Hey All,
I've been wanting to write this email for some time now and I'm finally
getting around to it on this rainy day. Over the winter we moved
CommunityCycles.org over to a Joomla http://www.joomla.org/set up.
Joomla is cool for many reasons but one of the most useful for us is an
inexpensive component called RSForm
http://www.rsjoomla.com/index.php/Buy-RSform-Form-Management-Component.html.
RSForm allows you to create custom web forms with minimal html/php/mysql knowledge although it's good to have a strong background in these technologies. I do have this background and have knocked out large complex forms in record time. I'm using these forms to collect all kinds of data. The result has streamlined a lot of administrative tasks.
RSForm functionality is easily explained. When a form is submitted an email is sent to email addresses of your choosing. This email can be in a custom html format. The data is also stored in an online database, this database can be downloaded as a csv file.
And one of the coolest things is I can share the forms with others. So if your collective wanted to use our volunteer form, or a part of it, you would need to have RSForm installed on your Joomla site. I can pass you the form files for you to upload and that's it. I've read in the support forums that there are some bugs with this but it seems to work for the most part. If you'd like to give this a try let me know.
Anyway have a look at the following, any feedback you may have is appreciated.
*Public Forms*
* Contact <http://communitycycles.org/contact.html> - The results of
this are sent to the core group
* Volunteer <http://communitycycles.org/get-involved/volunteer.html>
- I set this up about 2 months ago and it has been very effective
in finding and plugging in new volunteers.
* Bike Month Volunteer
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=23>
- This will be used to help plug in people to our bike month
activities.
* Thursday Youth EAB Sign Up
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=4>
- Sign up form for Thursday Youth EAB
* Lennard Zinn Workshop Sign Up
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=7>
- Sign up for Lennard Zinn Workshop
* Bikers Ed Workshop Sign Up
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=9>
- Sign up for bikers ed workshops
* Membership <http://communitycycles.org/donate.php>- This is an old
hand coded form from our old site. I haven't figured out how to
integrate PayPal yet.
*Data Entry*
* EAB Tracking
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=1>
- We use this to enter completed EABers. The EABer will get an
email with their photo and info.
* Bike/Parts Donor
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=5>
- This is how we input donations and the people who donated them.
*Program Tracking*
* EAB Follow up Questionnaire
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=21>
- We'll start using this in June and will track how EABers use
their bikes after the program.
*Bike Fleet Maintenance*
* City Bike Feet Maintenance
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=10>
- The results of this form go directly to our fleet maintenance guy
* UCAR Blue Bike Maintenance
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=13>
- The results of this form go directly to our fleet maintenance guy
*Online Sales*
* Craigs html generator
<http://www.communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=14>
- I created this form because we had various people posting to
Craigslist. The result was all kinds of various formatting and
information. When you fill out this form you get an email with
the html code to paste into a new Craigs posting. The form helps
streamline the posting process while maintaining a clean format.
I plan on creating two versions of this, one for detailed posts
and another for more general listings.