[Building Sakai] Forms without portfolio

[Jez Cope]

Using the Drop box seems to work ok. The process goes:

1. Create a form with Forms tool (or Form Builder?).
2. Users complete the form in their Drop box (Add -> New form item), 
resulting in an XML file which they name and add metadata to the same as 
for any other file in Resources.

If step 2 could be streamlined to make it less like creating a new file 
and more like just submitting a web form, then all the data would be 
just sitting there in Drop box/Resources in XML format waiting to be 
processed for reporting. Perhaps an admin user could specify which 
folder (possibly hidden) the completed forms to go into, and a rule for 
naming the XML files.

I'm planning to grab all of the submitted forms via WebDAV from the 
dropboxes, then process the XML through an offline script to get what we 
want out of it.

All the best,
Jez

Steve Swinsburg wrote:
> There would definitely be value in having a standalone forms tool, with the ability for the data to be collected and presented outside of OSP.  We recently conducted an evaluation between an in house LMS, Sakai and another LMS, and that LMS had form creation and collecting capabilities which was one of it's strengths.
>
> Chris, any idea how much work there would be in a tool that was able to report on the data collected by the OSP Form/Form Builder? Are there API's to get at this?
>
> cheers,
> Steve
>
>
>
> On 21/07/2011, at 10:17 PM, Maurer, Christopher Wayne wrote:
>
>> Forms can be used like any other thing inside of the Resources tool.  So,
>> it's up to you what you do with them once they have been created.  Have
>> people create them in a Dropbox, perhaps?  That's likely the simplest
>> thing to do.
>> The original idea behind the OSP Matrix and Wizard tools was for them to
>> be guided collection mechanisms.  They certainly do this, but it could be
>> an overly complex solution for what you are trying to do.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>> On 7/21/11 6:21 AM, "Jez Cope"<j.cope at bath.ac.uk>  wrote:
>>
>>> Is it possible to use a form (i.e. have users fill in and submit it)
>>> without using the portfolio tool?
>>>
>>> We are using Sakai for researchers, and we'd like to be able to have
>>> them submit project proposals for PhD students using a Sakai form. The
>>> Portfolios tool doesn't seem like the right one for the job here.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Jez
>>> --
>>> Jez Cope<http://people.bath.ac.uk/jc619>, ICT Project Manager
>>> Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies
>>> <http://www.bath.ac.uk/csct>
>>> University of Bath
>>> Tel: +44(0)1225 385827
>>>
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