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How to embed a Google form into Joomla

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It seems that everyone these days has a Gmail account and uses Google Applications in some form or another (pun intended). There is a great wealth of features at your fingertips with Google Docs, now called Google Drive, and most of it is free. Here's how to get going with one aspect...forms.

Register at Google if you don't already have a Gmail account.

Once you have a Gmail account, log in as normal and click Drive page. Once on the main Drive page, create a new form.

The Google form selection

You can insert many different data types, such as a text area, radio buttons and drop down lists. There are plenty of tutorials on how to create a Google Form, and they are all pretty easy to follow, but feel free to just play around with the functionality as well.

Once your form is complete, grab the code from the menu item labeled More Actions - Embed in the top right corner of the Google Form. Copy the code in the resulting pop up window.

Teh Google form embed code

Make sure that text filtering is turned off in your Joomla editor. See our recent article on How to embed a Wufoo article for instructions on changing those settings.

If you're using the JCE editor, make sure the Container Element setting is set to Disabled so you don't have an automatic paragraph tag inserted into your article HTML.

JCE Administration setting

Create a new article as normal and give it a title. Click the Toggle Source Code button and paste the Google Form code into your article. Make sure that the code isn't being stripped or altered in any way.

Note that you can use an article or a module to place your form on a Joomla page, depending on how you want to organize things.

HTML editor mode

If you are publishing the form inside of an article, simply make a menu item and link it to your newly created article. If you are publishing the form in a module, publish your module in the appropriate position on the page you'd like it to appear.

Google form embedded into Joomla article

Test your Google form.

One of the great things about using Google Drive this way is the reporting features you have access to. Back in the Google Form in Google Drive, you can view your results in a spreadsheet or in a Summary view with graphical representations of your results. Just look to the top right again, and you will see a menu item called "See Responses." The Summary view looks a bit like this:

Google form results

This isn't the most exciting report in history, but when you have lots of responses it's really useful and gets easier to understand.

There are more features available such as pre-styled forms and multi-pages so now you know how to embed Google Forms into your Joomla website, why not get started today?

Do you prefer to use a third party form building service such as Google or Wufoo? Or would you rather use a dedicated Joomla extension? Leave your comments below.

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Comments 12

Robin McCamont on Thursday, 07 June 2012 12:20

I recently discovered Google forms myself by reading a comment Robert made to someone else in your forum, Richard. I was extremely pleased with how easy it was to do, even for a "newbie" such as myself!. The other thing I was quite impressed with is that Google offers 97 different "themes" that you can use (background images) to change the "look & feel" of your form. For my client, this will be a very fun feature for her to use (she is a music teacher, and she can change the theme of her form to match the seasons, if she so chooses!) Thanks again for your very helpful "tips & tricks"!

0
I recently discovered Google forms myself by reading a comment Robert made to someone else in your forum, Richard. I was extremely pleased with how easy it was to do, even for a "newbie" such as myself!. The other thing I was quite impressed with is that Google offers 97 different "themes" that you can use (background images) to change the "look & feel" of your form. For my client, this will be a very fun feature for her to use (she is a music teacher, and she can change the theme of her form to match the seasons, if she so chooses!) Thanks again for your very helpful "tips & tricks"!
Guest - US Joomla Force on Thursday, 07 June 2012 18:25

Thanks Robert Wilson. That's simply awesome, this is new to me and well i am going to try this for my joomla site.

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Thanks Robert Wilson. That's simply awesome, this is new to me and well i am going to try this for my joomla site.
Guest - benji on Friday, 08 June 2012 05:04

Am I right that there is NO way to control the use of the form ?
For example - I made a Form using Google Docs, published it in article but then I can vote as many times as I want ... which is no good of course.
Are there parameters to set where you can control the use/abuse of the Form ?

0
Am I right that there is NO way to control the use of the form ? For example - I made a Form using Google Docs, published it in article but then I can vote as many times as I want ... which is no good of course. Are there parameters to set where you can control the use/abuse of the Form ?
Robert Wilson on Friday, 08 June 2012 05:45

Benji,

That's a good question. This isn't meant to be a robust, highly configurable application. Google doesn't provide easy methods of doing what you're asking at this time. There's plenty of interest in making Google Forms more robust, and I have to think Google will address that to some extent. But for now, it's just meant to be a free, quick and very easy way to get a nice looking form on a Joomla website.

I would think it was useful in any situation where you know your audience pretty well or you are just gathering info or business leads. You'll have to do a bit of maintenance on your responses, but I've used this several times and it's been worth the little bit of effort.

0
Benji, That's a good question. This isn't meant to be a robust, highly configurable application. Google doesn't provide easy methods of doing what you're asking at this time. There's plenty of interest in making Google Forms more robust, and I have to think Google will address that to some extent. But for now, it's just meant to be a free, quick and very easy way to get a nice looking form on a Joomla website. I would think it was useful in any situation where you know your audience pretty well or you are just gathering info or business leads. You'll have to do a bit of maintenance on your responses, but I've used this several times and it's been worth the little bit of effort.
Guest - Pete Watson on Friday, 08 June 2012 20:02

Just a quick tip that I had to find out the hard way! When I added my html code and saved the article, all the html code was wiped. I couldn't work out why, so I did a bit of research and found that I had to alter the text filter settings (in Joomla 2.5 this is in Global Configuration) from Default Blacklist to No Filtering.

Once I had done this, it worked fine.

Great tip, thank you very much.

0
Just a quick tip that I had to find out the hard way! When I added my html code and saved the article, all the html code was wiped. I couldn't work out why, so I did a bit of research and found that I had to alter the text filter settings (in Joomla 2.5 this is in Global Configuration) from Default Blacklist to No Filtering. Once I had done this, it worked fine. Great tip, thank you very much.
Guest - Rohit Sachwani on Wednesday, 05 December 2012 19:28

Thanks Pete. You saved my life. Had been wondering what was happening for a few hours until I read your post.

0
Thanks Pete. You saved my life. Had been wondering what was happening for a few hours until I read your post.
Robert Wilson on Saturday, 09 June 2012 03:04

Thanks Pete. This is covered in our How to embed a Wufoo form blog post mentioned above.

This is also why we mention to check the HTML before publishing. Joomla does strip code if the settings aren't right.

Thanks for calling attention to it.

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Thanks Pete. This is covered in our How to embed a Wufoo form blog post mentioned above. This is also why we mention to check the HTML before publishing. Joomla does strip code if the settings aren't right. Thanks for calling attention to it.
Guest - Rohit Sachwani on Wednesday, 05 December 2012 19:27

Your post is just awesome. Thanks for making it so easy for us newbies.

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Your post is just awesome. Thanks for making it so easy for us newbies.
Guest - Faustin on Saturday, 26 January 2013 19:50

I'm left alone to administer this new Joomla website, I was a bit familiar with WordPress but I ain't sure if I'll sort out this Joomla jungle.
Thanks to this forum I'm learning new life-saving tips! keep it up!!!

0
I'm left alone to administer this new Joomla website, I was a bit familiar with WordPress but I ain't sure if I'll sort out this Joomla jungle. Thanks to this forum I'm learning new life-saving tips! keep it up!!!
Guest - jed on Thursday, 21 March 2013 11:25

Thanks i loved this tutorial. I was wondering if it is possible to embed the google spreadsheet results into a webpage. I have managed to do this but if someone new enters information into the form then i have to republish the google spreadsheet with the results. Is there a way to have the results spreadsheet automatically updated on my webpage.

Also would it be possible for someone to edit this information if they made a mistake when originally entering information in the form. Fr example if they incorrectly entered the wrong phone number in the form. Could they then be able to edit the results in the embedded google spreadsheet to correct their number ?

Many thanks

0
Thanks i loved this tutorial. I was wondering if it is possible to embed the google spreadsheet results into a webpage. I have managed to do this but if someone new enters information into the form then i have to republish the google spreadsheet with the results. Is there a way to have the results spreadsheet automatically updated on my webpage. Also would it be possible for someone to edit this information if they made a mistake when originally entering information in the form. Fr example if they incorrectly entered the wrong phone number in the form. Could they then be able to edit the results in the embedded google spreadsheet to correct their number ? Many thanks
Robert Wilson on Thursday, 21 March 2013 19:17

Hi jed,

In terms of allowing people to update a Google spreadsheet, that depends on the access level you assign to the document. I believe that in order to make that possible you will need to publish it to the world. Otherwise, they would need to access it through their own Google Drive.

As far as updating the results in real time...I think you'll probably need to do a bit of custom scripting in Google Drive to force it to update. Even then, if you're not referencing the spreadsheet it won't matter. For instance, if you're simply copying and pasting it in to your Joomla Article, there's probably no way of getting around doing that every time you want results updated.

You might also want to check the JED for an extension that dynamically displays Google Documents.

0
Hi jed, In terms of allowing people to update a Google spreadsheet, that depends on the access level you assign to the document. I believe that in order to make that possible you will need to publish it to the world. Otherwise, they would need to access it through their own Google Drive. As far as updating the results in real time...I think you'll probably need to do a bit of custom scripting in Google Drive to force it to update. Even then, if you're not referencing the spreadsheet it won't matter. For instance, if you're simply copying and pasting it in to your Joomla Article, there's probably no way of getting around doing that every time you want results updated. You might also want to check the JED for an extension that dynamically displays Google Documents.
Guest - Lăng Mộ Đá on Thursday, 18 June 2015 13:32

Tks for sharing, but how to popup it in article?

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Tks for sharing, but how to popup it in article?

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