Form Creator for WordPress

WP Forms Creator – Beta Release Today!

Today we submitted our new WP Form Creator to WordPress for inclusion into the extensions directory and once approved you will be able to download the plugin as a beta application. This release includes all the foundation features we wanted to add in from the onset of the project so bloggers using our free plug-in can have a way to quickly, easily and effectively add in a fully XHTML compliant forms. Initially designed as a tool for clients of the UltimateIDX this plug-in will take all of the guess work out of adding compliant forms to your WordPress blog in a simple drag and drop style environment making it super easy to implement. From entry level bloggers to experienced professional designers, the new WP Form Creator makes form creation and design a snap.

Built with the same forethought and planning as our other free plug-ins, we always approach each of these projects with several important questions and a wide range of perspectives before we commit the development. In that regard, WP Form Creator solves problems. Experience had demonstrated that after looking at literally dozens and dozens of methods for including common forms such as a Competitive Market Analysis or even a basic contact form, were proving to be a challenge and confusing for novice bloggers. Our WP Form Creator does what no others currently do and that is add in truly easy to create forms and functionality to any blogger regardless of skill level and yet keep it fully XHTML Compliant.

What is an XHTML Compliant Form?

Site validation for compliance is more than just a buzzword or trendy way to bolster a coders character or ego (all though it may include such). Compliance standards help designers and developers demonstrate a level of competency and quality by adhering to a preset base line standard of rules for good coding. The XHTML standard as outlined by W3C states;

XML was conceived as a means of regaining the power and flexibility of SGML without most of its complexity. Although a restricted form of SGML, XML nonetheless preserves most of SGML’s power and richness, and yet still retains all of SGML’s commonly used features.

In essence, XHTML forms are built upon a foundation of structural and semantic tags suitable for authoring well formed documents that can be displayed with relative consistency for all modern browsers. A quick inventory of modern browsers would include all of those that adhere to the standards compliance with exception of Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7 and 8 as Microsoft browsers have never been “modern browsers”. To get an idea what XHTML markup for a form looks like, I’ve generated generated an example for your examination.

[html]
<form action="action.php" method="get" id="wpmcdemo">
<div class="row">
<label for="txt_Tryitout!Typethefieldnamesoutfirst,e.g.:">Try it out! Type the field names out first, e.g.:</label>
<input id="txt_Tryitout!Typethefieldnamesoutfirst,e.g.:" name="txt_Tryitout!Typethefieldnamesoutfirst,e.g.:" type="text" />
</div>
<div class="row">
<label for="txt_Firstname">First name</label>
<input id="txt_Firstname" name="txt_Firstname" type="text" />
</div>
<div class="row">
<label for="txt_Surname">Surname</label>
<input id="txt_Surname" name="txt_Surname" type="text" />
</div>
<div class="row">
<label for="txt_Town">Town</label>
<input id="txt_Town" name="txt_Town" type="text" />
</div>
<div class="row">
<label for="txt_State/Region">State/Region</label>
<input id="txt_State/Region" name="txt_State/Region" type="text" />
</div>
</form>
[/html]

Although the full release documentation is yet to be finished you are none the less more than welcome to post questions and issues with this release for assistance.