Announcing SmartForms for Liferay Portal

[Philippa Thomson，修改在11 年前。]

Hi everyone,

We at MyOffice24x7 are pleased to announce the first public release of SmartForms, our flagship electronic forms product.

SmartForms allows your organisation to effectively collect and process a variety of structured information from customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Its uses include surveys, collection of feedback, applications of any kind, as well as a wide range of business-specific product and service flows.

Today we are announcing the availability of the SmartForms Portlet for Liferay, allowing your organisation to start using SmartForms on its portal(s).
From our experience of delivering Liferay-based solutions,the ability of a portal to handle online surveys has always been an important feature.

The SmartForms portlet boasts a comprehensive feature set, including:
• Form authoring using a well-documented XML format
• Extremely powerful and flexible form engine, resulting in sophisticated field validation and dependency capabilities
• Generation of CSV,PDF, XML and HTML reports for submitted data
• Post-submission workflows, including highly customisable delivery of emails and integration with external systems
• Multiple levels of security to match any business requirement

You can start evaluating the SmartForms Portlet through our SmartForms Cloud service, free of charge, by downloading and deploying the portlet to
your organization’s portal. No registration required.

We’ve been working with and improving SmartForms a great deal over the past 3-4 years, with diverse uses including:
• Licensing application forms by government organisations, including probably the world’s longest application form, containing 1400+ fields (resulting in a 40+ page PDF documents)
• Collation and distribution of board meeting agendas
• Processing of event bookings and seminar registrations
• Employee training courses
• Online job applications
• Community consultation for RIA (regulatory impact analysis)
• Integration with user registration and billing providers
• … and we will be releasing new forms and use cases regularly

I’m interested to see what suggestions or questions you guys have about the portlet, so let me know by posting back or via private message.

Thanks,
Philippa and the SmartForms Team

[sheela mk，修改在11 年前。]

hai..No server..found..I'm not able to download..anything..from ur post link..

[Praveen P，修改在11 年前。]

Hi philippa please check the links you have provided. those are containing little bit incorrect, somehow i got war file thanks alot

[Philippa Thomson，修改在11 年前。]

Thanks for letting me know, all fixed now.

[Praveen P，修改在11 年前。]

great

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

… and we will be releasing new forms and use cases regularly

and here we go...

Hi
We’ve written a how-to on setting up a Product Survey on Liferay Portal, using the form type that comes with the SmartForms Portlet (find it also on our github).

You can find the how-to here: http://docs.smartforms.myoffice24x7.com/tutorial_use-case_product-survey.html

It covers the topics of:
* Form design/customisation
* Limiting your audience to portal users or the general public
* Collecting your survey submissions for export into other software
* Sending emails to the survey owner and respondents

This product survey is suitable for gathering important feedback for a fairly wide variety of products, and is very easy to customise to any specific needs.

You can test out the Product Survey in this how-to, on your portal, for free, no registration required. Just download the portlet war file from the SmartForms website (http://www.myoffice24x7.com/web/smartforms/downloads) and deploy.

Any questions or suggestions just let me know,

Victor

[Zeeshan Khan，修改在11 年前。]

Hi Victor !!

will it work on LR 6.0.6.....??? I tried deploying the war in Deploy folder, in the console it gives message :


com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.auto.AutoDeployException: smartform-runtime-portlet.war does not support this version of Liferay
at com.liferay.portal.tools.deploy.BaseDeployer.deployFile(BaseDeployer.java:690)
at com.liferay.portal.tools.deploy.BaseDeployer.deploy(BaseDeployer.java:454)
at com.liferay.portal.deploy.auto.PortletAutoDeployer.autoDeploy(PortletAutoDeployer.java:92)
at com.liferay.portal.deploy.auto.PortletAutoDeployListener.deploy(PortletAutoDeployListener.java:78)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.auto.AutoDeployDir.processFile(AutoDeployDir.java:180)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.auto.AutoDeployDir.scanDirectory(AutoDeployDir.java:221)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.auto.AutoDeployScanner.run(AutoDeployScanner.java:49)

I am using LR 6.0.6 bundled with Tomcat.

thanks !!

Victor Zorin:

… and we will be releasing new forms and use cases regularly

and here we go...

Hi
We’ve written a how-to on setting up a Product Survey on Liferay Portal, using the form type that comes with the SmartForms Portlet (find it also on our github).

You can find the how-to here: http://docs.smartforms.myoffice24x7.com/tutorial_use-case_product-survey.html

It covers the topics of:
* Form design/customisation
* Limiting your audience to portal users or the general public
* Collecting your survey submissions for export into other software
* Sending emails to the survey owner and respondents

This product survey is suitable for gathering important feedback for a fairly wide variety of products, and is very easy to customise to any specific needs.

You can test out the Product Survey in this how-to, on your portal, for free, no registration required. Just download the portlet war file from the SmartForms website (http://www.myoffice24x7.com/web/smartforms/downloads) and deploy.

Any questions or suggestions just let me know,

Victor

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

will it work on LR 6.0.6.....???

It works on 5.2.3, it is just the formal testing platform for cloud-connected portlets is set for 6.1.0. Coverage for certain previous versions of Liferay will be extended when a sufficient number of go-live requests is received.

In the meantime, to make SmartForm portlet working for your Liferay version, do the following:
This POST was edited again: Instructions of modifying liferay-plugin-package.xml are back, even if Liferay API calls have changed between 6.0.6 and 6.1, an updated version of Portlet (Release 218) will address this. The only drawback in this case is a loss of user form session parameter "portal.company.virtual-host".
Therefore if you need portlet for Liferay version below 6.1.0 for live use, please request it.

Version adjustment Instructions are below:
1). Open smartform-runtime-portlet.war archive, using any archive viewer, e.g. 7-Zip;
2). Proceed to WEB-INF directory and open file 'liferay-plugin-package.xml' for editing;
3). Change line <liferay-version>6.1+</liferay-version> to <liferay-version>6.0.6</liferay-version>;
4). Make sure that changes are saved into the archive, if using 7-Zip, you should get a prompt for this;
5). Deploy your portlet.

[Zeeshan Khan，修改在11 年前。]

thnaks very much Victor......I will try this and let u know......

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Hi,

We've published another how-to use case for accepting Job Applications on your Liferay Portal.

You can find the how-to here and the job application package on github.

This how-to covers the new topics of:
* Generating PDFs based on form submission contents
* Sending emails, attaching pdf transformations and attachments

This how-to will show you how to achieve the following interaction flow on your Liferay installation:


I'll add this form to the SmartForms test accounts in a little while, so you can try it out on your portal. Just download the portlet war file from the SmartForms website (http://www.myoffice24x7.com/web/smartforms/downloads) and deploy.

Thanks,
Victor

[Zeeshan Khan，修改在11 年前。]

Hi Victor !

I have the done changes in xml file after unzipping war from 6.1+ to 6.0.6. Its deployed successfully but it gives error after clicking Start in the portlet --->> ERROR [StartSessionAction:?] Unexpected throwable, com.liferay.portal.model.Company.getVirtualHostname()Ljava/lang/String;


My virtual host has beet set to localhost only...please suggest some solution.

Thanks !!

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Checked...
Now I understand why portlet version was locked specifically to 6.1.0, Liferay API methods which portlet uses have changed their signatures between 6.0.6 and 6.1.0.
I have also edited my post above (the one which talks about .war file modifications). On Monday I will ask to extend Product Wizard to include requests for private portlet downloads for versions below 6.1.0.

[Zeeshan Khan，修改在11 年前。]

thanx very much Victor.......will try this and let u know...

Victor Zorin:

Checked...
Now I understand why portlet version was locked specifically to 6.1.0, Liferay API methods which portlet uses have changed their signatures between 6.0.6 and 6.1.0.
I have also edited my post above (the one which talks about .war file modifications). On Monday I will ask to extend Product Wizard to include requests for private portlet downloads for versions below 6.1.0.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Portlet has been updated to cater for 6.0.6 for test users, you can go to downloads, get updated portlet (should show release 218+ in Preferences/About tab), modify liferay-plugin-package.xml as per instructions explained in the previous post.

Important Note: we have noticed that a number of test users go for default datacentre only, which is US East. If you are in Far East of Russia, China, Malasysia, Hong Kong, etc you really should be using Asia-Pacific center. Spanish accounts shall not be going to US East either, use Europe instead. Instructions on re-connection to a datacentre are on downloads page.

Portlet is designed in a such way that satisfactory end-user performance is achieved when Turn-Around Time is <= 200ms, use Portlet Preferences / Connection / Connection Test to get this turn-around reading. Current datacentre name is shown under Portlet Preferences / Connection / Connection Settings / Cloud > Datacentre Name.

[Tom Thomas，修改在11 年前。]

I am also running the Liferay 6.0.6 Tomcat bundle.
The download page only indicate that versions of SmartForm are available for Liferay 6.1 GA1&2.

I deployed the exploded war file to the tomcat webapps folder and changed the liferay-plugin-package.xml to specify Liferay 6.0.6 -
I get the following error when starting Liferay:

INFO: Deploying web application directory SmartForm
15:27:11,596 ERROR [HotDeployUtil:112] com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.HotDeployException: Error registering plugins for null
com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.HotDeployException: Error registering plugins for null

Thanks,

Tom

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Hi Tom
We will make portlet release for 6.0.6 available for direct downloading and as such to avoid manual modifications. In the meantime, I have been told that the licence is being prepared for you and you are also able to submit detailed questions via the priority support line.

Another good item to report, the development of a Visual Editor has commenced this week, so once it is released, for form authoring users would not require XML skills any more.

Regards, Victor

EDITED (2016-May-24): Reference implementations are now available at Samples site of FifthOcean Technologies.

[Tom Thomas，修改在11 年前。]

Thanks, Victor.

I assume I'll be contacted by email - I really want to moving forward with this.

Tom

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Yes, you are already in communication.
Issuing of a licence is practically an immediate process, however we found that most of confusion comes from Virtual Host definition. We have updated the page related to it, so it is hopefully clearer now where to fetch it from, this is the link.
The preference is to define value for Virtual Host in a such way that it matches your target production domain name, however while in testing the access to the portal can be done under any name, including localhost.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Portlet has been re-released with backward support for Liferay 6.0.6, so no manual configuration of deployment file is required any more. If any specific deployment problems please contact directly via support line.
Next upcoming release will contain grid views of submitted records and demonstration facilities for accessing internal data of Liferay portal from within the smartform.
If you need it earlier and running an in-house version you can get it now. Cloud-based ETA is September 30.

[Tom Thomas，修改在11 年前。]

Victor,

The deployment completed and I was able to initialize the portlet for the 6.0.6 tomcat bundle.
I started going through the tutorial and ran into several issues with lack of functionality -
for starters I was unable to create a new form. I entered a name for the folder but there did not seem
to be a way to actually create it.

I noticed the following error message at the bottom of the screen:

"The account used by this portlet does not have all privileges. Some functionality may not be available."

Is this a licensing problem? - I installed the licence.xml file in the file system and set the env varialbe as instructed in the setenv.bat file.

Thanks,

Tom

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Hi Tom
I am not attending this forum every day, so you better use the support email, there you will have a dedicated person and a faster turnaround.
The message you have looks like an indication of some licensing issues, please use support line, they will resolve it quickly.

Other up-to-date news:

1). full backward support for Liferay v.5.* will be available soon, as a number of (larger size) organisations have it running in production, especially in other industry-specific commercial variants of Liferay. And so we've been asked for it;

2). White Paper "Moving Away From Paper Forms ..." is to be released soon. You can register to receive it automatically. It is a 15-20+ pages document that outlines strategies and solutions for enabling electronic submissions using Liferay portal. This paper is based on our 5+ years of experience in this field, so we hope it is going to be helpful to organisations in making a decision of which online platform to choose and how to organize business processes around it.

The whitepaper should also be helpful to Liferay consultants. Many specialists are probably not aware that for example in Australia, an average local government organisation (called Local Government Council) has around 60 application documents on their website. Most of them are PDF and Word documents. Australia (a small country) has about 675 councils. The same environment is in every other country, including US. Go Liferay!

We will also be at San Francisco symposium, if attending, feel free to ask any questions.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

White paper "Moving Away from Paper Forms" has been published today, this is the download link.
If you attend San Francisco symposium, there will be a related 5 minute lightning talk, "Using Liferay to build online environments for regulatory organizations". Feel free to join the conversation then (and drinks on Sunday)

SmartForms Visual Editor is up for release at the end of October.

And do not forget to complete your '2012 Liferay Community Survey' by the end of this month as James will shut it down on October 23.

[Philippa Thomson，修改在11 年前。]

Hi all
We are looking for CE implementation partners in the US - if you are a company that specializes in Liferay Portal Community Edition (CE) implementations we would like to hear from you, as we need local support.
You can also contact us if you are located in a different region.
Please contact me directly via the forum or through our Contact Us page.
Thanks!

[Philippa Thomson，修改在11 年前。]

New release of SmartForms Platform for in-house licence holders is available now. This release accommodates:
- enhancements in templating,
- adding backward compatibility with Liferay versions prior to V6.1;
- tighter integration with Liferay environment, with over 30 user, organisation and portal attributes made available for access from within the smartform;
- grid-based views for access to submitted data with search ability;
- beta-release of online Visual Editor.

General information about SmartForms is available here

Using SmartForms in Liferay Portal cuts at least 90% of software development costs and even more during the maintenance phase.

SmartForms allow for an implementation of sophisticated (and simple) online data entry applications at a fraction of cost. And as SmartForms are already in 4th year of development, there is no single custom software development project that can afford the delivery of similar capabilities.

SmartForms are in use by business and government, with single SmartForms installation covering an unlimited range of online business solutions for business stakeholders, from execution of surveys, service/product wizards, quote processing to high security multi-page dynamic application forms.

Small and medium size Liferay portals can have access to fully-featured SmartForms using cloud datacentre in their geographical region. The cost is $2.50/month and there is no minimum time for service use.

SmartForms Visual Editor is due for public release this November.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

SmartForms have moved to a next stage - production of complex interactive solutions as modules for horizontal and vertical markets.

One of the first sample horizontal implementations is an assembly of an Electronic Tendering facility. Common information about it is available at Premade Solutons link.

Implementation Guidelines (V1.0) can be downloaded directly using this link.
Return on Investment sample calculations will also be available for Liferay consultants, e.g. here.

Happy to report, that in this case, no custom software development was required.

eTendering information flow contains components existing in every service and/or product - based model, so the implementation approach can be used for any similar online business environment.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Finally, a beta version of Visual Designer for SmartForms is released!

This new component brings Liferay portal as close to business users as it could be, with cuttng the custom software development costs down to 0%.

Using SmartForms Visual Designer business owners will be able create custom online interactive services themselves within minutes and hours instead of weeks and months.

Other useful features of this application include:
- no need of XML knowledge any more;
- tight integration with Liferay Portal data, (See Component > Add Children > Portal Data);
- ablity to configure template libraries / palletes that may include unlimited number of business-specific components and groups of those components;
- dynamic management of states and validation rules.

Direct lnk to Job Application Form view in SmartForms Designer is here.

SmartForms portlet with Visual Designer will soon be available in IntranetPlus Portal bundle, which is specifically designed for Small and Medium enterprises and offers
significant discounts for in-built commercial applications.

Edited: LinkedIn Announcement.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Another off-the-shelf business component has been made available for SmartForms users -
Liferay portal is now capable of providing fully automated Employee Appraisal Processes (part of Human Resource Management Module).

Initial information about this component is made available here.

You can also have a look at how Appraisal Draft Form (to be completed by an employee) is composed, open Visual Designer session. There you can see :
- how form's data can be populated from another (historical, in this case) form (e.g. see 'objective.1' field);
- how choice-based fields can be populated from external enterprise systems using webservice connectors (e.g. see 'line.id' field);
- how form's data is populated with Liferay portal data, default and run-time values. (see 'employee.fullname' field)
- other enterprise-integrated features: validation, dynamic state management, etc

Setup of similar modules now takes about 2-3 days.

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Hello again everyone,

I've added another use case to our library, Event Registration.

It allows:

• Registration of multiple registrants for events at various locations
• Generation and e-mailing of an e-ticket along with an event brochure
• Notification to the event organiser of the new registrants

You can find a demo, the use case/tutorial and the github download on our premade solutions page (along with our other releases).

In other news, we will be shortly releasing a change to the portlet to bring compatibility with 6.1 GA2.

Victor

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

SmartForm portlet client has been upgraded to 6.1.0 GA2. I am quite suprised to hear that there was a need to do some software upgrade. It looks like that from GA1 to GA2 treatment of whitespaces in portlet:param within portlet:rederURL and portlet:actionURL tags has changed. Do not use a default theme for Portlet administration/preferences, it is too narrow, only 700px, switch over to Classic.
Just because we had to do a new release, a couple of features have also been made available in the cloud version of the portlet:

1). Templating is on. This feature is of extreme importance for organisations that:
- have a suite of online forms, and
- have to maintain consistency of forms' structure,
- have to maintain consistency of wording (especially legal/regulatory information),
- have common sections that can be re-used, etc

2). Import/Export is on. This enables Liferay Portal owners to load and enable new business modules within minutes. Also, if you are a Liferay consultant and need to do an impressive presentation to a new client, e.g. a financial services organisation, you just load business-specific module(s) for such demonstration, e.g. Services & Products Wizard and/or Customer Questionnaire/Information Sheet and/or Insurance Quote and/or Insurance Claim and/or Employee Training, etc, then go for a meeting and win.
No more expensive, painful and never-ending software development, while having significant increase of engagement opportunities for Liferay professionals.

What else in the pipeline today:
- we have about 180 various business modules/forms to be made available for Liferay community, and it will take some time...;
- next week, Insurance Quote module is to be published;
- making little blog 'Your Liferay Portal vs Survey Monkey';
- blog 'How to transfer your hardcopy documents to Liferay eforms', a detailed HOWTO of making 5-7 electronic forms at once using templating features. Examples are made specific to local government organisations;
- Liferay Community Survey is to be finalised and will hopefully be released this month. If you have additonal questions to add, please use this thread: What Motivates our Community?

Have a good weekend.

[Philippa Thomson，修改在11 年前。]

Hi,

We are looking for the Liferay Community's feedback on SmartForms.

We're giving away some 3 month, unlimited use SmartForms licences, in exchange for your commitment to provide some feedback.

Freely evaluate the portlet (for how long is up to you), and then just complete a 5-10 minute survey once you are ready - nothing more.

If you are up for this, let me know by messaging me here or contact me using this online form, and I'll organise a licence for you.

Philippa

[Victor Zorin，修改在11 年前。]

Hi,

We have added Health Insurance Quote application type to our public library of premade solutions, which is a way for insurance providers or brokers to help customers evaluate their policy options (and generate a sales opportunity), through gathering preliminary information and commencing communication.

It's also a technical demo of how to show or hide large sections, in a column-type layout.

It works approximately like so:



You can find a description of the use case here, a live demo here, and the form type itself on github.