Sprout's widget wizard

Using Sproutbuilder to publish a Google Form (and more)

Sprout is a web-based flash builder toolkit with which you can build, publish and manage widgets, mini-sites, banners, mashups and other rich media Web content in three easy steps. I was looking for a way to help a customer publish a form online and came across Sprout as I was looking into using Google's new forms option in the Google Docs spreadsheet. I created the sample entry form below using Google Docs and then used Sprout to create the widget.

First, go to Google and log into your Google Docs account - if you don't have one yet, welcome back from your cryogenic coma and get busy (it's free). Then, select New, Spreadsheet. Enter the form fields in the A1, A2, etc. row. If you haven't turned autosave on, Google Docs will prompt you. Once you've entered your field headings, go to the Share tab and on the next screen, select Invite People and click the radio button the "fill out a form". On the next screen you're prompted to invite users, you can skip this step. Copy the URL link in the right panel.

Now, go create a Sprout account (www.sproutbuilder.com), and yes you'll have to check your email account and enter a validation code on the Sprout site that has been emailed to you. Then, select launch Sproutbuilder, select a project type (blank) and name the project. Use the Google Forms widget builder and follow the directions on the Sprout site - it's as simple as pasting the URL link to the Google form into the widgetbuilder.

Once you select publish, Sprout will build an Adobe Flash widget with the Google form embedded that you can then publish on your web page, blog, Myspace or whatever.


Example




I think the mini-sites options are incredible tools as well for building embeddable advertisements (see the Sheryl Crow example). There are options to include a music player and MP3 files, video files, a counter widget and many more features. Give it a try and send me links to some of the creative ways you figure out to use this tool.

Google Form not embedded in a Flash Widget