FormVox

A file-based forms and polls app for Nextcloud. All form data is stored as .fvform files in your Nextcloud file system - no database tables required.

Screenshots

Create Form	Edit Form	View Results

Languages

FormVox is available in:

• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇳🇱 Nederlands (Dutch)
• 🇩🇪 Deutsch (German)
• 🇫🇷 Français (French)

Features

Question Types

Type	Description	Preview
Text	Single line text input
Email	Email input with validation
Textarea	Multi-line text
Single Choice	Radio buttons
Multiple Choice	Checkboxes
Dropdown	Dropdown menu
Date	Date picker
DateTime	Date and time picker
Time	Time picker
Linear Scale	Scale (e.g., 1-10)
Star Rating	1-5 stars
Matrix	Grid/table questions

Advanced Features

Feature	Description	Preview
Conditional Logic	Show/hide questions based on answers
Quiz Mode	Assign scores and show results
Multi-page Forms	Split long forms into pages
Piping	Reference answers using {{question_id}}
Public Links	Share with anonymous users
Login Required	Require Nextcloud login
Duplicate Prevention	Fingerprint-based detection
Export	CSV, JSON, Excel export

Homepage

• Template Gallery - Quick access to create forms from colorful template cards
• Tabs Navigation - Switch between "Recent" and "My forms" views
• Form Cards - Visual cards with colored headers based on template type
• Collapsible Templates - Hide/show template gallery with state persistence

Templates

• Blank Form
• Poll
• Survey
• Registration
• Demo Form (showcases all features)

Admin Settings

• Branding - Customize app appearance
• Statistics - View total forms, responses, and active users
• Telemetry - Optional anonymous usage statistics (opt-out available)

Requirements

• Nextcloud 28 - 32
• PHP 8.1+

Installation

From Nextcloud App Store (Recommended)

1. Go to Apps in your Nextcloud instance
2. Search for "FormVox"
3. Click Download and enable

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from the releases page
2. Extract to your Nextcloud apps directory:

   cd /var/www/nextcloud/apps
   tar -xzf formvox-x.y.z.tar.gz
   

3. Set correct permissions:

   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data formvox
   

4. Enable the app:

   sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ app:enable formvox
   

Development

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Node.js 18+
• npm

Setup

cd formvox
npm install
npm run build

Build Commands

• npm run build - Production build
• npm run watch - Development build with watch mode

File Format

FormVox stores all data in .fvform files (JSON format):

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "id": "uuid",
  "title": "Form Title",
  "description": "Form description",
  "created_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00+00:00",
  "modified_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00+00:00",
  "settings": {
    "anonymous": true,
    "allow_multiple": false,
    "expires_at": null,
    "show_results": "after_submit",
    "require_login": false
  },
  "questions": [...],
  "pages": null,
  "responses": [...]
}

API Routes

Authenticated Routes

Method	Route	Description
GET	/api/forms	List all forms
POST	/api/forms	Create new form
GET	/api/form/{fileId}	Get form details
PUT	/api/form/{fileId}	Update form
DELETE	/api/form/{fileId}	Delete form
POST	/api/form/{fileId}/respond	Submit response
GET	/api/form/{fileId}/export/csv	Export to CSV
GET	/api/form/{fileId}/export/json	Export to JSON

Public Routes

Method	Route	Description
GET	/public/{token}	View public form
POST	/public/{token}/submit	Submit response
GET	/public/{token}/results	View results (if enabled)

Technical Details

Concurrent Response Handling

FormVox is designed to handle multiple simultaneous form submissions without data loss. When multiple users submit responses at the same time, a database-based locking mechanism ensures all responses are saved correctly.

How it works:

• Uses database locks via the preferences table with unique constraints
• Implements retry mechanism with exponential backoff (30 retries, 100ms base delay)
• Uses Nextcloud's File API (putContent) to ensure proper cache synchronization

Performance:

Concurrent Requests	Success Rate
20 simultaneous	100%
50 simultaneous	80%

For typical usage scenarios (users submitting forms seconds apart), all responses are guaranteed to be saved.

Rate Limiting

Public form submissions are rate-limited to 100 requests per hour per IP address to prevent abuse.

Privacy

FormVox includes optional anonymous telemetry to help improve the app. This can be disabled in Admin Settings.

What we collect (when enabled):

• Number of forms and responses
• Number of active users
• FormVox, Nextcloud, and PHP version numbers
• A unique hash of your instance URL (privacy-friendly identifier)

What we never collect:

• Form content or titles
• Response data or answers
• User names or email addresses
• Your actual server URL

License

AGPL-3.0 - See LICENSE for details.

Links

• Website
• Documentation
• Comparison with Nextcloud Forms
• Issue Tracker
• Nextcloud App Store

Authors

Developed by Sam Ditmeijer & Rik Dekker