The Form Entries Data Source

Turn what visitors have submitted into a table. Pick a form built with the Form Builder, choose the fields that should become columns, put them in order - and the submissions appear as a table you can style, sort, filter and export like any other.

When to use it

Choose Form Entries when the data you want to show is data your own visitors have sent: registrations for an event, entries to a competition, a directory people add themselves to, a log of enquiries for an internal page.

Good uses	Think twice
A public list that people add themselves to - attendees, exhibitors, members of a club.	Anything containing personal details. Those submissions were sent to you, not to the world.
An internal page, behind a login, showing the enquiries received this week.	A form whose fields change often - the columns are chosen by field, and a renamed field has to be re-picked.
A running total or count that a ruleset can summarise.	Moderation is needed before publication. Nothing here holds a submission back.

Everything submitted to that form, for the fields you choose, is shown to whoever can see the page. There is no approval step and no filter. If the form collects an e-mail address or a telephone number, do not put those fields in a table on a public page - choose only the fields that were meant to be seen, and put the page behind an access level if there is any doubt.

The form

Components › Tabulizer › Data Sources › New Data Source, then set Source Type to Form Entries.

The Source Params card of a Form Entries data source in the Joomla administrator, showing the common fields, the Add header row checkbox, and the Form fields builder with its Select Form dropdown, the note that no stored FormBuilder submissions were found, and the Available fields and Selected fields areas.

Field	What it does
Form	The dropdown reading - Select Form -. It lists every form that has stored submissions, by title and identifier. Required.
Available fields	The fields of the chosen form, once you have chosen one. Labels, headings, submit buttons and CAPTCHAs are left out, since they hold no data.
Selected fields / column order	Drag fields here. Each becomes one column, in the order you arrange them. At least one is required.
Add header row / Header row	A row of your own labels above the submissions, built exactly as in the database source.
Empty results message	What to show before anybody has submitted anything - which, for a new form, is the normal state.

The dropdown is built from the submissions that exist, not from the forms that exist. A form nobody has filled in yet does not appear, and the builder says so plainly: No stored FormBuilder submissions were found. Submit the form once yourself and it appears.

Choosing the columns

Pick the form

Its fields appear under Available fields.

Drag across only what belongs on the page

This is the privacy decision, and it is the one that matters. A field left in Available is never read.

Arrange them

Drag within Selected fields until the order is the column order you want.

Add headings

Tick Add header row and type one label per selected field, in the same order.

Preview

You will see the real submissions. Check that nothing personal has slipped in.

What the table contains

Behaviour	Detail
One row per submission	In the order they were received, oldest first.
One column per selected field	In the order you arranged them.
Missing answers become empty cells	A submission made before a field existed, or one that skipped an optional field, still produces a complete row.
Multiple answers are joined	A field that accepts several values - a set of tick boxes - arrives as one cell holding all of them.
The header row is added only when there are submissions	An empty form produces your empty-results message rather than a table of headings with nothing under it.

If you want the newest first, or only this month's, that is a job for the ruleset - sort the table on a date column, or filter it. The data source always reads them all, oldest first.

Keeping it current and safe

Point	What to do
New submissions should appear at once	Leave the cache off. Reading submissions is a cheap query on your own database.
The list is long and public	Cache it, and turn on Server Side with a paginated ruleset so the browser fetches one page at a time.
The page should not be public	Set the Joomla access level on the page - not on the data source. The data source has no idea who is looking.
You changed the form	Reopen the data source. A renamed or re-created field is a new field, and has to be dragged across again.
You want to see the raw submissions	Components › Tabulizer › Form Submissions lists them, independently of any data source.

Common questions

The form dropdown is empty.

No submissions have been stored yet. The list is built from what has actually been received - submit the form once and it appears.

My form is missing from the list.

Same reason, or its submissions were deleted. Check Form Submissions.

A field I want is not in Available fields.

Labels, headings, submit buttons and CAPTCHAs are excluded because they carry no answer. Anything else should be there.

It will not save.

Both a form and at least one selected field are required.

Old rows have empty cells in a new column.

Those submissions were made before the field existed. That is expected, and the rows stay aligned.

Can I hide a submission?

Not from here. Delete it in Form Submissions, or filter it out in the ruleset.

How do I show the newest first?

Sort the table in the ruleset. The data source always returns them oldest first.

Build a form entries data source

In your Joomla administrator: Components › Tabulizer › Data Sources › New Data Source.

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