Exporting content from form plug-ins

  • I’ve been investigating form packages for a small WP installation. I’ve read many fine descriptions of plug-ins both free and payware. I’ve discovered that pretty much any form plug-in will do what I want. What I can’t sort out is how to get the information back out.

    Every form package seems to have a different way to handle exporting data. I suspect that if I knew more about how to use MySQL, this would be a trivial subject. Alas, my ignorance is vaster than my own behind.

    I am trying to figure out which form package I want that will make exporting easiest to deal with. Free solutions are great, but not if I have to get up close and personal with MySQL to export the data to Excel or something else handy.

    Will anything talk to a Google spreadsheet? Just a thought.

    Thank you for any clues that you can spare

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • As you’ve seen, msot form plugins handle and store the data in different ways. That means that each one will have it’s own export process and sometimes even format. That also means that even with good SQL knowledge, there’s no “one query fits all” solution that will export the same data from every form package.

    The only thing to do is find one that does work in a way that either suits you, or that you can work with.

    I do know that there’s some database storage and export plugins around for Contact Form 7, so that’s one free option. If you are willing to go commercial, Graivty Forms has all of that built in.

    Thread Starter laurenpburka

    (@laurenpburka)

    Gravity forms looks great, but I’m not sure my little house of worship can afford an annual fee.

    I’m sure this will all be easier to sort out when I have a functional test site so I can install things, poke them, and see what happens.

    @catacaustic is right – there is no one shoe fits all solution – everyone does it differently…

    However, if I were to offer a recommendation.

    I use and prefer Contact Form 7 – completely free to use and fairly easy to setup with amazing flexibility – Problem is that to access submissions for viewing or export requires an additional plugin – that sucks.

    Gravity is ok but as you say, it is paid.

    Ninja Forms for me is probably your best bet – I don’t mind Ninja Forms but their 2.9 -> 3.0 upgrade caused major issues with existing installations so I shied away… However, for you it is probably perfect:
    1. It’s free
    2. It’s really easy to setup
    3. All submissions are stored in the database and accessible via the “Submissions” tab
    4. All submissions can be exported to CSV from the “Submissions” tab which can then be saved into a Google Spreadsheet (albeit manually)

    Trying to do this via MySQL is overkill given the integration available in many apps it is not necessary

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by SJW.
    Thread Starter laurenpburka

    (@laurenpburka)

    Thank you for all of your suggestions.

    I’ve spent the last couple of days working on the problem. Then I tripped over Google Forms. Google Forms was designed to solve my exact problem. I will make a form, then I’m going to embed it in WP.

    There is a plugin to make Google Forms look pretty on WP. There seems to be some debate in the comments about whether it is up to date or not. But a straight embed will always work.

    I’m sure I’m in for some dire experience with weird, installation-specific incompatibilities. Let me know if I should update folks on how it went.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • The topic ‘Exporting content from form plug-ins’ is closed to new replies.