Web-form-buddy‘s date validation & formatting for text fields is now more flexible. As well as creating templates for full dates (e.g. “mm-dd-yyyy“), you can now also create templates for partial dates such as month and year (e.g. “mm-yy“), or even just day of the month (“dd“).

To make  creating new forms on your web site as easy as possible,  we have added a new option “import settings from another form“. This feature allows you to copy settings from one form to another. You can choose to copy all settings, or just specific categories of settings – such as auto-responder settings, file upload settings, and so on.

A good way to get the most out of this feature is to create a “golden form” – i.e. one with all your favorite settings. Then after you create a new form, just import the settings from your golden form, and you’ll be pretty much good to go.

Web-form-buddy is a great productivity tool. It makes it really quick and easy to create and deploy forms on your web site. And now it just got even faster!

We have just launched a new option that allows you to configure the design of HTML formatted emails that Web-form-buddy sends out on your behalf. These include

• Autoresponder emails
• Payment receipts
• Form notifications

You can find this new option on your Web-form-buddy control panel under  “global options” >> “color & style settings” >> “HTML styled email“. There you can configure the color scheme, adjust the banner and frame border, set fonts and font sizes, and so on.

Although you have the option of using plain text formatted emails – it’s certainly a lot more impressive to send an attractively styled and formatted email, especially if it’s something your customers are going to see (such as a form auto-responder message or a payment receipt).

There are so many different ways that folks read their email these days. There’s regular desktop software applications such as Microsoft Outlook (and the various different versions in use),  Apple Mail,  Thunderbird,  Lotus Notes, and so on. Then there are webmail options such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. And finally we have mobile applications such as BlackBerry, Android, iPad,  iPhone etc. etc..

It’s an unfortunate fact that not all of these email clients support the latest and best features of modern web page design – for example CSS layout without tables and  Javascript. But you’ll be pleased to know that we have created and tested  our configurable HTML email option to work consistently with all of these different ways of reading email!

Web-form-buddy has some new options for formatting form data. You can find these on your control panel at “global options” >> “data options”.

You can choose the symbol to use as a field/value data separator, choose a symbol for blank fields, set the font style and case for field names, and set the font style for field values.

Today we have added a new payment method for our Web-store-buddy shopping cart application and our Web-form-buddy payment forms application.

The new payment option is for payments “on account“. With this option your customer is asked to supply a purchase order number and the name of the purchasing organization when placing the order. If you wish you can choose to display a message such as  “This payment option is only available for approved accounts“.

The Refer-a-buddy “tell a friend” window is available in various color schemes. We have just done a “spring clean” to tidy up and improve the CSS styles that are used. The window size is slightly larger too, as it was not appearing quite right in all browsers.

If you have Refer-a-buddy installed on your site using code that references “https://www.smallgreentree.net/js/rab0308.js” then you’re up to date and need take no action. But if you’re a long time user of Refer-a-buddy we recommend strongly that you update your web pages to the latest code. This is available by logging into your control panel and selecting “setup“.

We’ve added a new feature to Web-form-buddy that allows you to use Google Analytics to track your form submissions. In particular, if you use the “payment forms” option, you can track e-commerce data such as revenue, conversion rates, average order value, product performance, transactions, visits to purchase, days to purchase, and so forth.

To enable Google Analytics tracking, navigate to “global options” on your Web-form-buddy control panel.

If your store is based in the European Union, Web-store-buddy can now validate VAT registration numbers “in real time“. This makes it possible to avoid charging unnecessary tax to companies in other EU countries. This is how it works:

• If your business is set up to charge VAT, and if you deal with customers from other EU member states, Web-store-buddy will allow those customers to enter their VAT number and organisation name.
• Web-store-buddy will validate the VAT number against the online EU VAT Information Exchange System database (http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do).
• Provided it is a valid number, sales tax will not be charged.

The style of URL included in the Web-store-buddy shopping cart button code has now changed to one that is “domain-friendly“.  That means that as your customers use your shopping cart they will see your domain in their browser’s address bar, whereas previously it was “www.smallgreentree.net“.

For example, if your domain is “some-domain.biz“, the old code would include a  URL such as this:

http://www.smallgreentree.net/cgi-bin/123456.cgi

With the new code style it would be like this:

http://some-domain-biz.cgi-data.com/store/123456.cgi

If you are still using the old style of code, it is still supported. However you can if you like easily upgrade to the new version. Just navigate to “store design” >> “shopping cart buttons” on your control panel.

The only thing to keep in mind is that if you decide to change, you must switch ALL instances of the old code style in your web pages  over to the new URL. Otherwise your shopping cart won’t work properly. In other words it’s a great opportunity for your favourite “search & replace” text tool to show what it’s made of!

(And in case you’re looking for just such a tool, and you’re running Windows, why not check out http://www.funduc.com/search_replace.htm. We’ve used it for years, and it’s excellent).

Web-form-buddy has a number of options for including “real time” information with the data from your form submissions. For example, as well as the time and date of the form submission, you can obtain the user’s IP address.

Now we’ve taken that a step further, and Web-form-buddy can calculate the country from the IP address and include that in the form data if you wish.

This option is available from your form control panel if you select your form, then “configure” >> “data options” >> “real time data”.