Chronoform is a form building Joomla component made by the awesome people at ChronoEngine.

Before Chronoform, making a form for a website was laborious and extremely time-consuming; it could take hours to code all the individual inputs and options, and the entire process had to be repeated over again for every website the form was to appear on. It was also difficult to migrate the forms when the website's CMS was updated.

Chronoform makes this process much simpler. Now, once we've created the HTML for the form we can copy/paste it into Chronoform Form Manager in the Joomla back end, and then all of the customised features can be implemented with the click of a button.

The module allows us to:

• Use CSS style codes and Javascript in the form.
• Use PHP code in the body of the form, which means that we can save the data once it's been submitted.
• Capture the URL that the form was submitted from.
• Utilise the drag and drop wizard that can create simple forms without the need for any other HTML tools.
• Include the form inside any content page on a website, using either the plug-in command or the module.
• Choose a number of email recipients for the results of the form, which can be sent in a fully dynamic email with a customisable template.
• Send an auto-response to those who complete the form (the subject line, and which address and name the email was sent from, can all change depending on what data was submitted in the form).
• Choose where visitors are re-directed after completing the form (to a 'thank you' page, back to the home page, etc.)
• Store, view, delete or back up all submitted data. (Data can be stored to a DataBase table, and backed up in XLS or CSV form, both viewable in Excel.)
• Include 'file upload' inputs on the form, and set constraints around uploadable files.
• Integrate with online payment systems.
• Limit form submissions, so that people can't re-send the same form more than once.
• Ensure security of all information submitted through the form with the use of Captcha image verification software and the addition of server side validation.
• Add a variety of plug ins that include features such as; a confirmation page, multi-language support, Joomla registration and form expiration.

We use Chronoform a lot, especially now that websites are playing a larger role in how businesses communicate with their clients. It's an extremely useful component: 10/10, would recommend.

You can follow Rhye Media on Facebook, twitter and Google+ - we'd love to hear from you!

If you have any questions, queries, concerns or comments (about Chronoform, your own site, or anything else you can think of) direct them to our online help system and we'll be in touch asap!

Next in the series: Akeeba.