custom code or external services for these common needs.

The first stable release of Forms 1.0.0 changes that.

Forms is an independent form builder designed specifically for Geeklog. It provides a simple way to create, publish and manage forms directly from the Geeklog administration interface.

For many sites, this is likely to become one of those plugins that simply makes sense to install.

Build forms directly inside Geeklog

Forms lets administrators create and manage multiple forms without depending on nexForm, nexPro or an external form service.

A form can contain common field types such as:

• text fields
• email addresses
• text areas
• select lists
• radio buttons
• checkboxes
• multiple checkboxes
• dates and times
• numbers
• phone numbers
• URLs
• consent fields
• headings
• informational text

Fields can be reordered and configured with labels, placeholders, help text and required status.

This makes Forms suitable for everything from a simple contact page to more structured registration or request forms.

Ready-to-use templates

Starting from a blank form is not always necessary.

Forms 1.0.0 includes starter templates for common use cases:

• Contact
• Feedback
• Event registration
• Support request
• Quote request

These templates provide a useful starting point and can then be adapted to the needs of each site.

Publish forms where you need them

Forms does not create an unnecessary public catalogue of every form on the site.

Instead, each active form can be accessed through its own URL or embedded into existing Geeklog content with the autotag:

[forms:slug]

This makes it easy to place a form inside an article, Static Page or other content supporting Geeklog autotags.

A site can therefore integrate forms naturally into its existing structure instead of forcing visitors through a separate form directory.

Store submissions or receive them by email

Each form can be configured to store submissions in the Geeklog database.

Administrators can then review submitted data from the Forms administration interface and export stored submissions as CSV when needed.

Email notifications are also supported.

This allows Forms to cover both common workflows:

• receive a notification immediately;
• retain submissions for later processing or export.

Database storage can also be disabled when it is not required.

Security is built into the workflow

Public forms inevitably attract automated submissions, so Forms 1.0.0 includes several protections.

Submissions use Geeklog CSRF protection, along with a honeypot field and minimum-fill-time checks.

When Spam-X is available, Forms can also integrate with it.

Anonymous submissions can be allowed or disabled independently for each form.

The plugin also keeps sensitive submission information separate from its interoperability services. Stored field values, recipients, IP hashes and user-agent information are not exposed through the public capability interface.

Designed for the new Geeklog ecosystem

Forms 1.0.0 is not only a form builder.

It has also been designed to participate in the growing interoperability layer between modern Geeklog plugins.

The plugin exposes a standard capability declaration and provides these services:

• forms.list
• forms.schema.read
• dashboard.summary

This means other Geeklog components can discover what Forms provides without accessing its private database tables directly.

Agent and the future Hub can discover active forms and their schemas, while compatible administration interfaces such as Eclipse can retrieve Forms dashboard information through the shared service contract.

This approach keeps each plugin responsible for its own data while making the overall Geeklog ecosystem easier to integrate and extend.

A useful building block for many sites

Forms fills a very practical gap.

Almost every type of website eventually needs to collect information from visitors, members or customers.

A community site may need registration or feedback forms.

A business website may need quote requests.

An association may need event registrations.

A support-oriented site may need structured requests.

A content site may simply need a better contact form.

Instead of creating a separate solution for each use case, Forms provides one reusable foundation directly inside Geeklog.

That is what makes this first stable release particularly useful: it is not a niche feature. Forms can become a basic building block for a large number of Geeklog installations.

Compatibility

Forms 1.0.0 supports the current transition range used by many existing Geeklog sites:

• Geeklog 2.1.1 through 2.2.2
• PHP 5.6 through PHP 8.x
• MySQL / mysqli

Existing 0.x installations can use Geeklog's normal plugin upgrade mechanism.

Download Forms 1.0.0

Forms 1.0.0 is available from the Geeklog-Plugins repository on GitHub:

https://github.com/Geeklog-Plugins/forms

Download the installable archive, install it from Geeklog's Plugins administration page, then open Command and Control > Forms to create your first form.

For many Geeklog sites, Forms 1.0.0 should quickly become one of the essential plugins to have installed.