BF Survey Pro for J1.5
Version
1.4.2 (last update on Jul 14, 2011)
Rating
Compatibility
Votes
Favoured
17
License
GPLv2 or later
Commercial
Type
Views
21481
Date Added
10 November 2008
Includes features such as conditional branching, ability to insert content plugins such as AllVideos, SQL lookup for question options and dynamic reporting with excel export. Customise the look via CSS. Add unlimited surveys to your site. Language files included for English, Netherlands, Greek, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, French, Polish, Swedish, Slovak, Italian, Hungarian and Spanish.
Support forum where your questions are answered promptly by developers.
System requirements: Joomla 1.5.5 or greater.
Images
This is a well-made extension. It is easy to install and set up new surveys. This isn't just a form-to-email survey tool; there is a very rich backend administrative area that allows you to check results, look at stats and do reporting. Great support, too -- I emailed them with a question and got an answer back right away.
I had been following this component for awhile as I worked on my client's website. At the time it wasn't 1.6 compatable, but as soon as the beta came available which supported the newest version I immediately paid for the component and havn't regretted it. I've came across some bugs which I reported, and the author has worked diligently on fixing them. Support response has been very good. This is a very flexible component and allows for anything I've been able to think of so far for a survey app. It's still getting better.
This is a very flexible, easy to us, and yet powerful survey component. It has many options for collecting data, and I found everything I was looking for. The support is really great and it's been one of the best interactions I've had in any professional encounter. I can only recommend it. It's really great
I meticulously tested out all of of the survey components and ended up getting the survey pro version for three important reasons:
1. It was the most user friendly on both front and back ends from installation to application
2. Provides a crisp, professional looking survey right out-the-box, as well as optional css configuration.
3. Top-notch support from the forum and docs. Most of all, great help from the developer with super quick response times. VERY HELPFUL!
Overall time saver, especially for a Joomla non-coder like myself. The recently released bf-quiz offers even greater flexibility than the pro version for comprehensive data handling. Well done!
1. It was the most user friendly on both front and back ends from installation to application
2. Provides a crisp, professional looking survey right out-the-box, as well as optional css configuration.
3. Top-notch support from the forum and docs. Most of all, great help from the developer with super quick response times. VERY HELPFUL!
Overall time saver, especially for a Joomla non-coder like myself. The recently released bf-quiz offers even greater flexibility than the pro version for comprehensive data handling. Well done!
I tried a few survey components, and decided on BF Survey Pro which I purchased, and happy I did. It has done everything I wanted and more. Any questions I had were addressed timely with solid responses. The support is what impressed me the most. Thank you Tim, Regards Mark,
The free version seems to have problems with various templates. I use a shape5.com template on my site and ran into a problem with it not seeing the tabbed php file in my index.php, So I installed this on a fresh Joomla site, default template, no other addons or modules installed.
The first error occurred with adding it to the menu, and just clicking the survey to view it. While I first placed this on my live site, I ran into a common error mentioned in there forum for not finding a certain .php file. In my case I had an error for the tab.php file in my templates folder, but the file is clearly there and working on all other parts of my site since it's referred to in the index.php of my template. So this seemed odd to me that I'd run into this error.
I uploaded a test site, put the free version on a default Joomla template and everything was fine. I filled out survey, and when it went to the results, I ended up with a database mysql error mentioning that it wasn't seeing the table with the name, company and email in the tables for the results.
This is because the table simply wasn't in the database for it to see the results. I checked my database for the table it mentions and it wasn't there.
Granted, I tried this right out of the box, I had the menu setup to see the Example survey, and had never run thru the questions themselves. My whole reason for even trying the free version was to see how it handled results. I wanted to see the email, and because you don't get to see these things with the demo version on there site you have no idea how it outputs the results.
I don't know if the encoded part of the file is the reason for my initial error or not, but in terms of results, if someone tries the free version first, it should at the very least install that example table in the database so they can run thru a survey first to see how it all works. Newbies (I don't consider myself new, but I'm not familiar with creating tables in databases either), don't know how to create tables in database, so this is something that should come with the standard free version.
While I didn't register in there forum, I made a valid and honest effort to search out my problems. The first error was mention in there forum many times, but depending on the template used, the php error is different for the file it is looking at.
Where as I couldn't find the database error whatsoever in the forum and while I could have registered, I didn't really have the time. I needed to get the survey up and working, and because I couldn't find any real errors on commercial version I took a chance and purchased it.
What a totally different experience the commercial version offers.
(Note: if you try free version first, be sure you delete any database tables that the component leaves behind or you will still experience problems, once I tried the component out of the box, all errors were gone)
This is an exceptional component. I purchased the other survey addon, but ran into problems with the results page and email. Both survey addons are completely customizable for front end, but the results and email for other addon are not customizable.
This works right out of the box the way it should. I had no problems with setting up a survey, creating the category, then the questions, I love it has a no nonsense approach to it, in that you create your question, choose the data type, add the options, even creating the field name for the question and whether it appears horizontally or vertically. Simply put I had my survey put together within the hour. I customized the layout, and tested it. Everything went as I thought it should have gone.
I would like to see the statistics page have a customizable layout...
Perhaps a break line between the questions so in templates it doesn't look all clumped together.
The ability to say which stats I want viewed on the live site over which ones should be there.
Stats page should not need all the same parameters when it's created in the menu, it should allow for us to say which questions we don't want to see shown and which we do.
Ability for mandatory fields to show on the survey page itself. There is no mention that a question is a required field so user doesn't know which questions they still need to fill in if they get the error when they click next about the "Some values are not acceptable. Please retry window" Having this be more specific would be nice.
For newbies, you might try in the css file to use a line above each css function with something like /*what part of site I need to be changed for*/ such as /* colors for question cell/table here */ so that users can easily change the colors without trying to figure out what they are changing on there own.
Results email to have date/time option for survey being filled out.
Stats page doesn't produce results for textarea, instead you see a line that says: Question type=Textarea
Overall, I am pleased with this component and find it well worth it's price tag.
Thank you!!
The first error occurred with adding it to the menu, and just clicking the survey to view it. While I first placed this on my live site, I ran into a common error mentioned in there forum for not finding a certain .php file. In my case I had an error for the tab.php file in my templates folder, but the file is clearly there and working on all other parts of my site since it's referred to in the index.php of my template. So this seemed odd to me that I'd run into this error.
I uploaded a test site, put the free version on a default Joomla template and everything was fine. I filled out survey, and when it went to the results, I ended up with a database mysql error mentioning that it wasn't seeing the table with the name, company and email in the tables for the results.
This is because the table simply wasn't in the database for it to see the results. I checked my database for the table it mentions and it wasn't there.
Granted, I tried this right out of the box, I had the menu setup to see the Example survey, and had never run thru the questions themselves. My whole reason for even trying the free version was to see how it handled results. I wanted to see the email, and because you don't get to see these things with the demo version on there site you have no idea how it outputs the results.
I don't know if the encoded part of the file is the reason for my initial error or not, but in terms of results, if someone tries the free version first, it should at the very least install that example table in the database so they can run thru a survey first to see how it all works. Newbies (I don't consider myself new, but I'm not familiar with creating tables in databases either), don't know how to create tables in database, so this is something that should come with the standard free version.
While I didn't register in there forum, I made a valid and honest effort to search out my problems. The first error was mention in there forum many times, but depending on the template used, the php error is different for the file it is looking at.
Where as I couldn't find the database error whatsoever in the forum and while I could have registered, I didn't really have the time. I needed to get the survey up and working, and because I couldn't find any real errors on commercial version I took a chance and purchased it.
What a totally different experience the commercial version offers.
(Note: if you try free version first, be sure you delete any database tables that the component leaves behind or you will still experience problems, once I tried the component out of the box, all errors were gone)
This is an exceptional component. I purchased the other survey addon, but ran into problems with the results page and email. Both survey addons are completely customizable for front end, but the results and email for other addon are not customizable.
This works right out of the box the way it should. I had no problems with setting up a survey, creating the category, then the questions, I love it has a no nonsense approach to it, in that you create your question, choose the data type, add the options, even creating the field name for the question and whether it appears horizontally or vertically. Simply put I had my survey put together within the hour. I customized the layout, and tested it. Everything went as I thought it should have gone.
I would like to see the statistics page have a customizable layout...
Perhaps a break line between the questions so in templates it doesn't look all clumped together.
The ability to say which stats I want viewed on the live site over which ones should be there.
Stats page should not need all the same parameters when it's created in the menu, it should allow for us to say which questions we don't want to see shown and which we do.
Ability for mandatory fields to show on the survey page itself. There is no mention that a question is a required field so user doesn't know which questions they still need to fill in if they get the error when they click next about the "Some values are not acceptable. Please retry window" Having this be more specific would be nice.
For newbies, you might try in the css file to use a line above each css function with something like /*what part of site I need to be changed for*/ such as /* colors for question cell/table here */ so that users can easily change the colors without trying to figure out what they are changing on there own.
Results email to have date/time option for survey being filled out.
Stats page doesn't produce results for textarea, instead you see a line that says: Question type=Textarea
Overall, I am pleased with this component and find it well worth it's price tag.
Thank you!!
This product is straight forward and simple to use. Well worth the $59 AUD for the pro version.
The only feature that was lacking is the ability to collect statistics on groupings of questions, rather than on each individual question. If it's there and I just missed it, then oops!
Overall, still pretty awesome.
The only feature that was lacking is the ability to collect statistics on groupings of questions, rather than on each individual question. If it's there and I just missed it, then oops!
Overall, still pretty awesome.
Tried the limited free version and found it very quick and easy. I was up and running in 30 minutes !!
This is very good time when you take into account that i am a complete newbie at Joomla.
I checked out other versions but found they either didn't do what i wanted or were too complicated.
I emailed the developer with questions and he emailed me back very quickly - even though he was on holiday and responding via a blackberry. Support so far is outstanding.
There were a few things i requested he add to the extension - my wish list - and he had already put them on his to do list when he next updates.
For quick and easy form making i recomend.
If you want all bells and whistles there are other ones available but as i stated, to me a newbie - they were too complicated.
This is very good time when you take into account that i am a complete newbie at Joomla.
I checked out other versions but found they either didn't do what i wanted or were too complicated.
I emailed the developer with questions and he emailed me back very quickly - even though he was on holiday and responding via a blackberry. Support so far is outstanding.
There were a few things i requested he add to the extension - my wish list - and he had already put them on his to do list when he next updates.
For quick and easy form making i recomend.
If you want all bells and whistles there are other ones available but as i stated, to me a newbie - they were too complicated.
I nearly missed this product because I didn't notice the free trial option! I'm glad I did try this product as I found it very simple to set up basic client surveys. I have used FacileForms, Fabrik, and RS Forms Pro and they all have their place in my design business. BF Survey Pro installed quickly and easily. Worked first time. Most importantly clients found it easy to use. The developer has listened to suggestions and feedback and has already added new features in a matter of weeks. Even with the developer being on the opposite side of the world to me with huge time zone variance; he still responds to queries and problems in good time and with helpful solutions. This product is not as advanced as some of the heavy duty survey tools and that means the learning curve is short and easy. For the average user who just wants a simple survey tool then I recommend you try this component out, you won't be disappointed.
I'd tried a few components for surveys and first downloaded the free version as a trial and found that it installed easily and was simple to configure. If I had the time I could have customised it even further, however, not being a coder and with a few big sites, I felt I should bite the bullet and try the pro version. It was well worth it. It installed seamlessly and provided a range of options and functions that suited the needs of my clients with more complex questions and categories. I'd recommend it to anyone. The developer is quick to respond to any issues/problems and provides helpful hints and updates.
Nice work.
Nice work.