Developer forms overview

Because systems with complex data structures can become difficult to maintain, Insites provides developer tools that enable you to build and maintain forms with much less difficulty. In addition, while features like Databases and the Form Builder make creating and managing forms easier, you can write or modify code to configure your forms according to your web application's specific needs.

Two ways to build a form

Administrators can build a form without code in the instance admin's Form Builder, which saves each submission to a database table and sends notification emails. Developers define forms in code: a form file sets the fields, validation and what happens after a submission, and a page renders it. Both kinds save to the same database tables, so you can start in the admin and move to code when a form needs custom behavior.

Start with Using Forms for the basic concept, then see Form Configuration Options for every option. To control who may submit a form, attach an authorization policy; see Associating an Authorization Policy with a Form.