4 ms·

Show HN: Paperstencil – cross between word processor and web form

72 points by selvan 12y ago

lukeholder 12y ago
Interesting concept. At our company we use MachForm (http://www.appnitro.com/ http://www.appnitro.com/) It really is a php clone (but more powerful) of WUFOO (http://www.wufoo.com/ http://www.wufoo.com/) but no subscription needed.
afternooner 12y ago
Interesting, it's definitely a competitor to SharePoint if coupled with other services. There is just something about the graphics that makes me feel it's dated unfortunately. And apparently vulnerable to Heartbleed.
- selvan 12y ago
  Will certainly improve UI graphics & icons at the earliest..Will check for heartbleed vulnerability immediately.
- selvan 12y ago
  heartbleed vulnerability is gone. Have fixed it.
edwardio 12y ago
This looks great! It would look better if the font wasn't monospaced (if you're looking for suggestions, I love the free Google font "Oxygen").
adinb 12y ago
This looks handy, I might use this as a part of a super-side project to get my 73yo relative to stop creating exams using MS Word. (Years and years of exams/tests, locked up inside zillions of MS Word files!) Can this handle nested conditional forms?
- selvan 12y ago
  It doesn't have support for nested forms.
bhattisatish 12y ago
Looks good. I love the concept. I have couple of questions: Is it possible to create lookup tables which then can be used in the form for data input? For e.g. Contacts: that get populated from my address book table? etc ... Also is there a workflow process in the pipeline? Good work!
- selvan 12y ago
  Code shall be easily extended to accommodate these features. Shoot an email to selvan@bitstat.com, will help you on that.
frik 12y ago
Maybe something to replace the deprecated Microsoft InfoPath form services on SharePoint server. If one can write "form rules" in JavaScript or like InfoPath in a graphical rule language, that would be awesome.
joeimfeld 12y ago
I've got to recommend SaaS Formstack (http://www.formstack.com http://www.formstack.com) - All the correct security procedures are taken care of by them plus there team is extremely responsive.
username42 12y ago
A datepicker seems missing.
aytekin 12y ago
Congratulations! This is the best implementation of narrative form builder I have seen. And, it is admirable that you are releasing the code for your service with Apache license. We (JotForm) tried to do one on an internal hackathon ( http://www.jotform.com/narrative-forms/ http://www.jotform.com/narrative-forms/ ) but it didn't work really well and we didn't receive much excitement from our users about it. So, we didn't develop it further. But, I've always found narrative forms amazing. I wonder why more sites are not using it.
stfnfhrmnn 12y ago
looks good! Is there some functionality to save and resume later (from end-customer perspective)? Would be nice if I could give out unique URLs to a form, which then autosave anything entered there.
elwell 12y ago
I think that serif font looks bad. Especially when it's small like in the footer.
elwell 12y ago
Overall design of product is not very good. Also, you should probably not use the word "Render" for a consumer app; maybe "Publish" or "View"?
- selvan 12y ago
  it is our early release of the product (More focus was on the functionality). We will improve look and feel (such as icons, theme, etc) in general in our next iteration.

72 points by selvan 12y ago

Interesting concept. At our company we use MachForm (http://www.appnitro.com/ http://www.appnitro.com/) It really is a php clone (but more powerful) of WUFOO (http://www.wufoo.com/ http://www.wufoo.com/) but no subscription needed.

afternooner 12y ago

Interesting, it's definitely a competitor to SharePoint if coupled with other services. There is just something about the graphics that makes me feel it's dated unfortunately. And apparently vulnerable to Heartbleed.

selvan 12y ago
Will certainly improve UI graphics & icons at the earliest..Will check for heartbleed vulnerability immediately.
selvan 12y ago
heartbleed vulnerability is gone. Have fixed it.

edwardio 12y ago

This looks great! It would look better if the font wasn't monospaced (if you're looking for suggestions, I love the free Google font "Oxygen").

adinb 12y ago

This looks handy, I might use this as a part of a super-side project to get my 73yo relative to stop creating exams using MS Word. (Years and years of exams/tests, locked up inside zillions of MS Word files!) Can this handle nested conditional forms?

selvan 12y ago
It doesn't have support for nested forms.

bhattisatish 12y ago

Looks good. I love the concept. I have couple of questions: Is it possible to create lookup tables which then can be used in the form for data input? For e.g. Contacts: that get populated from my address book table? etc ... Also is there a workflow process in the pipeline? Good work!

selvan 12y ago
Code shall be easily extended to accommodate these features. Shoot an email to selvan@bitstat.com, will help you on that.

frik 12y ago

Maybe something to replace the deprecated Microsoft InfoPath form services on SharePoint server. If one can write "form rules" in JavaScript or like InfoPath in a graphical rule language, that would be awesome.

joeimfeld 12y ago

I've got to recommend SaaS Formstack (http://www.formstack.com http://www.formstack.com) - All the correct security procedures are taken care of by them plus there team is extremely responsive.

username42 12y ago

A datepicker seems missing.

aytekin 12y ago

Congratulations! This is the best implementation of narrative form builder I have seen. And, it is admirable that you are releasing the code for your service with Apache license. We (JotForm) tried to do one on an internal hackathon ( http://www.jotform.com/narrative-forms/ http://www.jotform.com/narrative-forms/ ) but it didn't work really well and we didn't receive much excitement from our users about it. So, we didn't develop it further. But, I've always found narrative forms amazing. I wonder why more sites are not using it.

stfnfhrmnn 12y ago

looks good! Is there some functionality to save and resume later (from end-customer perspective)? Would be nice if I could give out unique URLs to a form, which then autosave anything entered there.

elwell 12y ago

I think that serif font looks bad. Especially when it's small like in the footer.

elwell 12y ago

Overall design of product is not very good. Also, you should probably not use the word "Render" for a consumer app; maybe "Publish" or "View"?

selvan 12y ago
it is our early release of the product (More focus was on the functionality). We will improve look and feel (such as icons, theme, etc) in general in our next iteration.