This Wiki page provides an overview of Fabrik - for the index of Wiki pages, please click here.
Fabrik is an open source Joomla! application builder that allows you to collect information from users, send it to a MySQL database table, and then be able to present viewers with this information in various ways including:
- Lists - which display a list of all your records submitted through a particular form.
- Forms - to show, add and edit data
- Visualizations - which take data from your database and visualize this through charts, maps, calendars and more.
With Fabrik you can create applications that range in complexity from simple contact
Forms to a job application site or bug tracking system.
How easy is it to create a Fabrik Application
Fabrik has a broad set of functions, both basic and advanced, and with these it is possible to create a broad range of applications.
If you are non-technical and only want a simple application to store and list data, then you can create this purely from the Fabrik administrator interface without writing any PHP or
Javascript code. Just start with
creating your first list.
If you are reasonably technical, and prepared to spend the time learning about Fabrik (from the wiki and other resources on this site) and to write some small pieces of PHP and / or
Javascript, you can create sophisticated applications and
Visualizations. To get prompt support to help you along the learning curve and to get any issues to come across looked at more quickly, a Professional subscription to Fabrikar is recommended.
However, Fabrik cannot possibly provide all the functionality that is potentially possible with PHP,
Javascript and MySQL, so there will be some applications which are just not possible to build using Fabrik. If you are thinking about a using Fabrik for creating a complex application, it is important to think ahead about the design of your database,
Lists,
Forms, etc. and to reduce the risk of starting your development and then finding that Fabrik is unsuitable, the Fabrikar consulting team can review your design.
First steps
Fabrik Core
The bullet points below describe Fabrik's core features.
Lists,
Forms,
Groups,
Elements and
Menu items are the five essential features that you need to understand to develop a simple application and make it available for your users.
Plugins
Plugins provide additional functionality to some of the above features:
Not all plugins are included in the Fabrik core
Installation (see how to
install additional plugins).
Joomla Plugins and Modules
Aside from calling your Fabrik application from Joomla menus, Fabrik integrates with Joomla in the following additional ways:
Fabrik is able to integrate with several other Joomla Extensions in order to e.g. display Fabrik content as part of the content of these other extensions.
Designers
Whilst Joomla's templates define the overall look and feel for your web-site pages, Fabrik has its own templates which define how Fabrik's output looks inside the Joomla templates - and like Joomla, if you need to you can tailor these or develop your own to meet your own specific requirements:
Developers
Fabrik is an open source solution, and as such you are free to change or extend it if you need to:
See also
https://fabrikar.com/forums/index.php?wiki/developers/
Things You Can Do for Fabrik
The small Fabrikar team have developed the core functionality over many years, however as an open source solution Fabrik also benefits from the extra resources that the Fabrik user community can bring to bear. Whilst there is no obligation to do so, we would hope that you would recognise that you benefit from use of this free software by making your own contributions in one or more of the following ways:
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