intreroperability - confusion

I don't think I'm alone in being confused about how your various products inter-relate.
As an example.
The Contact Form Solution Pack is a terrific tool and I've used it successfully.
You introduced CSS FormBuilder as an upgrade to Validation Toolkit which I own and haven't used.
CSS FormBuilder sounded exactly like what I needed to tweak my forms to my liking so I upgraded.
Using CSS FB as you described on some of my existing forms has changed the metaphor so utterly that I no longer know what does what.
WA_Globals.php is no longer an express include as it was before and attempting to use Universal Email to tweak the UE files that had been included now makes a new set of UE files at the root level of my site.

This is one convoluted example of what I mean. There are others.

Can you please lay out for us all (especially the more dense like me) diagrammatically how your products inter-relate. And, more importantly, how those relationships will change by adding in, or enhancing a product.

And for my current dilemma. Should I just scrap Contact Form Solution Pack and start from scratch with CSS FB and UE assuming those are the only 2 components necessary to make a working form?

Desperately confused
Mick

For whatever it is worth…
I meant diagrammatically in the literal sense because I am primarily a kinesthetic learner with the ability to function as a visual learner when I must (as now) and have a hard time reading my way to a solution. Pictures work for me, words make my brain bleed.

That's not a bad idea: a diagram of extension processes - a flowchart of how the extensions can compliment each other to produce various outcomes.

In addition to clarifying for users which extensions they should use, what for and in which order, it would also enable a visual guide for prospective purchasers to decide what it is that they need buy.

At the moment - browsing the products' overviews ("Do you need your form to send an email or submit to a database? Check out the WebAssist Extension Library Membership Program which contains all the Dreamweaver extensions you may require.") is a bit of a maze, involving a great deal of reading to finesse one's precise needs.

Exactly my point.
Thank you
Mick

Your summation of what I said made it more clear to me what I was trying to say.
I know it's asking a lot to ask the people at WA to put all this together. But think of the benefits. Not only the ones you mentioned in your summation but it will free the people at WA up to do more important work because of all the time they'll save not having to explain all this to us.

Thanks again

You have hit the nail on the head exactly. I subscribed to WA as it indicated it would be easy to set up any type of form, but after five weeks ( not full time I hasten to add) I still haven't worked out how to get it to work and have resorted to modifying existing PHP forms - but with only moderate success -that I have downloaded from PHP mail form sites. This has at least allowed me to have forms that work. There is no documention on WA that I can find that follows the process from start to end for getting a form to work using Form Builder. All the documentation is fragmented. It is like a guide book but with chapters missing and others in the wrong order. I am sure that if and when I can get the extensions to work that the results will be good, but I am a long way from that at the moment and expect to spend several more days trawling through the documentation and asking lots of questions on the forum before I get there. This is very different from how WA promote their "easy to use" extensions.

For all following this.
This thread http://www.webassist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6706 is an excellent example of the kind of confusion I'm talking about.

Mick

How about this for a start:
http://www.ipvac.com/kb/entry/204/

Ha! Nice one - I should have known!

A step in the right direction but not complete. No mention of how UE ties in to the issue at hand.
I can see from the flow chart that CSS Form Builder is in a sense the progenitor to ContactForm Solution Pack which would explain why taking forms built in CFSP and tweaking them in CSSFB would break them.
Of this I was unaware till now.
All this is a bit confusing when the right-up on CSSFB indicates that you can create forms as well as tweaking the ones you've already made in CFSP.
That says to me…
1. Build your form in CFSP.
2. Tweak to your hearts content in CSSFB.
3. Put up your forms. Good to go.

That's clearly not the case. Maybe I missed it somewhere but UE was never mentioned as part of the process necessary to complete this goal.
And yes I did see the following questions in the FAQS…

"Will my CSS Form Builder form send an email or insert to a database?"
"Can I use CSS Form Builder to modify my existing forms?"

And the answers to both were nebulous enough so that I could infer that all the issues raised in those questions had been addressed by my use of CFSP which is the obvious purpose of that product.
This is in no way a complaint about the quality of the product. It is a complaint about it not being clear what steps are necessary to accomplish your goal.

I have no problem with taking the extra steps or the extra time to learn because I know the end result will be worthwhile but I really hate spinning my wheels and I've been doing a lot of that lately.

Mick

Mick,


I think the real problem is how you have configured your Dreamweaver site. Maybe I'm missing something in your description of the problem?

to be able to modify the contact form solution pack files using any of the extensions used to create it, the contact form solution pack files need to be at the root of the Dreamweaver site.


You do not need to have Universal Email to be modify the form using CSS Form builder, if you are having a different experience, perhaps it would be more helpful to explore that avenue.

Can you send a copy of the contact form that doesn't work after editing it with CSS Form builder, that may help me understand the true nature of what is going wrong.

"mick106153 - A step in the right direction but not complete. No mention of how UE ties in to the issue at hand."

I'm just a volunteer trying to make things a little clearer. The goal was to show which products fit into each segment of the design process, not provide the level of detail you're looking for. That would be the job of the documentation team.

The hope was that people would make suggestions and add to my efforts.