Can a form append a file? Options

[Rick Altman]

This might be so easy, it's keeping me from thinking straight, but here is my challenge: For a conference that I host, I want people to be able to share what they learned, to make it easier for them to fill out reports when they get back home. We don't want to manage this, however -- we want it to manage itself. We want people's submissions to become part of a larger reservoir of submissions.

We create many Wufoo forms and we know how to hook them into our conference app, so getting the tool in front of our attendees will be easy. But how do I create a form that automatically takes the data and appends it to an existing file? Is that possible? It doesn't have to be driven by a Wufoo form; it can be a WordPress plugin, a JS solution, I'll take anything that is accessible and relatively easy.



Any ideas?


Rick A.
Pleasanton CA

[Christian J]

I want people to be able to share what they learned, to make it easier for them to fill out reports when they get back home.

Perhaps you could use javascript local storage for this. It basically works like a cookie, but with much more storage space.

how do I create a form that automatically takes the data and appends it to an existing file?

Writing to a file on your server is done by a server-side script like PHP (the actual form is just a user interface, it doesn't do anything). Maybe Wufoo and Wordpress let you do this, I don't know.

What kind of "existing file" do you want the form data appended to? If there are many users, maybe you it's best to keep their notes in a database together with their authentication credentials.

[Rick Altman]

Thanks, Christian -- I think a simple HTML file will be perfectly adequate for the "existing file." No credentials needed, no moderation required. I'm sure I could use JS local storage...except I have no idea how to do that! Any plug-ins or apps that might help me get started?

[Christian J]

I think a simple HTML file will be perfectly adequate for the "existing file." No credentials needed, no moderation required.

An HTML file will still be kept at the web server, so some kind of authentication would be needed, both to tell different users apart but also to protect their submitted data.

With local storage the data is simply kept in each user's browser, so no writing to file is needed until the user fills out the final report.

I'm sure I could use JS local storage...except I have no idea how to do that! Any plug-ins or apps that might help me get started?

There are several tutorials on the web, but I guess they all require a little knowledge of javascript or at least jQuery. Here's an example script for an editable to-do list: http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/domstorage.shtml --maybe you could customize that?

I don't use plugins etc, so I can't help there.