Question

Is there a way to hide a form from my users until they click a link and then the form drops down for the user to fill out, by using PHP or JQuery if so how? Is there a tutorial that will teach me how to do this?

Answer 1

Yes, you can do so, you hide the form initially either with jquery or css and the slideDown it down like this:

$(function(){
  $('a#link_id').click(function(){
    $('form-selector').slideDown('slow');
    // prevent default action
    return false;
  });
});

and to hide it back, you can use the slideUp function:

$(function(){
  $('a#link_id_2').click(function(){
    $('form-selector').slideUp('slow');
    // prevent default action
    return false;
  });
});

If you want to show and hide using same link, use the slideToggle instead:

$(function(){
  $('a#link_id').click(function(){
    $('form-selector').slideToggle('slow');
    // prevent default action
    return false;
  });
});

Here is the prototype for your html:

<a id="form_show_hide">Show/Hide Form</a>

<div id="form_container">
  <form>
  ...form elements...
  </form>
</div>

and jquery for that:

$(function(){
  $('a#form_show_hide').click(function(){
    $('#form_container').slideToggle('slow');
    // prevent default action
    return false;
  });
});

and finally here the demo for that