Is there a way to import to a Freeform Form?

Question

Is there a way to import to Freeform Forms? I wanted to create a form with pre-filled information, and users can login and use freeform edit their existing entries?

Thanks and I appreciate your feedback.

Answer 1

Yes, but it would require some knowledge about MySQL and your form fields. Steps below:

1. Create your form in EE CP > Add-Ons > Modules > Freeform Pro
2. Note the newly created Freeform form_id (open the form page and look at your URL - you will see in the GET request the &form_id=XX where XX is an integer.
3. Open MySQL from the command line
4. Select your database. My EE db is called expression_engine, so I would type use expression_engine at the command line.
5. If you type show tables you will see all your EE database tables. Your Freeform form will have the table name exp_freeform_form_entries_XX where XX is your form_id
6. Take a look at the Freeform form table schema by typing describe exp_freeform_form_entries_XX. You will see all the fields and their types. An example below:

mysql> describe exp_freeform_form_entries_1;
+--------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field        | Type             | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+--------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| entry_id     | int(10) unsigned | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| site_id      | int(10) unsigned | NO   |     | 1       |                |
| author_id    | int(10) unsigned | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| complete     | varchar(1)       | NO   |     | y       |                |
| ip_address   | varchar(40)      | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| entry_date   | int(10) unsigned | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| edit_date    | int(10) unsigned | NO   |     | 0       |                |
| status       | varchar(50)      | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| form_field_1 | text             | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| form_field_2 | text             | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| form_field_3 | text             | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| form_field_4 | text             | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+--------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
12 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The author_id field is your EE member/user primary key (the member_id in the exp_members database table). The form_field_X fields are your custom form fields created in Freeform. Be careful to match them up correctly! You should make sure the entry_date field is filled out with a valid UNIX timestamp.

Now you have all the critical fields ids you need to write a simple PHP or shell script that would run a sequence of MySQL INSERT statements to add your pre-filled information to the form.

I hope that helps, and good luck!