Back in July 2017 we released a brand new version for the most feature rich Form builder module in DNN. Building forms and logic that suits your needs is now a lot easier and way more powerful with Action Form 3.9.

What is new?

Starting with version 3.9, Action Form has a new front-end initialization engine that:

1. gives access to new features for initialization:
   • opening forms in Pop-up (modal)
   • loading the form only when it is needed
   • refresh form info without refreshing the webpage
2. improves page load
3. brings a brand new public JavaScript API
4. allows to use front-end actions that will not end the execution of a stack of back-end actions

How does all this work?

All the above are major changes to Action Form and even though the general behaviour of the module did not change, some important structure modifications were added. 

Static pages should now be loading way faster than before as Action Form loads separately from the actual page content. Form Events will now run only after the module loads on the page leading to a faster page load when the Form is not required at the beginning of the workflow, saving requests that are not needed at that time. On the other hand, having actions like Messages or Page Redirects will be slower in the same set of actions if the from is Initially Visible but that doesn’t mean the redirect won’t happen.

You can now add multiple actions to better interact with your website's users; you can display a toast message to inform the user about the status of every action you run on the back-end (your account was created; we're now getting things ready; we're almost there; bear with us; final step and we're done....); you can also execute JavaScript in between the actions that run on the server which will most definitely help you modify information on front-end according to the status of actions done on the back-end.

Thanks to the new public JavaScript API for Action Form you can now control the module even from outside of the DNN Sharp modules sphere; from html modules and even from products of other DNN module providers like Mandeeps, EasyDNN, Smith Consulting, Data Springs, Revindex and others...

You can also refresh your Action Form modules without triggering a page refresh; you can simply reinitialize the form by passing different parameters if needed.