NarraFirma vs Petitioner

NarraFirma is companion software to the textbook Working with Stories in Your Community Or Organization: Participatory Narrative Inquiry. Participatory Narrative Inquiry is a form of Participatory Action Research in which groups of people share and work with their stories of personal experiences to understand each other and to make collective sense of complex issues and situations. You can use it to help the people in your community or organization discover insights, catch emerging trends, make decisions, generate ideas, resolve conflicts, and connect people. What is NarraFirma? It’s a checklist. NarraFirma provides practical guidance as you work, with questions for you to answer, recommendations based on the conditions you describe, activities that help you make decisions, and just-in-time advice. It’s a journal. NarraFirma helps you keep careful records about what happened in your project, and it gives you places to reflect on what happened. This reminds you to keep learning as you work, and it helps you to document your project for future reference. It’s a kiosk. NarraFirma helps you collect stories, on-line and/or off-line, based on question forms you design (with sample questions you can copy). Because story collection is integrated, there is no need to export or import data. It’s a workstation. NarraFirma helps you explore and interpret patterns in your data (stories and answers to questions about stories), creating annotated visualizations you can use to make sense of the stories you collected. Why choose NarraFirma? It’s portable. You can install NarraFirma anywhere, as a WordPress plugin or a Node.js web application. Web hosting is inexpensive, popular, and well supported. You can also install NarraFirma on your local computer and use it off-line. (Whichever installation method you choose, we strongly suggest that you set up SSL security on your web site before collecting or entering confidential or important information. Many hosting providers can help you with this task.) It’s a team player. With NarraFirma your team can work on projects together in real time without having to hand files back and forth. You can plan your project, collect stories, discover patterns, and reflect on what you’ve learned – together. It’s an open book. NarraFirma is open source software. So if you have a question about how something works, you can just look at the source code to find out. If you need the software to do something it can’t do, you can add new functionality yourself or ask someone else to add it. It works in the real world. One NarraFirma installation supports multiple projects, forms, data sets, and reports. Why? Because real-life story projects are rarely simple or predictable. So go ahead and make a mess. NarraFirma is ready for it. Donations We have spent a lot of time developing NarraFirma. We appreciate donations, and will use them to keep working on it. You can donate at PayPal. Need some help? I offer training in the use of NarraFirma and consulting for PNI projects. If you are interested, check out my web site at cfkurtz.com, or send me a note at cfkurtz at cfkurtz dot com.

Plugin homepage & demo. Documentation. Petitioner pairs unlimited, drag-and-drop petition forms with advanced targeting and export tools, everything you expect from premium petition builders, available free in the plugin directory. It’s built for advocacy teams, nonprofits, campaigns, and publishers who need high-volume petitions with reliable delivery, flexible layouts, and clear reporting without SaaS lock-in. Quick start Install Petitioner and create your first petition under Petitioner -> Add New. Configure delivery (target email, confirmations, approval defaults) and design under the Settings tabs. Drop the Gutenberg block or shortcode into any page, collect signatures, and export or display submissions as needed. Highlights Unlimited petitions powered by a drag-and-drop builder with 10+ specialized fields. Automated decision-maker delivery plus optional double opt-in and manual moderation. Frontend submission showcases (grid, list, ticker) with privacy-friendly options. CSV exports with advanced filtering for accurate reporting and CRM imports. Features: Unlimited petitions Create and manage an unlimited number of petitions. Drag and drop form builder – Add/remove/reorder fields based on your needs – Supports over ten field types: text, email, phone, address, date of birth, newsletter opt-in, anonymous signature, terms acceptance, and more – Add rich text to the form for disclaimers and legal text – Edit each field’s label, placeholder, and required state Control submission behaviour – Show submissions on the frontend in a few different styles – Email functionality: Automatically send petition letters to representatives via email. – Ability to store submissions without sending emails to the rep. – Ability to manually approve/deny petitions and set the default approval behavior (approved by default or declined) – Option to confirm emails via email – Customize email confirmations, petition letters, and thank you emails – Option to edit and delete submissions – Form submissions export: export petition signups and submission data to a CSV file for easy reporting. – Preview data, rename columns, and map values (e.g., “1” to “Yes” or dynamic values like {{field_name}}) before downloading CRM-ready files. – Filter out unwanted submissions before exporting by targeting any form field – Goal milestones: set incremental signature targets (e.g., 100, 500, 1000) to keep momentum high. – Custom redirects: redirect users to custom “Thank You” or “Action” pages after signing or confirming their email. Design & layout features – The plugin features a modern, mobile-friendly design for a seamless user experience. – Color customizations & custom CSS options – WYSIWYG editor: Easily edit petition letters and confirmation emails using a modern WYSIWYG editor. – Gutenberg integration with a custom petition block! – Several shortcodes to take your petitions to the next level: – Form shortcode – embed the entire petition anywhere shortcodes are supported. – Petition goal – surface your signature target dynamically. – Progress bar – visualize progress toward the goal in real time. – Petition letter popup – open the full letter in a modal. – Submission count – show live signature totals. – Submissions display – list, grid, and ticker layouts with privacy controls. Spam protection features – Captcha integrations: reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and Cloudflare Turnstile – Akismet integration – handle spam seamlessly without adding any js libraries – Honeypot field – Email confirmations – Compatible with all of the popular SMTP plugins (uses wp_mail behind the scenes) Extremely lightweight and modern – Vanilla JavaScript bundle weighs in at ~4KB gzipped – Theme-friendly CSS variables let you match any brand quickly – Rich hooks and filters make third-party integrations effortless Development and Source Code The source code for this plugin is publicly available on GitHub: https://github.com/avoy18/petitioner