FormBuild was created to alleviate the tedious construction of back-end database interfaces.
FormBuild is an Tango Class File that builds data-bound HTML interfaces using a form definition that is stored in a database. It allows you to manage the functionality of your application through a web-based interface without having to write any code.
FormBuild has three functional modes:
- Form Mode
- Page Mode
- Grid Mode
Page Mode is a content generator that will allow you to generate HTML pages based on database content. You can map each field to a style and control the order in which the fields will appear. Regular text, internal links, external links and links to files are supported, as are the placement of images.
Grid Mode generates database content in grid format. It allows you to display fields as text or map fields to URLs. You can control the style of each column, map individual columns to sub-queries and wrap logic around how each cell is displayed, allowing you to do things like change the style of a cell based on its value.
Formbuild also has advanced features to help you build more powerful forms, without doing all the work:
- A color dialog pop-up. This can be an option for any text field
- A calendar pop-up, also for anytext field.
- A WYSIWYG HTML editor for Textarea fields.
- Automatic generation of javascript form validation.
Formbuild comes with two companion applications, FormEdit.taf, which allows you to edit your form definitions and styles. Admin.taf, which is a sample application container that uses FormBuild. It has its own login manager, and data-driven menu generator.
