Gathering information

Drupal includes the Contact module which is adequate if you want a simple form.  If you want different kinds of fields and extra functionality such viewing the results in a table or downloading them as a spreadsheet then ‎Webform‎ is the module for you.

  1. Enable the webform module
  2. Goto: Content management >Create content > Webform
  3. Fill out the fields as you see fit and save

On the next page you will see the Form components tab.  This is where you create and edit your fields.
 

Let's create a standard form that takes:

  • Firstname
  • Surname
  • Sex
  • Date of birth
  • An area for them to write about themselves
  • Photo

You'll see several columns:

  • Name: where you enter the fieldname as it appears on your form
  • Type: which is the type of the field
  • Value: shows the default value if entered
  • Mandatory: the user must fill out the field
  • E-mail: the field will be included in the email to you.

Lets now add some fields

  1. Enter 'Firstname'
  2. Select 'textfield'
  3. Set 'Mandatory'
  4. Click 'Add'
  5. All default options are fine so click 'Save'
  6. Repeat for 'Surname'
  7. Enter 'Sex'
  8. Select 'select'
  9. On separate lines enter 'Male' and 'Female' and save (The rest is fine but if you wanted checkboxes instead of radio buttons then select 'Multiple' and if you wanted the options presented as a list then select 'Listbox')
  10. Enter 'Date of birth'
  11. Select 'date'
  12. In 'Default value' enter 'today'
  13. Adjust 'Start year' and 'End year' if you need to and save
  14. Enter 'About you'
  15. Select 'textarea' and save
  16. Enter 'Photo'
  17. Select 'file'
  18. The defaults are fine but you'll see there are lots of formats available.  You may find the Max Upload Size of 800kb a bit small so you could set it to 2000kb or larger
  19. Click 'View' at the top of the page and you will see your form
  20. Go ahead and submit the form with some values
  21. Click 'Results'
  22. You'll now see: 'Submissions', 'Analysis', 'Table', 'Download' and 'Clear'.

The most useful are 'Table' and 'Download'. Table will show you all the submissions with links to the files that were uploaded and Download will allow you to download submissions as a spreadsheet or a more appropriate format for your needs.