I have a client that would like a hand in creating/mutating in page design. After some playing around CMSKit will do much the heavy lifting for public facing pages. As for forms (Event/Counseling Registrations) I'm looking for a common pattern regarding editiable layouts of forms within the context of ABP.io's offerings. To speed time-to-live, the client would like a hand in customization or creation of Forms the Event. (perhaps some questions are optional one time, perhaps not another, perhaps change the order, change the color, etc). I am torn between Forms Modules(pro) and some post processing or some something with the abp-dynamic-form or Text Templating; though the last two seem to be a dead end.
The priorities from the client point of view would be that they would want to NOT want to re-type/add common dropdowns while amending uncommon-ones. They want "widget"-like form-creation functionality with some fluidity. That points to: Forms module in one way, and abp-dynamic-form in another and text templating in one! As for abp-dynamic-form, the drawbacks of that is that is then a compiletime change in layout unless there is a way to mutate the abp-dynamic-form layout at runtime
Question: Module Forms(Pro):
- In Module Forms(Pro): Is there a way to introduce Entity/enums for dropdowns so common datatypes can be introduced in to form authoring quickly?
- If so, I that standard distributed events are broadcast. I could capture the event of the Form Response submission and send to a processing stream -- to and map answers to a structured Event/Counseling Registration table entity; ( granting that if with Entity/Enums i could also name questions programmatically so i could map to begin with! ) or 3) should just settle on Dynamic Form and accept redeployment?
Is there a better or some pattern or module or combo that could get me where I want to go? Should I revisit Text Templating again? (I couldn't get Html output, but seems fussy anyways)
1 Answer(s)
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The ABP Forms Module (Pro) is designed to provide a flexible, widget-like form creation experience for end users, allowing them to build and customize forms (such as event or counseling registrations) at runtime. However, as of the latest official documentation, the Forms Module does not natively support direct integration of application entities or enums as dropdown sources within the form designer UI. All form fields and dropdown options are defined within the form builder interface, and there is no built-in mechanism to bind dropdowns to existing enums or entities from your domain model. You would need to manually define dropdown options for each form, or consider extending the module if you require dynamic population from entities.
The Forms Module supports storing responses and allows you to export data. For advanced processing, you can subscribe to form submission events and map responses to your own entities (such as Event or Counseling Registration tables). This is a common pattern: capture the form response, process it in an application service or event handler, and persist the structured data as needed. Naming questions programmatically for mapping is not natively supported, but you can enforce naming conventions or use custom logic in your processing layer.
The abp-dynamic-form tag helper is compile-time and not intended for runtime user-driven form design. It is best suited for developer-defined forms that reflect model classes, and any changes require redeployment. Text Templating is primarily for generating text (e.g., emails) and is not suitable for interactive HTML form generation.
Recommendation:
- For your requirements (runtime, widget-like, user-driven form design with some degree of reusability), the Forms Module (Pro) is the closest fit within ABP's offerings. You may need to extend it or implement custom logic to support entity/enum-driven dropdowns.
- For post-processing, capturing form submission events and mapping to your own entities is a supported and recommended approach.
- abp-dynamic-form and Text Templating are not suitable for your scenario.
Sources:
- https://abp.io/docs/latest/modules/forms
- https://docs.abp.io/en/abp/latest/Text-Templating
No verified source available for direct entity/enum integration in Forms Module dropdowns; this is based on current official documentation.
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