Enhanced Laravel Form Builder Package

This repository contains an enhanced version of the original Laravel Form Builder Package, designed to create drag-and-drop forms using JQuery Form Builder. It features dynamic generation of models, migrations, and management of form-associated tables.

Installation

You can install the original package using the following command:

composer require doode/laravel-formbuilder

To install this enhanced version, follow the steps below:

Requirements

• Laravel 7
• Bootstrap 4+
• MySQL/MariaDB
• Laravel Authentication

Install Laravel UI for authentication:

composer require laravel/ui
php artisan ui bootstrap --auth

Step 1: Install the Package

composer require navidanjum/enhanced_laravel_form_builder:dev-main

Add the Repository to composer.json (Optional)

If users face issues installing directly, they can manually add your GitHub repository to their composer.json file:

"repositories": [
    {
        "type": "vcs",
        "url": "https://github.com/NavidAnjum/Enhanced_Laravel_Form_Builder.git"
    }
]

Then run:

composer require navidanjum/enhanced_laravel_form_builder:dev-main

Step 2: Run Migrations

php artisan migrate

Step 3: Publish Assets and Configurations

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="NavidAnjum\EnhancedFormBuilder\EnhancedFormBuilderServiceProvider" --tag=formbuilder-views
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=formbuilder-public
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=formbuilder-config

Step 4: Configure Blade Templates

Update your Blade layout to include the following:

@stack('styles')  <!-- Include styles -->
@stack('scripts') <!-- Include scripts -->

Key Features

Dynamic Model and Migration Creation

• Automatically generates an Eloquent model and database table when a user creates a new form.
• Models include protected $fillable fields based on the form structure.

Full Data Management

• Provides full CRUD functionality for dynamically created tables.
• Users can add, update, and delete records in these tables.

Form Updates

• Synchronizes updates to forms with associated database tables, including column renaming and schema updates.
• Ensures data integrity during schema changes.

Enhanced Compatibility

• Seamless integration with Laravel's MVC architecture for scalable and dynamic data management.

Example Workflow

Form Creation

• Users design a new form using the drag-and-drop builder.
• Example JSON representation of a form:

  [
    {"type":"text","label":"Name","className":"form-control","name":"name"}
  ]

• The system generates:
  • A new table: forms
  • A model: Form

Form Update

• Updating a form reflects changes in the database table schema.
• Data is preserved during schema updates.

Form Submission

• Submissions are saved to dynamically created tables.
• Example table structure:

  CREATE TABLE forms (
      id BIGINT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
      name VARCHAR(255) NULL,
      created_at TIMESTAMP NULL,
      updated_at TIMESTAMP NULL
  );

Managing Data

• View, edit, and delete records stored in dynamically created tables.

Dependencies

• jQuery UI: For user interface actions.
• jQuery Formbuilder: Drag-and-drop form editing.
• clipboard.js: Copy text to clipboard.
• parsley.js: Form validation.
• moment.js: Date and time handling.
• footable: Responsive table plugin.
• sweetalert: Enhanced alert messages.

Roadmap

• Add advanced field types (e.g., file uploads).
• Improve UI/UX for managing forms and submissions.
• Expand form permissions for finer control.

Precautions

• Ensure the database contains a users table with a column id (BIGINT UNSIGNED).
• Avoid editing forms with existing submissions unless necessary, as it may affect older submissions.

License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.