Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, and Select Lists in Shack Forms

: Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge; Published: 19 July 2019 19 July 2019

3 Examples of Using the Pipe Symbol in Shack Forms

Shack Forms is a brilliant Joomla form extension. It is very user-friendly and flexible. With Shack Forms, you can instantly tweak your Joomla form design and behavior. You can do this even if you don't know a single thing about coding.

For example, you can instantly enhance your Joomla form fields using the pipe (|) symbol. In this blog post, I will show you 3 examples of using the pipe symbol in Shack Forms.

Here is what you can do in your Shack Form using the pipe symbol:

You will be able to create a field as a group of radio buttons instead of one radio button.
You will be able to create a field as a group of checkboxes instead of one checkbox.
You will be able to create a field as a multiple select list instead of a single select field.

Let me show you an example of the practical application of each of these three options.

Let's assume your Joomla site is about pets. You would like a submitter of your Shack Form to indicate to you at least one of their favorite pet.

You would like to create a field for them to select their favorite pet or pets from the following options:

Dogs
Cats
Parrots
Fish
Horses.

Example #1. Creating a field as a group of radio buttons

Creating a new field for your Joomla form with Shack Forms is a one-click task. You just click the "Add new field" button:

click add new field

You enter, let's say, "Favorite Pet", into your new field "Field label" field:

enter favorite pet into the field label field

Then you find the "Field type" field and click "Text":

find the field type field and click text

You will see the drop-down list of your Shack Form field types. Here you need to click "Radio group":

click radio group

Now you are ready to enjoy the magic of the pipe symbol in your Joomla form.

enter pets name separated by the pipe symbol

To save your form, you would click "Save" or "Save & Close".

Now is a good time to check the form at the frontend of your site. You will see there that your form submitter can now see the "Favorite Pet" group of radio buttons and select their favorite pet:

final result

Example #2. Creating a field as a group of checkboxes

With the pipe symbol, you can also create a field as a group of checkboxes.

This time, in the drop-down list of Shack Forms field types, you would click "Checkboxes group":

select the checkboxes group

Then, just as in the example above, you go to the "Values" field. You enter in it your list of items, separated by the pipe (|) symbol:

enter your pets names separated by the pipe symbol

You save your form and go to the frontend to check it. You will see that your form submitter can now select one or more of their favorite pets using one or more of the checkboxes:

check the final result

Example #3. Creating a list field with multiple selectable options

Now take a look at how you would create a field with a drop-down list of miltiple selectable options.

Once again, you start by creating a new field in your Joomla form. You give it a label. Then you go to the "Field type" setting.

There, in the drop-down list of Shack Forms field types, you click "Multiple select list":

from the drop down list click multiple select list

Now is a good time to apply the magic of the pipe symbol. You find the "Values" field. You enter in it your list of items, separated by the pipe (|) symbol:

enter your list items separated by the pipe symbol

You click "Save" or "Save & Close". You go to the frontend of your site to check the form. You will see that your form submitter can now select more than one pet with the "Ctrl" key:

more than one list item is now selectable