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FormLoom Jr. SmartStack Manual

Introduction

The Yabdab FormLoom Jr SmartStack allows RapidWeaver users to add a simple, self contained mail-to form to a Stacks v1.3+ page ( http://www.yourhead.com ). Site visitors can submit a form on the published page. Form contents will be sent via email to the email address specified in the stack setup. The FormLoom Jr SmartStack, while not as fully featured as our FormLoom plugin, does provide for simple form usage combined with the flexible layout of Stacks.

FormLoom Jr SmartStack requires a web host with PHP5+. (MobileMe hosting is not supported)

Installation

When you purchase the FormLoom Jr SmartStack, you'll receive a file named: YDSSFormLoomJR.stack.zip

Double click on this file to uncompress the stack. The uncompressed file will be named YDSSFormLoomJR.stack

Make sure RapidWeaver is NOT open, then double click YDSSFormLoomJR.stack. This will automatically install the stack to /user/Library/Application Support/RapidWeaver/Stacks

Installation is now complete and you can launch RapidWeaver.

Setup

It's important to understand the overall process that the FormLoom Jr SmartStack uses to store and publish comments. This brief overview walks you through the entire process.

You can add a FormLoom Jr SmartStack to any Stacks page. It's important to note that the FormLoom Jr SmartStack must be PUBLISHED to function. You will not see any form fields in RapidWeaver Preview mode. It's also important to make sure that the stacks page containing the SmartStack is named with the proper .php extension. Most hosts will not execute php code on a page unless it's named properly. To modify this, go to the Stacks page's Page Inspector and look at the General settings. You'll see the page named something like index.html or page0.html. Remove the .html extension and replace with .php. Index.php or Page0.php, for example, are fine.

To configure the SmartStack, select the stack in Preview mode and select the i icon on the left hand side of the selected stack. This will bring up the Stacks inspector.

The top of the FormLoom Jr SmartStack inspector offers several options to configure the look of your published comments.

The bottom of the FormLoom Jr SmartStack inspector is where you'll need to provide the stack some information about how the form will function.

Let's start by looking at the structure of ALL FormLoom Jr based stacks. FormLoom Jr forms ALL have the same fields. You can change the NAME of the fields, but not what they are, or what they do.

FormLoom Jr Fields:
Name: text field
Email: text field (with email address format validation)
Subject: text field
Message textarea field

These are the four basic fields you have to work with. You can not add or remove fields. Fields will always span to 98% of the Stack's total width. Want narrower fields? Make the stack less wide, or use columns.

Here's how to setup your form in the Stacks Inspector

  • To Name: The name of the person or entity the form will be sent TO
  • To Email: The full email address of the person or entity the form will be sent TO
  • From Name: The name you wish to appear in the FROM field of your email client, for example, Web Form Submission might help you quickly recognize mail generated via your form.
  • From Email: The email address that will be populated as the FROM email address. This should be an email address provided by the same host where the page is published. Many hosts do not allow mail to appear to be FROM an address or domain they do not host. It should be noted that the email address that the user provides on the form will be used as the REPLY-TO address on the form mail.
  • Name Label: The text that will appear next to the Name text field on the form.
  • Email Label: The text that will appear next to the Email text field on the form.
  • Subject Label: The text that will appear next to the Subject text field on the form.
  • Message Label: The text that will appear next to the Message text area field on the form.
  • Submit Label: The text that will appear on the form submission button.
  • Success: The confirmation text message that will be displayed IN the stack when the form is successfully sent.

Note: Do not use any html, javascript or css in your custom text labels. Use only plain text. Once you've provided all the required information, you're ready to publish your page.