1. Overview

Advanced Form Builder turns Dolibarr into a complete intelligent form-building platform, with no coding required. It lets any user design, publish, share and analyse professional business forms directly inside the ERP, replacing external SaaS tools such as Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Jotform, Typeform or Form.io while remaining fully integrated with Dolibarr data.

Typical use cases include customer intake, HR, after-sales service, maintenance, audit, quality control, registration, questionnaires, surveys, complaints, internal requests, purchasing, field interventions, visits, delivery and reception notes, site and safety inspections, inventory, production, health, education and administration forms.

Key capabilities

·       Visual drag & drop form builder with live preview, versioning, publishing and archiving.

·       Complete field library: text, numeric, date/time, choice, media, geolocation, advanced, calculated, layout and native Dolibarr link fields.

·       Conditional logic engine and a data validation engine (required, email, phone, numeric ranges, regex, duplicates).

·       Ready-to-use form templates library.

·       Full response management: search, filter, review, validate, comment, export and archive.

·       Workflow & automation engine triggering native Dolibarr object creation and integrations.

·       Timestamped electronic signature with SHA-256 integrity sealing.

·       PDF generation, and CSV/JSON exports.

·       Secure public portal (token link, QR code, expiry, response cap, password, captcha).

·       REST API and webhooks for external integration.

·       Modern analytics dashboard (Advanced Form Analytics Center) and reporting suite.

·       Fine-grained permissions, multi-company and multilingual (FR, EN, DE, ES, IT).

2. Architecture

The module follows Dolibarr development standards: object-oriented PHP (PHP 8.x compatible, no warnings), CommonObject-based classes, a descriptor with rights/menus/cron, SQL schema with self-healing migration, module CSS/JS parts, language packs and a demo-data generator.

Data model (10 objects)

The form structure (fields, options, validation, conditional logic and settings) is stored as a normalised JSON schema, which makes the builder fully dynamic — users create unlimited new form types without database changes. A companion per-field response table is written on submission so answers remain searchable and reportable.

Directory structure

·       core/modules — module descriptor (rights, menus, cron)

·       class — object classes, workflow engine, REST API, sample data

·       lib — shared helpers, object registry, navigation, dynamic renderer

·       sql — table + index definitions

·       css / js — builder, dashboard and rendered-form assets

·       langs — fr_FR, en_US, de_DE, es_ES, it_IT

·       admin — configuration page

·       builder.php / preview.php / fill.php / public.php / pdf.php — front pages

·       dashboard.php / reporting.php — analytics

3. Menus

A dedicated top menu “Form Builder” exposes the following left-menu entries, each synced with an in-page tab bar:

4. Field Library

The builder palette groups every field type by family. All types render dynamically both in the builder canvas and in the live form.

5. Conditional Logic & Validation

Conditional logic engine: show/hide fields based on other answers using conditions combined with AND / OR / NOT operators and comparisons (=, !=, >, <, >=, <=). Example: IF Country = France THEN show VAT field.

Validation engine: enforced both client-side and server-side. Rules include required fields, valid email, valid phone, valid URL, numeric type/min/max, text length, regex patterns and duplicate detection, plus business rules used by workflows (e.g. score >= 60).

6. Workflows & Automation

The automation engine evaluates active workflow rules attached to a form when a response is submitted, validated or rejected. Delayed actions are processed by a scheduled cron job.

Available actions

7. Electronic Signature, Public Portal & Security

Electronic signature: handwritten capture (mouse or touch), timestamp, respondent IP and a SHA-256 hash sealing the response for traceability and integrity.

Public portal: every published form has a secure token URL usable without a Dolibarr login, protected by optional expiry date, maximum response count, access password and captcha. Share links (with QR code support) can be individually managed, disabled and tracked.

Security: CSRF protection, XSS output escaping, SQL-injection-safe parameterised queries, permission checks on every page, activity/notification logging and GDPR-friendly consent fields. All privileged workflow actions are sandboxed so a missing module never breaks a submission.

8. PDF, Exports & REST API

Each response can be turned into a timestamped PDF document (form header + all answers). Reports and responses export to CSV; the schema and responses are available as JSON via the API.

REST API endpoints

Authentication uses a Dolibarr API key (requires the API/Web services module). Webhooks additionally push submissions to external systems with Bearer/Basic/OAuth authentication.

9. Reporting & Analytics

The Advanced Form Analytics Center dashboard shows real-time KPIs (forms, published forms, total and daily responses, completion rate, average time, respondents, signatures), a category kanban, and dynamic charts (responses over time, form distribution, top forms, response sources), plus response and automation zones.

The reporting suite provides Activity, Popular forms, Responses by source, Performance, Workflows and Category reports, each exportable to CSV and printable.

10. Rights, Versioning, Multi-entity & Multilingual

Fine-grained permissions cover four groups (Design, Responses, Workflows, Public links) each with read/write/delete, plus cross-cutting Publish, Validate, Export, Reporting and Administer rights.

Every form carries a version number incremented on each save, with history and publish/archive lifecycle. The module is MultiCompany compatible (entity-scoped) and ships full translations for French, English, German, Spanish and Italian.

11. Dolibarr Integration & Compatible Modules

Advanced Form Builder integrates natively with the Dolibarr ecosystem through workflows, hooks, triggers, the object registry and the REST API. Compatible / interoperable modules include:

·       Third parties (CRM) & Contacts

·       Products & Stocks

·       Projects & Tasks

·       Proposals, Orders & Invoices

·       Tickets (helpdesk)

·       Interventions (field service)

·       Agenda & Events

·       HR, Leave & Expense reports

·       Accounting, Banks & Payments

·       Suppliers & Purchasing

·       Manufacturing & Quality

·       API / Web services, Cron, Hooks & Triggers

12. Use Cases

Public satisfaction survey: build the form, publish it, share the link / QR code, collect responses and analyse the completion rate on the dashboard.

Internal request with validation: internal form, “create ticket” workflow on submission, manual validation then PDF generation.

Field intervention sheet: mobile-friendly form with customer signature, “create intervention” workflow and manager notification.

Supplier evaluation: scored questionnaire with conditional logic and a “score >= 60” condition routing high performers to an automated follow-up.

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