Customized Form Fields and Exports

I am just starting to get my hands dirty with the SF4 development and have some questions on the forms module before I get to far into development.

What I am wanting to accomplish is to be able to create forms using the drag and drop features of the current form framework, but on steroids. Basically we are a social service agency that deals with many types of forms depending on the program. The most common are intake and discharge forms similar to this one, http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/CEDA7AC0-8E98-4A2A-833F-DDBD5B547450/0/09AI002E.pdf. I would want to be able to recreate these forms using Sitefinity if possible. I know I can create custom form field types, but I am unsure how I could also implement the custom validators, restrictions, and other various options you see with the standard form controls. 

The other issue is that we have different systems that we need export the captured data out to and the standard spit out all of the data into a csv file will not work. I would love to be able to implement a dropdown list of export formats along with some filters (i.e. dates) inside of the Form administration and allow the user to decide which format to spit the data out to. 

I need to know if you think it would be possible to use the current Sitefinity Form framework and extend it to meet my needs or should I look at creating a whole new module entirely? I'm hoping to be able to use the current form framework as I think a lot of the work would already be in place and it would make this process flow with the rest of the Sitefinity processes, but I am unsure it can handle all of my requirements. Implementing workflow into these forms as well would rock!

Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated!  

Bump

Hi Garry,

Most of the things that you're asking are in our plans - fitlers & support of different formats in export and also workflow integration.

Now to your questions:
Custom widgets for forms - please check this topic: http://www.sitefinity.com/devnet/forums/sitefinity-4-x/general-discussions/adding-custom-controls-to-form-builder.aspx

Export - it is possible but will require some more development on your side - having a custom route handler for your export, the specific exporter implementation that you need and then extending the backend.

What we can try to do for the next release it ti improve our exporting API and have a configuration to "plug" custom export implementation.  

Best wishes,
Pavel
the Telerik team

Pavel,
Thanks for the response and once you get the filters and workflow integrated into the Forms framework then it will truly be a very, very powerful thing.

Just to give an opinion on the custom export functionality it would be a very nice feature to be able to add custom export formats in the backend and basically define your layout similar to what Microsoft Access, Excel, Outlook, or even Great Plains Intergration Manager has and then have these custom defined exports available to you as a drop down where the "export to csv button" now is.

Once the workflow, filters, and export are integrated you really could almost replace any type of form with this, such as fillable PDFs, data entry forms, etc... It would also be really cool to develop a button that you could add to the form to allow visitors to print or export the form using the defined export types and with the filters and a little paging work you could even allow them to navigate their previous form entries. The example I am thinking of is online purchase requisitions or even time sheets.

The power in that would be immense and alone would be worthy of the Sitefinity price tag!

Anyhow thanks for letting me carry on and again for your response.

Garry