Installation instruction
Installation file
After the purchase of the Visforms Subscription is completed sucessfully, we will mail you the installation file. This file is named vfsubscription.zip.
Alternatively, as long as you have an active Visforms Subscription you can always download the installation file of the latest Visforms Subscription version from this website. Please log in with the user name which you used to buy the subscription. Then change to the "Downloads" section of our website. In the column "Official Releases" the Visforms Subscription download is the second item from the top. (Right under the download of Visforms itself). Please click "View releases in this category" and then "View files" and then "Download now". Save the download on your computer.
The Visforms Subscription contains several extensions and files which are installed as a so called package installation. Package installation means, that there is only one step, only one installation, required, which will install all feature of the Visforms Subscription at once.
Installation
Please go to "Extensions" >> "Manage" >> "Install" in the administration panel of your website. Select the tab "Upload Package File" there. Click the "Browse" button and select the installation file (vfsubscription.zip) on your computer. Then click "Upload & Install".
If the installation of the Visforms Subscription was successful, you will get a corresponding message.
Error messages during installation
Error
The Visforms Subscription requires a running Visforms installation on your website. In addition there are requirements about the minimum Visforms version, which depend on the version of the Visforms Subscription which you try to install. If Visforms is missing on your website or the version in less than the required minimum, the Visforms Subscription cannot be installed and any try will be stopped immediately with the previous error message. In order to fix the problem, please make sure, that the proper Visforms version is installed on your website, first.
Error
If the Visforms Subscription is already installed on your website and you try to install (or update) it, this is only possible if the version of the new installation/update is higher than the version that is already installed. If you try for example again to install the Visforms Subscription 1.0.0 on a website where Visforms Subscription 1.0.0 is installed, this will be stopped immediately with the previous error message.
How can I check if the installation was really successfull?
Although Joomla! has a really advanced installation manager, errors during an installation sometimes cause a half-finished installation to fail. This can result in inconsistent files and data. It is very difficult to mend such inconsistencies afterwards. Therefore our installations are build in a way, that they either run completely or not. We first check, that the necessary requirements are met. If not, the installation will not start. If so, it will run til the end and will catch any errors which might happen half way through.
If it looks, as if your Subscription installation was successful but you have a feeling that something does not work as expected, for example that you cannot find the field type "Calculation" or "Pagebreak", it might be possible that there was a hidden error during the installation.
The installation of the Visforms Subscriptions adds a number of extensions to your Joomla! installation. After a successful installation, these extensions are listed, when you go to "Extensions" >> "Manage" >> "Manage" in the administration panel of your website. You can use the search tools in this view ("Select Type" and "Select Folder") in order to check for the existance.
List of extension which are installed with the Visforms Subscription:
| Select Type | Name | Select Folder |
|---|---|---|
| Package | Vfsubscription Package | Leave empty |
| File | files_vfsubsfiles | Leave empty |
| Plugin | Plugin Content Visforms Form View | content |
| Plugin | Plugin Content Visforms Data View | content |
| Plugin | Visforms - Custom Mail Address | visforms |
| Plugin | Plugin Visforms - Mail Attachments | visforms |
| Plugin | Plugin Visforms - Maxsubmissions | visforms |
| Plugin | Plugin Visforms - Delay Double Registration | visforms |
| Plugin | Search - Visformsdata | search |
If any of these extension is missing, this will indicate, that the installation of the Visforms Subscription was not completely successful.
The following extensions should not be listed.
| Select Type | Name | Select Folder |
|---|---|---|
| File | files_vfbt3layouts | Leave empty |
| File | files_vfcustomfieldtypes | Leave empty |
| File | files_vffrontedit | Leave empty |
| File | files_vfmultipageforms | Leave empty |
| File | files_vfsearchbar | Leave empty |
If any of this extensions is listed in the extension manager of your website, this will indicate, that the installation of the Visforms Subscription was not completely successful.
Fix installation problems
There are extensions in the list which should not be there
Before the indroduction of the Visforms Subscription package installation there were individual extensions with individual installations for some features. If you install the new Visforms Subscription package installation on a website where there are such older single feature extension installations, these older extensions should be removed with the Visforms Subscription package installation, automatically. Those features are now packed in the new files_vfsubsfiles extension. If you still see those older extensions (from the second of the two lists above) in the extension manager, then uninstalling them was not successfull. Please uninstall the extension(s) manually, one by one. Afterwards you have to run the installation of the files_vfsubsfiles extensions once again. (See "Some extensions are missing") .
Some extensions are missing
If any extension which is shipped with the Visforms Subscription (from the first of the two lists above) is missing after you run the Visforms Subscprition installation, you can install it individually. Please unzip the installation file (vfsubscription.zip). The individual installation files of the Visforms Subscription extensions are located in the package folder of the unzip file. You go to "Extensions" >> "Manage" >> "Install" in the administration panel of your website and install the missing extension as described above.
If you deal with a complete new installation of the Visforms Subscription and have not made any configuration settings yet, alternatively you can just try to fix problems by uninstalling the Package (Vfsubscription Package) and installing it anew afterwards.
Enable Plugins
Some Visforms Subscription features depend on the use of plugins. Currently these are the following plugins/feature:
- Custom Mail Address (Folder: visforms, Name: Visforms - Custom Mail Address)
- Mail Attachments (Folder: visforms, Name: Plugin Visforms - Mail Attachments)
- Content Plugin Form View (Folder: Content, Name: Plugin Content Visforms Form View)
- Content Plugin Data View (Folder: Content, Name: Plugin Content Visforms Data View)
- Limit Maximum Submissions (Folder: visforms, Name: Plugin Visforms - Maxsubmissions)
- Delay Double Registration (Folder: visforms, Name: Plugin Visforms - Delay Double Registration)
- Use Joomla! search component with Visforms data (Folder: search, Name: Search - Visformsdata)
If you want to use one of these features, the respective plugin must be published, which has to be done manually. You can publish/unpublish plugins in the Extension Manager of yoru website ( "Extensions" >> "Manage" >> "Manage" in the administration panel of your website). You can use the search tools in this view to better find the plugin. (Select type "plugin" and select folder according to the list above). Then publish the plugin.
Any other Visforms Subcription feature (which is not listed above) should be available with your Visforms form, field or menu configuration immediately after the installation of the Subscprition, without any further action.
Uninstall the Subscription
Go to "Extensions" >> "Manage" >> "Manage" in the administration panel of your website. Use the search tools. Select "Package" as type. Check the box in the line "Vfsubscription Package ". Click the "Uninstall" button.
This will remove the Visforms Subscription completely from your system, including all its extensions, files and data base tables. Features of the Visforms Subscription can then no longer be used.. Any configuration settings which you have made with extensions of the Visforms Subscription (for example a configuration of mail attachments in the form configuration) will be completely removed and will be lost, even if you install the Visforms Subscription again (you have to set it up again, then).
By uninstalling the Visforms Subscription, the Visforms installation itself of course is not effected.