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https://github.com/mocra/custom_google_forms

Publish Google Forms with your own custom theme via a simple Rails application that does everything for you
https://github.com/mocra/custom_google_forms

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Publish Google Forms with your own custom theme via a simple Rails application that does everything for you

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# Customized Google Forms



Google Form Customized



Google Forms are a great, free way to collect information from anyone, stored directly into a Google Spreadsheet, and then have Google notify you each time a form is submitted (optionally). The downside is that you can only use one of their pre-packaged themes. You can't have your company logo and corporate "look".



Pooey to Google, I say.



Want to truly customized Google Forms? Fork this repository, customize the CSS, DOM and images, and deploy to Heroku. You can then host/customize any number of Google Forms.



For example, here is an original [bare Google Form](http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/mocra.com/viewform?formkey=dFo0LXQyYmlEV2dXcVJ6WjRweW9vRnc6MA) and here is a [fully customized version](http://forms.mocra.com/railsdev), including form validation and thank you page.



It's fully a dynamic, thin layer on top of Google Forms. If you change your Google Form, your custom form application automatically changes.



## How to use Google Forms?



Perhaps read [this docco](http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87809)? Essentially if you can access Google Spreadsheets, you can create a Google Form (which automatically creates and updates a Google Spreadsheet based on the fields and form submissions).



## Fork and Customize



It's really simple to play with and customize Google Forms:



    gem install github

    cd ~/Sites

    gh clone mocra/custom-google-forms yourdomain-google-forms

    cd yourdomain-google-forms

    script/server



Go to [http://localhost:3000/google_forms/new](http://localhost:3000/google_forms/new) and add a Google Form:



My Google Forms - New



The "Slug" is the URL path people will follow. That is, a slug "railsdev" maps to [http://forms.mocra.com/railsdev](http://forms.mocra.com/railsdev).



The "Form Key" field takes either the [Form URL](http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/mocra.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFo0LXQyYmlEV2dXcVJ6WjRweW9vRnc6MA) or just the formkey parameter (e.g. dFo0LXQyYmlEV2dXcVJ6WjRweW9vRnc6MA) from when you view the live form.



Press "Create" and follow the slug url to view your Google Form through your own customized style.



Well, initially you'll see the Mocra style. Let's fix that.



# Default Theme



First, fork the github repository so that you can push your style changes to your own repo.



    gh fork



Now, edit public/stylesheets/style.css to your tastes.



Please don't reuse our style. Aside from having the :mocra logo at the top, it would be weird if your form looked like our forms. I guess you might as well have used the default Google Form themes?



# Heroku Deployment



Let's not get fancy, let's just deploy your fork to Heroku. It's free. It's simple. You'll be done in two minutes.



To get your copy of the application deployed to [heroku](http://heroku.com):



    gem install heroku

    heroku create yourdomain-google-forms

    git push heroku master

    heroku rake db:migrate



Two optional environment variables:



    heroku config:add GOOGLE_ANALYTICS='YOURCODE'



If specified, Google Analytics will be included on all pages (including the custom Google Forms page).



    heroku config:add EXPECTED_DOMAIN='some.yourdomain.com'



If specified, 'yourdomain-google-forms.heroku.com/someform' automatically redirects to 'some.domain.com/someform'. 



For example, for http://forms.mocra.com we used:



    heroku config:add GOOGLE_ANALYTICS='UA-5370510-4'

    heroku config:add EXPECTED_DOMAIN='forms.mocra.com'



# Getting Started



Once deployed, go to the /google_forms/new URL and add your first form. Once it is validated and added, you can start using it using the links shown.



# License



Copyright (c) 2010 Dr Nic Williams, Odin Dutton from Mocra



Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining

a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the

"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including

without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,

distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to

permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to

the following conditions:



The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be

included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.



THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND

NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE

LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION

OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION

WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.