Imported From: http://groups.google.com/group/in-portal-dev/browse_thread/thread/b42f5dcc6961d0d7#

Recently I was thinking about how hard it is to customize a form (in Admin Console).

Right now when a ModuleA wants to customize a form from ModuleB it copied TPL file to it and makes necessary changes, like this:

moduleA/sample_form.tpl
copy "moduleA/sample_form.tpl" to "moduleB" folder
change "moduleB/moduleA/sample_form.tpl"

This will work, but when original template in moduleA is changed (e.g. during upgrade to next version), then no changes are propagated to copied template.

I'm suggesting a concept of "Form Builder", where you actually define what is located where in a manageable format (e.g. in PHP array format) and then each module can customize that configuration (add/remove fields where it needs).

Basically each form in admin console consists of 3 blocks:

header - usually not changed
toolbar definition - buttons you see on a toolbar
subsections with form elements - that's changed usually

This all will keep single column layout.

I guess we need to visual editor to build that array, like this one: http://www.wufoo.com/docs/form-builder/