Who is this tutorial for?

This tutorial is for Xataface developers who have built an application and now want to allow the public to be able to submit information to the database via a web form. Before reading this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of the Xataface framework. Learn the Xataface fundamentals here.

Isn't a submission form just the same as a New record form?

You may be wondering why we need to have a tutorial to show how to build a submission form, when it would appear as though this functionality is built into Xataface as the New Record form. It is true that a submission form inserts new records into a database table (the same as a new record form), but there are certain characteristics of a public web form that users expect, that arent' part of the new record form.

For example:

Instructions

Submission forms generally have some instructions at the top to explain how to use the form.

Success/Failure Page

Submission forms will generally send the user to a success page when the form has been successfully submitted which may contain more instructions for the user to follow. A new record form will simply display a message that says :"Record successfully saved", and return the user to the edit form.

Permissions issues

If you're adding the submission form to an existing application, or you wish to use the application also for administrative purposes, you must take special care with permissions to make sure that the public is allowed to submit new records, but only authorized users can edit existing records or delete records. This is a simple task for Xataface permissions, but it is worth mentioning.

Simplicity

Users should not have any options on the submission form, other than Submit. A standard Xataface application has a number of links and tabs to click on that may be distracting in the context of a web form. You will want to hide all of this extra stuff on your submission form.

All of the steps in this tutorial are explained elsewhere in the Xataface documentation. This tutorial aims to piece all of this elements together into a simple process to make it easier to tackle this use-case for the first time.