Do you want to build custom web applications on your WordPress website? Do it quickly and easily with the Formidable Visual Views plugin.
Some of the biggest advantages of building a website on WordPress include ease of use, flexibility, and a library of powerful plugins.
It also doesn’t hurt that even if you have very limited time or little-to-no programming skills, you can use the CMS to build a serviceable online platform for businesses.
However, things start to get tricky when you want to build advanced functionality into your WordPress site. Say you want to add a job board or real estate listings to a website page. Maybe even a user directory, recipe database, or a journal platform.
To get these done, you would typically need 3+ plugins, some external tools, or coding skills. This means more time, effort, and resources. Definitely more than you anticipated when you started building.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Introducing the best WordPress custom application plugin
Visual Views by Formidable Forms adds a highly flexible WordPress application builder to the powerful form-building plugin. The View builder lets you create functional web apps using form entries.
With Views, you can quickly convert form submissions into full-featured web applications. You can do this without writing a line of code and make it look good:
And if you’re a developer or have programming skills, you get to leverage the most advanced Views functionality and build custom applications that’ll blow your clients away.
Formidable Views reduces the amount of time and resources you need to create a web app. It empowers you to do more with less and create solutions to your business challenges, directly from your WordPress dashboard.
How does it work? Let's dive in!
What WordPress custom application can I build with Views?
Typically, forms are used to collect data. From customers, website subscribers, prospects, maybe even from your employees. However, you can do so much more with your online forms.
Formidable Views makes it possible to display form entries beautifully on your website pages. This is an oversimplification, to be honest. It doesn’t even scratch the surface of what you can build using Views.
There are 4 different types of Views to choose from depending on what application you need to build.
1. Design WordPress grid themes with Grid Views
The Grid View builder turns Formidable into a WordPress grid plugin. It lets you display information in a grid-like layout. The display can be in text format (e.g., a job listing), in the form of images (an art gallery), or a combination of both.
You can build these quickly using the grid builder, and you get a live preview to monitor your progress.
Additionally, the layout editor lets you choose how many grid columns you want, and there are settings that let you style the View according to your preference.
The Grid View builder saves time and effort. You can build a business directory and publish it on a webpage in no time at all.
All you need is a Formidable form that contains the details you want to display and the Views add-on.
2. Build table-based WordPress custom applications with Table Views
A Table View gets your form submissions into a table in seconds. They turn Formidable Views into a WordPress table plugin.
Table Views work well for any information that’s best displayed via a table layout. This includes pricing lists, employee profiles, internal reports, and even job boards.
Like Grid Views, you only need form submissions to build this view. To start, you need to map the headings on your table to the entries in the form.
For example, if you want to create a job board like the one shown below, use a form with Job Title, Location, Type, and Categories as the entries.
Afterward, you only need to fill the form and Table Views will handle the rest.
Now, you can select the fields you’d like included in the table, and it’s created instantly as a responsive Table View.
If you want complete HTML control to make changes after the table is created, you can click Switch to a Classic View.
3. Create date-based custom applications with Calendar Views
You may need a custom calendar application for a number of reasons. For example, an event calendar can be used as a timesheet, and as a tool to track staff vacations.
You may also use a booking calendar to collect and track customer appointments on your website.
Basically, a Calendar View lets you place entries directly into a calendar. So, the feature is ideal for any WordPress custom application that involves specific dates.
You can display submissions by date, keep track of birthdays, and add special events to a calendar. And you can do all these quickly and easily.
Calendar Views aren't yet very visual, but this will be coming later this year.
4. Take full customization control with Classic Views
The Classic View is perfect for creating a view from scratch.
Do you want to build a grid list or table-style application, but want full control over the customization? You can start the fast way with a Grid View, and then switch it to Classic.
This option is perfect for developers and web designers who worked with the legacy Formidable Views and prefer the HTML.
The Classic View can be used to build all the same WordPress custom applications as the Grid and Table Views. The major difference here is that you handle all the HTML.
You can create a book database, a business directory, and a menu list, in the format you wish.
Leverage the advanced filtering options in Views
In the legacy Views, entries would show when they matched ALL of the filters. Unfortunately, this was limiting in many cases. This didn't meet the bar with our promises of limitless web apps.
Now, filtering is more flexible and functional with powerful groups of AND/OR conditions.
For example, with legacy Views, you can use a filter like "User ID is equal to current_user." So, only the person who created an entry could see it. Well that's cool.
But what if you want that person AND an Editor to see the entry? Now you can set that up in seconds, without adding any custom code.
Get started with Formidable Visual Views
If you run a WordPress site or design websites for your clients, then you’ll likely need a custom application at some point.
Formidable Visual Views makes it possible for you to build applications using only one plugin and with far less resources.
The interface is very intuitive and you should find your way around in a matter of minutes. Plus, we have a wealth of resources to help.
If you want to create Views with user-generated content, you can simply publish a form and have visitors fill it out.
For internal WordPress custom applications, you could have your team or customers fill the forms. And if the entries exist on another platform, you can easily import them to a Formidable form.
More posts about Formidable Views
How to Display Form Submissions in an Image Carousel
How to Restrict WordPress Content to Specific Users
How to Create Dynamic WordPress QR Codes and Auto-Fill Forms
How to Show Business Hours on Your WordPress Website
How to Make a Responsive Table in WordPress
How to Create a Private WordPress Journal PlatformEverything about Views was designed to make it easy and fast for experienced developers as well as small business owners to leverage custom web apps.
We can’t wait to see the form-based solutions you will build.
To use Views on your WordPress website, download and install Formidable Forms, activate Views, and start building. Get started with the best WordPress application builder today.
Formidable PRO is one of the "must have" software / plugin for WordPress. The only thing that missing is "option to sell the created entries" (shop to sell stored entries). So, monetization is not possible only in bulk via an external membership plugin (to sell everything for one price).
Thanks for the kind words and for the feedback suggestion! With all the power behind Formidable Forms, we sometimes have trouble drawing the line about what it should be able to do and what it shouldn't
I've added your membership/pay for entries suggestion to our list for future consideration.
I'm curious how this stacks up against Toolset's Types/Views/Forms plugins which I've been using for years, and they are pretty amazing with great support... but they can be heavy, back-end UI can be slightly cumbersome, and they seem more focused on their block editor and a layout tools. Maybe Formidable can create a feature comparison chart to fully flesh out the differences and benefits. I, for one, would prefer using just one plugin with a great UI(which I think formidable provides) if it becomes available.
And just off the top of my head I know Formidable has things like Calendar views, calculations, and of course much better form fields/customizations, all of which are very hard to utilize with Toolset's products.
Basically I think Formidable can beat out Toolset head-to-head, but after being invested for so many years with Toolset I would need to be sure before making the move with mine and my client sites. Win me over! I'm sure there's many more like me out there.
Hi Tim, yes there are more like you out here 🙂
I'm also curious what can be done and what can't. One obviously nice feature in Toolset is the easiness to create custom posts and fields. I don't see Formidable is doing that (or am I missing something so big?).
Hi Tim,
Adding more content regarding how we stack up and compare to Toolset is on our list.
If you have specific questions, our support team is standing by and happy to help.
Need to be able to modify the Add before / after content as well - i.e. Borders, colours etc as in the in the main body 😉
We totally agree. This is on our radar for future releases...This is just version 1 of the new visual views. We have a lot planned to take these even further.
Great post and so informative so thank you very much for sharing. custom application plugin ideas…
Thanks! We are really proud of the plugin and all it can do.
This was great post. It actually helped with the form I was trying to create.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the post.