For our users running contests and application processes with Wufoo, you’ll be excited to know that we’ve added a new feature to some of our fields that allow you to set the minimum and maximum of the input coming in from your users.

These new range options provide a way to limit the characters and words entered into single-line text fields and paragraph fields and also to control the values and digits submitted to number fields and price fields.

Instructions for the user are automatically displayed to the user under the field based on your settings. For example, there are three types of wording shown for limiting words :

• If a min is set, but no max : Must be at least 14 words.
• If a max is set, but no min : Maximum Allowed: 100 words.
• If both are set : Must be between 25 and 150 words.

Our international users will be happy to know that these range instructions are powered by our translation backend. This means when our great community of polyglots create translations for the statements, they’ll work appropriately for the language settings on your form.

Live Word, Character and Digit Counter on Forms

In addition to the server-side validation for these settings and instructions, we’ve also included a JavaScript counter on public forms that will provide your users a live count of the characters, words and digits used on those range-specified fields.

The new range features are available to all users across all plans and can be accessed from the Field Settings tab for the Single-Line Text Fields, Paragraph Fields, Number Fields and Price Fields. We hope you guys love it!

In the past, a login was required in order to download any files in your Wufoo account — even if those files were visible in a public report. This ended up becoming a huge pain for many of our users that work in team-based situations because any invited user notified via an email notification or public report could not download the file, and the Wufoo admin would have to manually download it and email it to the user. Thanks to some new improvements on our end, we now have a new URL system for file downloads that allows you to share direct download links to files without having to login.

A couple things about this new system :

• By default, all files have a hidden, encrypted URL. If this URL is accessed, the file can be downloaded. The only people with access to this URL are people who can see the Entry Manager (password protected), the RSS feeds (password protected) or have confirmation emails sent directly to them. If you have access to the URL via these methods, you can share this link via instant messenger or email yourself if you would like to share the file.

• In regards to publicly accessible reports, files in reports can also be accessed without a password or logging in, but they are given a separate URL different from the one above. This way, if a user views your public report they can download the file, but if you decide to change or delete the report at a later date, they can no longer view the files.

Essentially, each file has a private, encrypted URL that you should share with those you trust and a public URL that becomes available if you make a report containing the file public. For more information, we’ve outlined all security concerns in our security docs.

We’ve recently implemented an overdue update to Wufoo’s Code Manager that should provide a lot more flexibility to users wanting to integrate their forms with their web site and workflow. The first thing we did was give the Code Manager a facelift to bring it up to our new interface standards. This allowed us to both improve usability and create room to add a few new features we’ve been wanting to see for some time now.

Zipped File Packages

In addition to some extra options like explicit code snippets for including a link to your form in an email or chat, we’ve also made it much easier for designers and developers to use Wufoo as a form wireframing tool.

The XHTML / CSS code engine works just like the one in the Form Gallery and provides a single zip file containing all of the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images you need to manipulate the form you designed within Wufoo.

Pop-up Form Link

We also added new snippet that allows you to pop your form up in a new window when the user clicks on a link.

This is useful for web sites wanting to recreate the ability to provide a survey about a product or service that doesn’t necessarily need to be integrated into the web page or taking the user away from the page itself via a regular link.

Static Form URLs

And perhaps most importantly, we have reworked some core URL problems with Wufoo forms. When you send your form link to a friend, the name of the form is in the URL. For example, you may see http://username.wufoo.com/forms/untitled-form/. The benefit to this is that it is easy to read, and easy to search for at a later date. But unfortunately, if you change the name of your form, the URL changes also. This is bad if the form is embedded on your web site because it means that you will have to copy & paste the form embed code all over again.

To fix this, we have created static form URLs in addition to the URLs based off of the form name. A static URL means that as long as the form exists, the URL will always work. Now you can grab the new embed code from the new Code Manager and never have to worry about making an update to your site again when you make changes to your form.

We’ve got a real treat for our power users today. One of the features our users love about Wufoo is all the ways it can keep them updated about new entries as they are submitted to their forms. They can receive emails, mobile text messages and even an RSS feed of their data as it comes in. Today, we’re excited to announce another great way to keep tabs on your data through a Windows desktop application we’ve developed called Wufoo Unplugged.

Wufoo Unplugged is an installable Windows XP / Vista application that provides desktop alerts and offline access to the information collected by your Wufoo forms. With Unplugged, you can keep a local copy of your data on your computer that syncs with your online account whenever you’re connected to the Internet. New entries are downloaded as they come in and when you’re on the go, you can still browse through your past entries.

You can also setup Wufoo Unplugged to provide visual and audio notifications of new entries as they are collected, which is great for users that need a reliable way to be notified of new submissions to their forms without having to add additional clutter to their inbox.

We’re providing Wufoo Unplugged as a FREE download to all primary users (sorry, not sub-users at the moment) across all plans. All you need is an active Wufoo account, either Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista and an Internet connection to sync with your data. To learn more, check out the Unplugged documentation.

Many thanks and congratulations goes out to Tim and Alex, the two new members of the Wufoo Team for creating Unplugged. We think they’ve done a great job on the application and we hope you enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Earlier this year, the Nielsen Norman Group, one of the top firms focusing on human-centered product development process, conducted a design competition to identify the world’s ten best application user experiences. We are incredibly excited to announce that Wufoo has been selected by Jakob Nielsen, “the guru of web page usability,” as one of the winners of the design competition.

Congratulations are in order to all of the other winners! We’re humbled to have been named among such fine folks. Also, many thanks goes out to the Nielsen Norman Group for the great honor and all of our users who helped us shape Wufoo into what is is today. You guys are the ones that helped us add the real polish and for that, this award is just as much yours as it ours. For more information about the competition and results, please checkout the official announcement on Nielsen’s blog.