aiContactSafe 
An AJAX driven Joomla! 1.5.x component to place a contact form anywhere on your web page with any number of custom fields of different types, including attachments.
In the component pack you also get:
- mod_aiContactSafe : a modul to display the contact form in any position of your template
- plg_aiContactSafeForm : a plugin to place the contact form in an article.
- plg_aiContactSafeLink a plugin to place a link to the contact form in an article.
You can install and/or upgrade any of them from the Control Panel of aiContactSafe and see more information about all of them in the articles of algisinfo.com.
Some of the features of aiContactSafe are :
- CAPTCHA with the possibility to specify code words for each language or random strings, easily integrated in your design by settings the colors and background color to use
- profiles ( multiple forms with different custom fields )
- unlimited custom fields of different types ( Textbox, Checkbox, Checkbox list, Combobox, Radio list, Editbox, Date, Email, Email list, Hidden, Separator, Joomla contact, File )
- add a prefix or suffix to the field
- redirect to specified page when the message is successfully sent
- any number of attachments working with or without AJAX
- SEF support through ARTIO JoomSEF or sh404SEF, or you can use the Joomla's native SEF
- multilingual support ( language files & Joom!Fish )
- language files for English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Serbian (Cyrillic), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian ( some not completed )
- specify contact information with a WYSIWYG editor
- detailed instructions for each administration page in English ( and some of the translation mentioned above )
- block users by IP
- block messages that contain words from a list you can define
- automatically ban IP that sends messages with blocked words in a specified period of time
- record the messages in the database with the IP from which they've been sent ( can be disabled from Control Panel )
- extended configuration capabilities
- MVC architecture
- email templates
- order the fields for each profile
Installation: Was pretty seamless, however the dependent images do not show up on the backend nor on the frontend (IE8). Instead I get a box with a red X were images should appear. In my mind I see a box with a sad face :(.
Configuration: I think one of the most important fields in the 'profile' section is the "Send To" email address. I was a little disappointed that this was buried in the middle of the form in the profile page. I was frustrated trying to figure out where the field was ... I guess I'm just impatient. By default, the tool uses the Joomla global contact email address.
Customization: Some CSS attributes on fields ignored. Padding and Margin top and bottom are ignored. What I ended up doing is creating "Spacer" fields with the style attribute 'display:none' to get spaces between fields. I used one of the Artisteer templates I designed with our site. So these CSS issues could be a result of interactions with Artisteer -- or not? I was expecting the custom CSS tags to appear in the source, but it looks like most of ai's stuff is handled via JavaScript.
In Action: The security graphic overlaps the "Not Readable? Change Text." link which makes it nearly unclickable. I tried to modify the CSS attribtues, and again hit the wall with the top/bottom tag issue (I also tried using height). If I make the security text tag not transparent, then you can see the background obstructing the item.
Don't get me wrong, this sort of tool will save you lots of time, and we may temporarily use it until we can find something better. I understand there are a multitude of configurations to interact with. But based on my experience, it is definitely not ready for commercial use.
Thank you for your feed-back. I'll address each point of your review here although most of them are largely discussed on the forum and a solution was found for each and every problem raised on it.
The major problem you seam to have is that you don't understand that the CSS of the template is loaded after the ones of all the extensions and so it overrides any attributes not properly set in the CSS of the extensions. On top of this Artisteer is renowned for creating problems with CSS.
- Installation : Your the first to mention this in almost 3 years since the extension was published. I'm guessing you had some server problems and not all the files were copied on it.
- Configuration : I understand your point but I don't think those fields are so important because ( one ) usually the destination is the default one in the global configuration, ( second ) the destination could be changed in several other ways, ( third ) I know for a fact that others are considering other fields more important and I can't make everybody happy.
- Customization : Entirely not an aiContactSafe problem since the design is controlled by the template. If the CSS is loaded and not overridden by the template it will take effect no matter how I code the extension. If you had just done a simple search on the forum you would had found this.
- In Action : A CSS problem again. It was discussed on the forum a lot and fixed numerous times with simple CSS code specific to each template.
- Your experience and the commercial use : It is actually used on many commercial sites without any problems, but nobody is saying that you should use it. Exactly the contrary, if it is to complex for you and you're not willing to ask for help or at least to try to search for a solution, please don't use it.
Anyway, a great thanks to all brains worked behind this awesome product.
Getting only 5 stars reviews was getting boring, so thank you for your feed-back. :)
For everybody else, the support is exactly the same as described by the rest of reviewers. Please test it for yourself on my forum or by email.
I had problem with sh404sef but when i check the "sef-ext" folder the file for aiContactSafe (file name: com_aicontactsafe ) was missing, not sure how.
But when the file was uploaded all the problem got solved.
All in all great component and zero errors. Perfect job.
It just not sends email when form is filled, it also save it to database and you can manage the data in database.
Great Lead Generation Form.
The only feature which i will request is auto upgrade facility. I did not find any button to upgrade the component from older version to new one. I am sure that is on the check list already.
One more setting which i would like to have is pre-text which will be visible just above the form. ( It possible that i missed it if its already there )
Thanks and All the best
Regards
Amit Patekar
Thank you very much for your feed-back.
The update button was not on my "to do" list, but it is now.
The pre-text feature is already in the extension. You can access it by clicking "Edit contact" in the profile and edit the text there. You can even select the position of that text relative to the contact form ( top, bottom, left or right ).
Alternatively you could use one or more separator fields to add text anywhere in the form, including on top of all the other fields.
Please contact me on the forum or using the contact form of algisinfo.com if you need more help with this.
Best regards,
Alex Dobrin
Aside from my above comment, the extension is extremely easy to install and configure. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Alex answers every post on his forum personally, and therefore has some of the most dedicated support around. He has very good advice, and responds quickly. If you have a problem, he'll help you to solve it. But please check his forum before posting your question as he may of answered your question before!
Although 'aiContactSafe' is currently free to download and use, don't forget to donate to him. He deserves it. This will help Alex to continue his excellent support of his wonderful 'aiContactSafe' software, and maintain his brilliant forum. So download 'aiContactSafe' now, and have some forms on your 'Joomla!' webpages in minutes.
Thanks for this great extension.
BIG Thank you!!
the captcha function is excellent
thank you very much!
Easy to configure and style.
Plus: Excellent support.
One minor glitch submitted to the forum. Algis was very prompt to reply to each of my messages.
Highly recommended.
