dbbasic-forms: Git-Native Form Builder

A simple, git-friendly form builder that stores everything in TSV files. Build forms, collect responses, export to CSV—all without a database.

Why This Exists

Form builders shouldn't cost $29/month. Your data shouldn't be locked in a SaaS platform. Forms are just tables, and tables are just TSV files.

Features

• Visual Form Builder: Drag-drop interface for creating forms
• TSV Storage: All data in human-readable text files
• Git-Friendly: Version control your forms and responses
• Admin Interface: Auto-discovered by dbbasic-admin
• CSV Export: One-click export to spreadsheet
• Zero Setup: No database, no configuration, just works

Installation

pip install dbbasic-forms

Requires Python 3.8+ and dbbasic-tsv.

Quick Start

Create a Form

from dbbasic_forms import FormBuilder

builder = FormBuilder()

contact_form = builder.create_form(
    form_id="contact",
    name="Contact Form",
    description="Get in touch with us",
    fields=[
        {
            "name": "name",
            "type": "text",
            "label": "Name",
            "required": True
        },
        {
            "name": "email",
            "type": "email",
            "label": "Email",
            "required": True
        },
        {
            "name": "message",
            "type": "textarea",
            "label": "Message"
        }
    ]
)

Submit Responses

# From your web handler
form = builder.get_form("contact")
response_id = form.submit_response({
    "name": "Alice Johnson",
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "message": "Love your product!"
})

View Responses

# Get all responses
responses = form.get_responses(limit=10)

for response in responses:
    print(f"{response['submitted_at']}: {response['email']}")

# Export to CSV
csv_data = form.export_responses_csv()
with open("responses.csv", "w") as f:
    f.write(csv_data)

Data Format

Your forms and responses are stored in TSV files:

$ cat data/forms.tsv
id      name            description             fields                  created_at
contact Contact Form    Get in touch with us    [{"name":"email"...}]  2024-01-15T10:30:00

$ cat data/responses_contact.tsv
id                  submitted_at            name            email               message
resp_20240115...    2024-01-15T14:22:00    Alice Johnson   alice@example.com   Love your product!

This means you can:

• Debug with tail -f data/responses_contact.tsv
• Search with grep alice data/responses_contact.tsv
• Edit in Excel, Google Sheets, or vim
• Track changes in Git with meaningful diffs

Field Types

• text - Single-line text input
• email - Email with validation
• textarea - Multi-line text
• number - Numeric input
• date - Date picker
• select - Dropdown menu
• radio - Radio buttons (single choice)
• checkbox - Checkboxes (multiple choice)
• file - File upload (coming soon)

Admin Interface

dbbasic-forms integrates with dbbasic-admin for visual management.

The admin interface includes:

• Form builder with drag-drop fields
• Response viewer with filtering
• CSV export
• Form analytics

Install dbbasic-admin:

pip install dbbasic-admin

The forms interface is auto-discovered at /admin/forms.

Web Framework Integration

Flask Example

from flask import Flask, request, jsonify
from dbbasic_forms import FormBuilder

app = Flask(__name__)
builder = FormBuilder()

@app.route('/api/forms/<form_id>/submit', methods=['POST'])
def submit_form(form_id):
    form = builder.get_form(form_id)
    if not form:
        return jsonify({"error": "Form not found"}), 404

    response_id = form.submit_response(request.json)
    return jsonify({
        "success": True,
        "response_id": response_id,
        "message": form.settings["success_message"]
    })

FastAPI Example

from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException
from dbbasic_forms import FormBuilder

app = FastAPI()
builder = FormBuilder()

@app.post("/api/forms/{form_id}/submit")
async def submit_form(form_id: str, data: dict):
    form = builder.get_form(form_id)
    if not form:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Form not found")

    response_id = form.submit_response(data)
    return {
        "success": True,
        "response_id": response_id,
        "message": form.settings["success_message"]
    }

API Reference

FormBuilder

builder = FormBuilder(data_dir="data")

Methods:

• create_form(form_id, name, description, fields, settings) → Form
• get_form(form_id) → Form | None
• list_forms() → List[Dict]
• delete_form(form_id) → bool

Form

form = builder.get_form("contact")

Methods:

• submit_response(response_data) → str (response_id)
• get_responses(limit, offset) → List[Dict]
• count_responses() → int
• get_response(response_id) → Dict | None
• delete_response(response_id) → bool
• update_form(name, description, fields, settings) → bool
• export_responses_csv() → str
• to_dict() → Dict

When to Use This

✅ Perfect for:

• Contact forms on static sites
• Feedback forms
• Event registrations
• Surveys and polls
• Internal tools (HR forms, IT requests)
• Prototypes and MVPs

❌ Not suitable for:

• High-volume transactional forms (>1K submissions/day)
• Payment forms (use Stripe Checkout)
• Multi-tenant SaaS applications
• Real-time collaboration

Rule of thumb: If your form responses can safely live in Git (because they're content, not transactions), use dbbasic-forms.

Deployment

Development

pip install dbbasic-forms
# Data is stored in ./data directory
# Commit to git: git add data/ && git commit -m "Add form data"

Production (Git-Based)

git clone https://github.com/yourorg/yourapp.git
cd yourapp
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Data is in the repo
# New responses append to TSV files
# Push updates: git add data/ && git commit && git push

Performance

• Form Creation: <1ms
• Response Submission: <5ms
• Query 10K Responses: ~100ms
• CSV Export (10K rows): ~200ms

Limits:

• Responses per form: 100K recommended, 1M maximum
• Fields per form: 50 recommended

Comparison

Feature	dbbasic-forms	Google Forms	Typeform
Cost	Free	Free/Limited	$25+/mo
Data Ownership	✅	❌	❌
Git-Friendly	✅	❌	❌
Self-Hosted	✅	❌	❌
Visual Builder	✅	✅	✅
File Uploads	🚧	✅	✅

Documentation

• Full Specification - Complete technical spec
• API Reference - Method documentation
• Examples - Code examples and demos

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Credits

Created by the AskRobots team as part of the dbbasic ecosystem.

Inspired by the philosophy that forms shouldn't require infrastructure.

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Remember: The best form builder is the one you control.