Contact Form Clean and Simple vs Contact Form

A clean and simple AJAX contact form with Google reCAPTCHA, flexible CSS framework support, spam filtering, and REST API support for headless WordPress implementations. Clean: all user inputs are stripped in order to avoid cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. Simple: AJAX enabled validation and submission for immediate response and guidance for your users (can be switched off). Flexible Styling: Choose your CSS framework – Bootstrap (default), Theme Native (inherits your theme’s styles), or Minimal (semantic classes for complete custom styling). REST API Support: Enable headless WordPress implementations to submit forms via authenticated REST API endpoints. Accessible: Built with accessibility in mind – proper ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and WCAG AA compliant color contrast. This is a straightforward contact form for your WordPress site. There is very minimal set-up required. Simply install, activate, and then place the short code [cscf-contact-form] on your web page. A standard set of input boxes are provided, these include Email Address, Name, Message and a nice big ‘Send Message’ button. When your user has completed the form an email will be sent to you containing your user’s message. To reply simply click the ‘reply’ button on your email client. The email address used is the one you have set up in WordPress under ‘Settings’ -> ‘General’, so do check this is correct. To help prevent spam all data is scanned can be scanned with Fullworks Anti Spam Pro. For this to work you must have the Fullworks Anti Spam Pro Plugin installed and activated. Fullworks Anti Spam Pro will also log all your messages, categorized as spam or not, automatically. For added piece of mind this plugin also allows you to add a ‘reCAPTCHA’. This adds a picture of a couple of words to the bottom of the contact form. Your user must correctly type the words before the form can be submitted, and in so doing, prove that they are human. Why Choose This Plugin? Granted there are many plugins of this type in existence already. Why use this one in-particular? Here’s why: Minimal setup. Simply activate the plugin and place the shortcode [cscf-contact-form] on any post or page. Safe. All input entered by your user is stripped back to minimise as far as possible the likelihood of any malicious user attempting to inject a script into your website. If the Fullworks Anti Spam Pro plugin is activated all form data will be scanned for spam. You can turn on reCAPTCHA to avoid your form being abused by bots, however Fullworks Anti Spam Pro will do this without reCAPTCHA. Ajax enabled. You have the option to turn on AJAX (client-side) validation and submission which gives your users an immediate response when completing the form without having to wait for the page to refresh. The form can integrate seamlessly into your website. Turn off the plugin’s default css style sheet so that your theme’s style sheet can be used instead. Flexible CSS styling: Choose from Bootstrap, Modern (with dark mode), Theme Native, or Minimal styling modes to match your site’s design. This plugin will only link in its jQuery file where it’s needed, it will not impose itself on every page of your whole site! Works with the latest version of WordPress. Original plugin written by an experienced PHP programmer, Megan Nicholas, the code is rock solid, safe, and rigorously tested as standard practice. Headless WordPress ready. REST API support allows you to submit forms from decoupled frontends, mobile apps, or any external application with proper authentication. Hopefully this plugin will fulfil all your needs. PHP 8 Ready Tested on PHP 8.4 How to Use Unless you want to change messages or add reCAPTCHA to your contact form then this plugin will work out of the box without any additional setup. Important: Check that you have an email address set-up in your WordPress ‘Settings’->’General’ page. This is the address that the plugin will use to send the contents of the contact form. To add the contact form to your WordPress website simply place the shortcode [cscf-contact-form] on the post or page that you wish the form to appear on. If you have Jetpack plugin installed disable the contact form otherwise the wrong form might display. Additional Settings This plugin will work out of the box without any additional setup. You have the option to change the default messages that are displayed to your user and to add reCAPTCHA capabilities. Go to the settings screen for the contact form plugin. You will find a link to the setting screen against the entry of this plugin on the ‘Installed Plugins’ page. Here is a list of things that you can change Message: The message displayed to the user at the top of the contact form. Message Sent Heading: The message heading or title displayed to the user after the message has been sent. Message Sent Content: The message content or body displayed to the user after the message has been sent. CSS Framework: Choose how the form is styled: Bootstrap (Default): Uses Bootstrap CSS classes for full Bootstrap compatibility. Best for themes already using Bootstrap. Modern (Card style): A beautiful, opinionated modern design with card-style layout, large inputs, and CSS variables for easy customization. Includes automatic dark mode support. Theme Native: Uses minimal classes with WordPress’s wp-element-button for the submit button. The form inherits your theme’s native form styles. Minimal: Uses semantic CSS classes only (cscf-field, cscf-input, etc.) for complete custom styling control. Use this plugin’s default stylesheet: The plugin comes with a default style sheet to make the form look nice for your user. Untick this if you want to use your theme’s stylesheet instead. The default stylesheet will simply not be linked in. This option is most relevant when using the Bootstrap CSS framework. Use client side validation (Ajax): When ticked the contact form will be validated and submitted on the client giving your user instant feedback if they have filled the form in incorrectly. If you wish the form to be validated and submitted only to the server then untick this option. Use reCAPTCHA: Tick this option if you wish your form to have a reCAPTCHA box. ReCAPTCHA helps to avoid spam bots using your form by checking that the form filler is actually a real person. To use reCAPTCHA you will need to get a some special keys from google https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create. Once you have your keys enter them into the Public key and Private key boxes reCAPTCHA Public Key: Enter the public key that you obtained from here. reCAPTCHA Private Key: Enter the private key that you obtained from here. reCAPTCHA Theme: Here you can change the reCAPTCHA box theme so that it fits with the style of your website. Recipient Emails: The email address where you would like all messages to be sent. This will default to the email address you have specified under ‘E-Mail Address’ in your WordPress General Settings. If you want your mail sent to a different address then enter it here. You may enter multiple email addresses by clicking the ‘+’ button. Confirm Email Address: Email confirmation is now optional. To force your user to re-type their email address tick ‘Confirm Email Address’. It is recommended that you leave this option on. If you turn this option off your user will only have to enter their email address once, but if they enter it incorrectly you will have no way of getting back to them! Email Subject: This is the email subject that will appear on all messages. If you would like to set it to something different then enter it here. Override ‘From’ Address: If you tick this and then fill in the ‘From Address:’ box then all email will be sent from the given address NOT from the email address given by the form filler. **Option to allow enquiry to email themselves a copy of the message. Contact consent: This option allows you to be GDPR compliant by adding a ‘Consent to contact’ check box at the bottom of the form. Enable REST API: Turn on REST API support to allow headless WordPress implementations to submit forms. Required User Capability: Set the minimum WordPress user capability required to use the REST API (default: edit_posts). REST API for Headless WordPress This plugin includes REST API support, making it perfect for headless WordPress implementations, mobile applications, and decoupled frontend frameworks like React, Vue.js, or Angular. Enabling REST API Go to the plugin settings page Find the “REST API Settings” section Check “Enable REST API” Set the required user capability (default: edit_posts) Save your settings API Endpoint POST /wp-json/cscf/v1/submit Authentication The REST API requires WordPress user authentication. Users must be logged in and have the capability specified in settings (default: edit_posts). For headless implementations, you can use: – Application Passwords (WordPress 5.6+) – JWT Authentication plugins – OAuth plugins – Basic Authentication (development only) Request Format Send a POST request with JSON body: `json { “name”: “John Doe”, “email”: “[email protected]”, “confirm_email”: “[email protected]”, “message”: “Your message here”, “phone_number”: “+1234567890”, “contact_consent”: true, “email_sender”: false, “post_id”: 123 } ` Required fields: – name: Sender’s name – email: Sender’s email address – message: The message content Optional fields: – confirm_email: Required if email confirmation is enabled in settings – phone_number: Required if phone number is set as mandatory in settings – contact_consent: Required if contact consent is enabled in settings – email_sender: Set to true to send a copy to the sender – post_id: The ID of the page/post where the form would normally be displayed Response Format Success Response (200): json { "success": true, "message": "Message Sent" } Validation Error Response (400): json { "code": "validation_failed", "message": "Validation failed.", "data": { "status": 400, "errors": { "email": "Please enter a valid email address.", "message": "Please enter a message." } } } Authentication Error Response (401): json { "code": "rest_forbidden", "message": "Authentication required.", "data": { "status": 401 } } Example Implementation JavaScript (fetch API): `javascript const formData = { name: “John Doe”, email: “[email protected]”, confirm_email: “[email protected]”, message: “This is a test message from the REST API” }; fetch(‘https://yoursite.com/wp-json/cscf/v1/submit’, { method: ‘POST’, headers: { ‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’, ‘Authorization’: ‘Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN’ }, body: JSON.stringify(formData) }) .then(response => response.json()) .then(data => { if (data.success) { console.log(‘Message sent successfully!’); } else { console.error(‘Validation errors:’, data.data.errors); } }); ` Important Notes REST API is disabled by default for security reCAPTCHA is bypassed for REST API submissions (authentication provides security) All other form validations and spam filtering still apply Form submissions via REST API are processed identically to regular submissions Email notifications work the same way as standard form submissions Demo Demo site coming soon.

Contact Form to Email features: ► Email delivery & notifications ► Saves messages into database ► Export to Excel / CSV ► Printable list of messages ► Visual drag and drop form builder ► Anti-spam captcha ► Field validation ► Printable reports ► One-click contact form ► Classic and ajax submission available ► Automatic email reports ► Supports GDPR compliant forms ► ... and more features (see below) The Contact Form to Email is a powerful and easy WordPress plugin to create contact forms and send their data email addresses. Contact Form to Email also saves the contact form data into a database, provides printable reports and the option to export selected data to CSV/Excel files. Contact Form to Email Main Features: Email delivery / notifications: The contact form data is sent by email to one or more email addresses. It also supports the configuration of auto-replies to the user who filled the contact form. Form data saved into the database: Avoid losing submissions and keep a record of the received contact form messages. Printable list of messages: Get the list of contacts received from the contact form within a selected date range and print it. Export data to CSV/Excel: Export the contact form data to a standard format that can be used by other applications. Export the email addresses and other contact form data using date and text search filters. Automatic reports: Provide automatic reports of the contact form usage and data entered into the form. Report of daily submissions and accumulative hourly report. Printable reports for specific fields into the contact form. Helps you to understand your data. Automatic email reports: Automatic reports sent to the indicated email addresses on a regular period. Form Validation: Set validation rules for each contact form field. Keep your data clean. Anti-spam protection: Built-it captcha anti-spam protection. No need to rely on external services for the contact form anti-spam protection. Drag and drop contact form builder: A basic and easy to use contact form builder for customizing the form fields and form validation. Customizable email messages: Specify the text of the contact form email notifications. Supports both plain text emails and HTML formatted emails. Multi language support: The contact form builder allows to enter the field labels and validations in any language. It supports special characters. Classic and Ajax submission: After clicking the submit button the user can be redirected to a “thank you” page or a “thank you” message can be displayed in the same form page without having to refresh it. This can be configured in the settings. Enable/Disable notifications: Both email notifications to administrators and email confirmation to users can be optionally enabled or disabled form the settings area. Contact Form to Email – More features There are also commercial versions of the Contact Form to Email with other features not listed here that can be get at https://form2email.dwbooster.com/download Commercial version can be converted in a payment form / booking form with integration with mulitple payment gateways: PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro, Stripe, Authorize.net, Skrill, Mollie / iDeal, TargetPay / iDeal, SagePay, RedSys TPV and Sage Payments. Payments are SCA ready (Strong Customer Authentication), compatible with the new Payment services (PSD 2) – Directive (EU). Commercial version also features a ultra-powerful visual form builder, file upload fields, conditional logic, multi-page forms, WooCommerce integration, Mailchimp integration, Clickatell and Twilio SMS integration, iCal attachments, signature fields to sign with the mouse or directly in the touchscreens, etc… Contact Form to Email Messages List The messages list helps to check the past contact form submissions and print or export them. Includes a search/filter form with the following options: Search for: Search for a text into the contact form messages. From … to: Date interval to be included in the list/reports. Item: You can have more than one contact form. Select here if you want to get the results of a specific contact form or from all contact forms. Filter: Shows the list according to the selected filters/options. Export to CSV: Export the CSV data according to the selected filters/options. The CSV file will contain a first row with the field names and the next rows will contain one contact form submission per row, with one for field on each column. This way you can easily import the data from other applications or just select the columns/fields that you need (example: select only the emails). A CSV file can be opened and managed using Excel. The list of contact form messages is shown below the search area. A print button below the list provides the messages list in a printable format. The Contact Form Reports The reports section lets you analyze the use of the contact forms and the data entered into them. The first section of the reports is a filter section similar to the one that appears in the messages list page. Below the filters section there are three graphical reports: Submissions per day: The report will display in point-lines graphic how many contact form submissions have been received each day in the selected date range. This report can be used to evaluate the contact form peaks and measure the impact of marketing actions. Submissions per hour: The report will display in a point-lines graphic how many contact form messages are received on each hour of the date; this is for the total messages in the selected date range. This report can be used for checking peak hours and focus the support service on those hours. Report of values for a selected field: Select any of the contact form fields and other information fields (like date, IP address, hours) to get a report of how many times each value have been entered or selected. This is very useful if you form is used as a poll to get feedback from users, it makes easy to generate a report on selectable contact form fields. This report can be used also to study the most common data entered in the contact form and get a better idea of your customer’s profile and needs. A print button at the end of the page can be used to print the report of the values for the selected contact form field in a printer-friendly format. Automatic Email Reports The Contact Form to Email plugin allows the setup of two types of automatic (periodical) Email reports: Global Email Reports: Can be setup below the list of forms. This report sends a report with the new submissions of all forms every the specified number of days. Form Email Reports: Can be setup on the settings page of each form. This report sends a report with the new submissions of the related form every the specified number of days. The reports are attached in a CSV / Excel file into the emails. In both cases the destination email addresses, email subject, email text and the report’s interval can be specified. More info available in the section “Other Notes”. Language Support The Contact Form to Email plugin is compatible with all charsets. The troubleshoot area contains options to change the encoding of the plugin database tables if needed. Translations are supported through PO/MO files located in the Contact Form to Email plugin folder “languages”. Multiple translations are already included in the plugin. Contact Form to Email Updates New features has been published in the current Contact Form to Email version 1.2.7 based on the feedback received and we would like to thank you all the people that have supported the development, provided feedback and feature requests. The plugin is currently over the 630,000 downloads/installations and a new set of updates is already being prepared, any feature requests will be welcome. Thank you! New: Form Builder In the latest update a form builder was included to visually add/modify/delete text fields, text-areas and emails with their respective validations. Opening the contact form messages in Excel: Go either to the “Reports” or “Messages” section. There is a button labeled “Export to CSV”. CSV files can be opened in Excel, just double-click the downloaded CSV file, it will contain the selected contact form submissions, one per line. Deleting a contact form message: Go to the “Messages” section and use the button labeled “Delete” for the contact form message you want to delete. Each row in that list is a contact form submission. Get the contact form email from the user: The email used as from is a fixed email specified on the contact form settings, this helps to prevent be classified as spam, however when you hit “reply” over the received email, the user’s email address will appear allow you to easily reply the contact form messages. The header “Reply-to” is used for this purpose. Customizing the captcha image: The captcha image used in the contact form is 100% implemented into the plugin, this way you don’t need to rely on third party services/servers. In addition to the settings for customizing the captcha design you can also replace the font files located into the folder “contact-form-to-email/captcha/”. The fonts are used as base for rendering the captcha on the contact form. Contact form email format: The notifications emails sent from the contact form can be either plain-text emails or HTML emails. Plain text emails are preferred in most cases since are easier to edit and pass the anti-spam filters with more probability. Contact form Clone button: The clone button duplicates a complete contact form with its settings. The contact form messages / emails and statistics aren’t duplicated. Custom contact form submit button There is a settings section info each form that allows to specify the label of the submit button. The class=”pbSubmit” can be used to modify the button styles. The styles can be applied into any of the CSS files of your theme or add the needed styles into the “Contact Form to Email plugin >> Customization area >> Add Custom Styles” (at the bottom of the page that contains the list of forms) For further modifications the submit button is located at the end of the file “cp-public-int.inc.php”. For general CSS styles modifications to the form and samples check this FAQ entry: https://form2email.dwbooster.com/faq#q82 Customizing the automatic email reports The settings for the email reports (both the global and per form reports) include the following configuration fields: Enable Reports?: Option for enabling / disabling the reports. Send report every: Indicate every how many days the reports will be sent. Send after this hour (server time): Approximate time at which the reports will be sent. This time is based on the server time. Some activity is needed on the website for sending the reports. You can setup a cron for a more exact delivery time. Send email from: The “from” email used for the reports. Avoid @aol.com and @hotmail.com “from” addresses to skip the anti-spam filters. Send to email(s): The list of emails (comma separated) that will receive the reports. Email subject: Subject of the email that will be sent with the Contact Form to Email reports. Email format?: Format of the email that will be sent with the Contact Form to Email reports. Can be HTML or Plain Text. In most cases plain text is easier to setup and has less problems with anti-spam services. Email Text (CSV file will be attached): Content of the email that will contain the Contact Form to Email reports. The reports will be attached in CSV format into the email. The contact form database The messages received via the contact form are stored into the WordPress contact form database table “wp_cftemail_messages”. You can export that data in form of automatic email reports or in CSV/Excel format from the messages list area. If needed you can also query that table directly for further processing of the contact form data. Importing messages There is an option to import messages into the Contact Form to Email plugin. That option is located below the messages list and is labeled “Import CSV”. The messages can be imported in a comma separated CSV file. One record per line, one field per column. Don’t use a header row with the field names. The first 3 columns into the CSV file are the time, IP address and email address, if you don’t have this information then leave the first three columns empty. After those initial columns the fields (columns) must appear in the same order than in the form. Sample format for the CSV file: 2013-04-21 18:50:00, 192.168.1.12, [email protected], "[email protected]", "sample subject", "sample message" 2013-05-16 20:49:00, 192.168.1.24, [email protected], "[email protected]", "other subject", "other message" From address used for the emails Into the “Form Processing / Email Settings” section the first settings field is named “Send email “From” and has the following options: From fixed email address indicated below – Recommended option: If you select “from fixed…” the customer email address will appear in the “to” address when you hit “reply”, this is the recommended setting to avoid mail server restrictions. From the email address indicated by the customer: If you select “from customer email” then the customer email will appear also visually when you receive the email, but this isn’t supported by all hosting services, so this option isn’t recommended in most cases. The drag and drop contact form builder The Form Builder lets you to add/edit/remove fields into the contact form and also to specify the validation rules for your contact form (required fields, email fields, etc…). The following field types are currently available in the version published at this WordPress directory: Single Line Text: Classic one-line text input. Email: This field validates that the email address has a valid format. Paragraph Text: Classic multi-line (textarea) text input. In other versions of the plugin the following field are also available: Numeric field with specific validations, Date-picker, Checkboxes, Multiple Choice Radio buttons, Dropdown / Select, Upload file fields, Password, Phone with specific validations, static texts, section breaks and page breaks for multi-page contact forms. Other features in the contact form builder: Equal fields validation: Use it for example to confirm if the email or text typed in two different fields are the same. This is valid for “Single Line Text” and “Email” fields. Dependent fields: Use this feature for show/hide fields (any field type) based in the selection made on other fields (checkboxes, radiobuttons or select/drop-down fields). This feature isn’t fully available in this version since the related fields aren’t included.