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tableforms is free software (GNU Affero GPL v3)
Currently tableforms does not have a release and so it's
only good for development on a GNU/Linux system. To get
started developing/testing/playing run the file './quickstart'.
See file INSTALL for build and installation instructions.
What is this?:
tableforms is a software package that contains mostly HTML,
PHP, javaScript, and CSS files; and some bash scripts and GNU
make files.
tableforms is a mini content management system (CMS)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system]
that manages HTML form web page files using a http client
front end. tableforms does not require another CMS though
it may be integrated with another CMS, like WordPress
[http://www.wordpress.org/].
tableforms provides a some-what generic WYSIWYG (What You See
Is What You Get) HTML form editor and HTML form server. A web
server program, like Apach httpd [http://httpd.apache.org/], does
the heavy lifting. tableforms provides client-side javaScript
that creates and edits HTML web form pages, and server-side
PHP code that serves and receives the HTML form submissions
and tabulates them for downloading in different file formats,
like CVS and HTML.
Scope of use:
tableforms is intended to provide much more generic
web forms service then something like Active.com
[http://www.active.com/] and less generic than what
you get when you write your own HTML with a text editor.
tableforms is not for everyone, its' design is a trade-off
between range of use and ease of use.
tableforms does not provide authentication. You can use
it with whatever authentication method that you choose.
tableforms web forms have a fixed flat table layout.
It's clear to us that forms with inputs that zig-zag all
over the page is not user friendly. tableforms only makes
linear (straight line) forms.
The package name:
The package name tableforms is describes the how the forms are
built using the HTML <table> element. Most people think that
HTML tables should always be built with <div> and not <table>, so
we feel that the package name tableforms will tend to be unique.
We try to justify the use of <table> over <div> below.
Ports:
GNU/Linux systems
First developed on the Ubuntu 12.04 system.
Dependencies in brief:
PHP, HTTP web server, GNU make, and YUI compressor.
Run-time dependencies:
1. PHP:
tableforms uses PHP [http://www.php.net/] to do http
server-side processing.
2. Apache httpd or other PHP friendly http server:
The project started by using the Apache web server. Other
web servers may work. There are other free web servers
that are much more efficient than Apache.
Installing and build dependencies:
tableforms does some install-time server-side file compiling in
order to reduce server resource utilization at http request-time,
by pre-generating and compressing static web pages. To do
this it uses the local PHP binary, bash scripts, and make files.
In addition to the above run dependencies:
1. GNU make:
We use GNU make files to build static web page files
that are located on the web server (server-side files).
GNU make comes on most all GNU/Linux distributions.
[http://www.gnu.org/software/make/] GNU make comes
installed on most GNU/Linux systems.
2. YUI Compressor:
Yahoo's javaScript and CSS compressor
[http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/compressor/]. It is
distributed as a binary package for most GNU/Linux
distributions.
3. PHP program:
The PHP binary program is used to make static HTML
at build time, before installing.
Development tools:
1. HTML tidy:
Use HTML tidy to check HTML files.
tableforms - manages web forms from your browser
Copyright (C) 2012 Lance Arsenault
This file is part of tableforms.
tableforms is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.
tableforms is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with this package. If not, see
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
