I am enjoying the new form builder a lot, but I have a bit of a problem. I am working on a Real Estate project and the client wants a "More Info" contact form on every single property page. A requirement of this form is that it actually identifies which property the customer is interested in. Now, there are over 70 properties and I can't make 70 different versions of the form with a hidden field with the different reference numbers. Well, I could, but obviously it would drive me mental.

Now, each property page is strictly htm, none of this php witchcraft, and the url is like www.hello.com/property/1001.html, where the page file name is the property reference number. The page name also includes the reference number. The web form builder currently magically auto-inserts the sender's IP address and date/time for every form that is completed.. Would it be possible for web form builder to also magically insert the web page name or url of the page it was sent from? This would resolve my little problem.

If it is not possible, does anyone have a cunning idea to get me round this problem?

Many thanks in advance, Neal

Build the form and add all the properties to a drop down box to let the user identify the property.
What if the user is interested in more then one property?

Hello Eric and thanks for the suggestion.

I had thought about that but decided that 1) it could be a bit awkward and tricky to choose from a 70 item list if you are doing it on a mobile device (they say it's the future you know - lol!) and 2) you just know that some people are gonna click on the wrong property by accident.

I had already discussed the "what if the customer is interested in more than property" scenario, and he was quite insistent that he wanted it done this way and the customer would have to submit multiple forms. And you know what they say, the customer is always right, hmmm.

Thanks for taking the time, any other ideas? Regards, Neal

I wonder if some javascript referrer or php referer could be applied.

The capability to send the URL of the page with the form in the email results from the form is an important feature I also need. Has anyone found a solution for this ?

Well, on Unix servers, you can invoke the current page's URL thusly:



However, it requires that the server have SSI (server side includes) enabled. It's easy enough to test that; just include the code in a sentence like

This is something I'll be wanting to accomplish in the future as well, with potentially several hundred different referring URL's on forms. I don't think CoffeeCup has any plans to include this function in the form builder, so any workaround suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Also, Paul H., could you elaborate on implementing the method you suggested for those of us who are novice coders, like myself?

Thanks,
Richard

Hi Paul

Sounds interesting, but is it something a relative coding novice like me could do? I would be very interested to try it if it's not too complicated.
Sheryl and RK, if you find any other solutions, please let me know!

Regards, Neal

As I see it if you are talking 70 plus properties. Each would need to be entered in a database with it's pictures, descriptions, location, price etc. You would only need one form but some php to do the heavy lifting.

Before you try going it alone consider checking what other real estate companies do. I have looked at some and think it a bit beyond what can be achieved with WFB. Think! the properties would be changing, the descriptions will also to attract the market. Properties would be sold and removed and added to. I would Sus out a real estate program, must be some out there.
I would be the first to make a silk purse out of a sows ear but not for that. Look at
http://www.realestate.com.au an Aussie Company, That is your competition see how they have done it.

It would be a lot of work to try to keep something like that up to date with the Form Builder I think too. Mostly the issue would be having to constantly update it every time a property is off the market and every time you add new ones. You would have to constantly change the drop down menus or whatever you have setup for it each time that happens. You'll have to do this regardless of what software you use though, so to be honest I guess it could be done fairly painlessly by using dropdown menus with the house ID or whatever you use to identify the property. Just put that into a dropdown that they can choose from.

When you setup the email results, set up that field then to be the Subject of the email response. You will always know what property they are interested in that way. I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but to me that would probably be the simplest one.

As I said, it will still require work in changing it out for any property changes, but you would have to do that for databases too or any other means you try to do this with.

P.S. A more simplistic way would be to make a box for them to fill in the ID or whatever you use to identify the property. This would require the property hunters to fill it in of course, but it's a way to do a generic form that works for all properties.
Just be sure to put an example of the ID you want into the box (use the setting for this, can't recall what it's called in the program lol, just makes it a light grey placeholder or something like that) so they will always know exactly what you're looking for in that box.