DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 vs UpdraftPlus

Contact Form 7 is an excellent WordPress plugin and one of the top choices of free WordPress plugins for contact forms. DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 makes it even more awesome by adding dynamic content capabilities. While default values in Contact Form 7 are static, DTX lets you create pre-populated fields pulled from other locations. Some examples might include: Auto-filling a URL or just getting the domain name or path Auto-filling a post ID, title, or slug Auto-filling a title, URL, or slug for the current page Pre-populating a product number Referencing other content on the site Populating with post or page info Populating with the current user’s info Populating with custom and meta fields Generating unique identifiers for support tickets Getting a list of post categories or other custom taxonomies Getting a value from a cookie Getting custom theme modifications Any value using custom shortcodes The possibilities are endless! View Demo For over 10 years, DTX only handled and form fields, but version 4 finally introduces more: email URL tel (for phone numbers) number range (slider) textarea (multiline text) drop-down menu (select field) checkboxes radio buttons date submit (yes, a submit button where you can have dynamic text!) WHAT DOES IT DO? DTX provides flexibility to WordPress users in creating dynamic forms in Contact Form 7. DTX comes with several built-in shortcodes that will allow the contact form to be populated from HTTPS GET variable or any info from the get_bloginfo() function, among others. See below for included shortcodes. Don’t see the shortcode you need on the list? You can write a custom one! Any shortcode that returns a string or numeric value can be used here. The included shortcodes just cover the most common scenarios, but DTX provides the flexibility for you to grab any value you have access to programmatically. Dynamic Value The bread and butter of this plugin, set a dynamic value! This field can take any shortcode, with two important provisions: The shortcode should NOT include the normal square brackets ([ and ]). So, instead of [CF7_GET key='value'] you would use CF7_GET key='value'. Any parameters in the shortcode must use single quotes. That is: CF7_GET key='value' and not CF7_GET key="value" Dynamic Placeholder Set a dynamic placeholder with this attribute! This feature accepts static text or a shortcode. If using a shortcode, the same syntax applies from the dynamic value field. However, this field also has a few more needs: The text/shortcode must first have apostrophes converted to it’s HTML entity code, ' After that, it must be URL encoded so that spaces become %20 and other non-alphanumeric characters are converted. If you’re using Contact Form 7’s tag generator to create the form tag, those extra needs are already taken care of. Dynamic placeholders are not available for dynamic hidden form tags. Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Compatible with Caching Plugins DTX is cache friendly! You can set a field to be calculated after the page loads by setting the dtx_pageload attribute to any dynamic form tag. Many websites use caching plugins to optimize for performance. If your website caches the HTML of the form, then any dynamic form fields you have get their first calculated value cached alongside it. This becomes an issue if you’re using DTX to pull values from a cookie or the current URL’s query string. This is best for dynamic form fields that: gets the current URL gets a value from the URL query gets a value from a cookie gets the current user’s info generates a unique identifier (GUID) For dynamic fields that are page-specific, it’s perfectly safe to cache those values. For example, dynamic form fields that: getting the page or post’s ID, title, or slug getting post meta for the current page getting the post’s assigned categories, tags, or other custom taxonomy getting site info getting theme modification values Note: Enabling a dynamic field to be calculated after the page loads will add frontend JavaScript. Depending on the shortcode used as the dynamic value, an AJAX call to the server may be sent to be processed. The script is minified and loaded in the footer and is deferred, minimizing impact on site performance and the AJAX calls are called asynchronously to avoid being a render-blocking resource and minimizing main-thread work. The script itself can be safely cached too. Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Read Only Form Fields Check this box if you do not want to let users edit this field. It will add the readonly attribute to the input form field. This feature is not available for dynamic hidden form tags. Obfuscate Values for Enhanced Privacy If you’re pre-filling a form field with an email address, bots can scrape that value from the page and use it for spam. You can add an additional layer of protecting by obfuscating the value, which turns each character into it’s ASCII code. To the human eye, it looks like the character it’s supposed to be because browsers will render the ASCII code, but for bots, it won’t look like an email address! HOW TO USE IT After installing and activating the plugin, you will have 2 new tag types to select from when creating or editing a Contact Form 7 form: the dynamic text field and dynamic hidden field. Most of the options in their tag generators will be familiar to Contact Form 7 users but there have been some upgrades. How to Obfuscate Values All of the shortcodes included with the DTX plugin allow the obfuscate attribute that you can set to any truthy value to provide an additional layer of security for sensitive data. The Contact Form 7 tag with obfuscation turned on would look like this: [dynamictext user_email "CF7_get_current_user key='user_email' obfuscate='on'"] How to Enable Cache-Friendly Mode All of the dynamic form tags can be enabled for processing on the frontend of the website, or the client-side, by adding the dtx_pageload attribute to the Contact Form 7 form tag. In the form editor of Contact Form 7, your form tag would look like: [dynamictext current_url dtx_pageload "CF7_URL"] If using the tag generator, it’s as simple as checking a box! INCLUDED SHORTCODES The plugin includes several shortcodes for use with the Dynamic Text Extension right out of the box. You can write your own as well—any self-closing shortcode will work, even with attributes! Current URL or Part Retrieve the current URL: CF7_URL In the form editor of Contact Form 7, your form tag would look like: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_URL"] Optional parameter: part, which will return a parsed part of the URL. Valid values are host, query, and path Host: Just the domain name and tld [dynamictext host “CF7_URL part=’host'”] Query: The query string after the ?, if one exists [dynamictext query “CF7_URL part=’query'”] Path: The URL path, for example, /contact, if one exists [dynamictext path “CF7_URL part=’path'”] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Referrer URL Get the referral URL, if it exists. Note that this is not necessarily reliable as not all browsers send this data. CF7 Tag: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_referrer"] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Current Page Variables Retrieve information about the current page that the contact form is displayed on. Works great for use in templated areas like the site header, footer, widget, or sidebar! The shortcode works as follows: Built-in shortcode: CF7_get_current_var Required attribute: key Possible values for key include: id title url (an alias for CF7_URL) slug featured_image terms (an alias for CF7_get_taxonomy) For pages that use a WP_POST object, this acts as an alias for CF7_get_post_var so those attributes work here as well. For author pages, this acts as an alias for CF7_get_current_user so those attributes work here as well. In the form editor of Contact Form 7, your form tag’s value could look like: CF7_get_current_var key='title' And then the full form tag would be: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_get_current_var key='title'"] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Post/Page Info Retrieve information about the current post or page (must be for a WP_POST object) that the contact form is displayed on. The shortcode works as follows: CF7_get_post_var key='title' Contact > Dynamic Text Extension > Meta Key Allow List. More Information The dynamic value input becomes: CF7_get_custom_field key='my_custom_field' And the tag looks like this: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_get_custom_field key='my_custom_field'"] For the purposes of including an email address, you can obfuscate the custom field value by setting obfuscate=’on’ in the shortcode like this: [dynamictext dynamicname “CF7_get_custom_field key=’my_custom_field’ obfuscate=’on'”] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Featured Images & Media Attachments Retrieve the current post’s featured image, the featured image of a different page, or any attachment from the Media Library with this shortcode! The base shortcode is simply: CF7_get_attachment which returns the absolute URL of the current page’s featured image. By setting the post_id attribute to a post ID, you can get the featured image of another page. By setting the id attribute to an attachment ID, you can get the absolute URL of any image uploaded to your WordPress website. By setting the size attribute to any size registered on your website, you can get a specific image size. Want to return the attachment ID instead of the URL? Also not a problem! Just set return='id' in the shortcode. Most of the optional attributes can be used at the same time. For example, if I wanted to retrieve the attachment ID of a featured image for a different post, then the dynamic text form tag would look like this: [dynamictext input_name “CF7_get_attachment post_id=’123′ return=’id'”] If I wanted to get a specific image at a specific size, I can use this: [dynamictext input_name “CF7_get_attachment id=’123′ size=’thumbnail'”] The only two attributes that can’t play together is id and post_id. If both are specified, it will get the attachment specified by id and completely ignore the post_id attribute. If neither are specified, then it looks to the current featured image assigned to the global $post object. Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Current User Info & User Meta Get data about the current logged-in user. Dynamic value: CF7_get_current_user key='user_displayname' CF7 Tag: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_get_current_user"] Note: You must add any user keys that you want to allow access to to the allow list in your admin panel > Contact > Dynamic Text Extension > User Data Key Allow List. More Information Valid values for key include: ID user_login display_name user_email user_firstname user_lastname user_description But also custom meta user keys! For the purposes of including an email address, you can obfuscate the value by setting obfuscate=’on’ in the shortcode like this: [dynamictext dynamicname “CF7_get_current_user key=’user_email’ obfuscate=’on'”] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Site/Blog Info Want to grab some information from your blog like the URL or the site name? Use the CF7_bloginfo shortcode. For example, to get the site’s URL: Enter the following into the “Dynamic Value” input: CF7_bloginfo show='url' Your Content Form 7 Tag will look something like this: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_bloginfo show='url'"] Your form’s dynamicname text input will then be pre-populated with your site’s URL Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Theme Options Want to retrieve values from your active theme’s Customizer? Now you can with the CF7_get_theme_option shortcode. Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. HTTP GET Variables Want to use a variable from the PHP $_GET array? Just use the CF7_GET shortcode. For example, if you want to get the foo parameter from the url http://mysite.com?foo=bar Enter the following into the “Dynamic Value” input: CF7_GET key='foo' Your Content Form 7 Tag will look something like this: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_GET key='foo'"] Your form’s dynamicname text input will then be pre-populated with the value of foo, in this case, bar Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. HTTP POST Variables Grab variables from the PHP $_POST array. The shortcode is much like the GET shortcode: Dynamic value: CF7_POST key='foo' Your Content Form 7 Tag will look something like this: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_POST key='foo'"] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. Cookie Values If your WordPress website uses cookies, you might want to pull the value of a specific cookie into a form. You can do that with the CF7_get_cookie shortcode. It only needs a key attribute. Dynamic value: CF7_get_cookie key='foo' Your Content Form 7 Tag will look something like this: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_get_cookie key='foo'"] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base. GUID Generate a globally unique identifier (GUID) in a form field. This is a great utility shortcode for forms that need unique identifiers for support tickets, receipts, reference numbers, etc., without having to expose personally identifiable information (PII). This shortcode takes no parameters: CF7_guid In the form editor of Contact Form 7, your form tag would look like: [dynamictext dynamicname "CF7_guid"] Learn more and see examples from the DTX Knowledge base.

The UpdraftPlus Backup & Migration Plugin is trusted by the WordPress community to backup, restore and migrate their WordPress websites. UpdraftPlus is actively installed on more than 3 million websites around the world. Backup with UpdraftPlus UpdraftPlus is the world’s highest ranking and most popular scheduled backup and migration plugin. Backup to your preferred storage location and restore in just three clicks. Backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 (or compatible), Rackspace Cloud, FTP, DreamObjects, Openstack Swift or email. The paid version also allows you to backup to Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Backblaze B2, SFTP, SCP, pCloud, WebDAV or UpdraftVault, our integrated storage option for UpdraftPlus. Backup manually or schedule to run every 2, 4, 8 or 12 hours, daily, weekly, monthly or fortnightly. Restore with UpdraftPlus Your WordPress website is vulnerable. Your site may get hacked. Something could go wrong with an update or your server could crash. You might need to reverse a change made or a mistake caused by human error. Whatever the reason, you can restore your WordPress website in just a few clicks with UpdraftPlus. Choose which components to restore (e.g. plugins, themes, database etc.), click again to restore, then click again to return to the main screen. Migrate with UpdraftPlus It’s easy to migrate your WordPress website to another web host, server or domain with this free version of UpdraftPlus. To migrate, simply download your database, plugins, themes etc. from the source site, then upload them into your destination site. When migrating, a built-in search-and-replace engine identifies old strings and replaces these to reflect the new location. UpdraftPlus saves you time and reduces the risk of broken links or missing files associated with manual migrations. Why UpdraftPlus? Writing a reliable backup and migration plugin that ‘just works’ consistently across millions of different WordPress deployments is hard. UpdraftPlus is relied upon to do exactly that. We’re trusted and actively deployed on more websites around the world than any other WordPress backup and migration plugin. UpdraftPlus: Backs up, migrates and restores Offers a huge number of remote storage locations Allows you to schedule backups, so you can ‘set and forget’ Is comprehensive and easy to use Is proven to work on over 3 million sites. UpdraftPlus Premium The free version of UpdraftPlus will back up and migrate your website perfectly well. However if you need more features and options you can purchase our Premium version. Backup and Migrate with UpdraftPlus Premium, and: Get automatic backups before updates. Restore the very latest version if a WordPress or plugin update breaks your site. Backup Incrementally. Changes are added to the master, saving server resources vs repeatedly backing up in full. Get more remote storage options including Microsoft OneDrive, SFTP, Microsoft Azure, WebDAV, Google Cloud, SCP, Backblaze and pCloud. Get 1GB of integrated storage with UpdraftVault for 99.999% reliability, redundancy and scalability. Get more control over how many backups are stored in a specified interval. Restore from other backup plugins including BackWPup, BackupWordPress, Simple Backups and more. Run backups at set times e.g. during periods of low traffic. Backup to more than one location for added protection. Get detailed reports. Includes cryptographic checksums so you can verify the integrity of the backup files and more. Get Premium migration. Migrating to the destination site is more direct and can be done from the source site. Get Multisite / multi-network compatibility. Backup non-WP files and databases e.g. tables belonging to your e-commerce store or customisations to WordPress core. Get database encryption. Manage your backups and migrations from the WP-CLI. Get Premium Support. Find out more on our comparison page. UpdraftPlus Premium is available for purchase here. Managing multiple websites? UpdraftCentral is a powerful remote control dashboard for WordPress that allows you to manage your backups, as well as updates, users, pages, posts, plugins and themes from one central location. Choose between: UpdraftCentral (free, self-hosted) UpdraftCentral Premium (paid-for, self-hosted) UpdraftCentral Cloud (paid-for, fully-hosted) Optimize your sites centrally by combining the power of WP-Optimize and UpdraftCentral or manage your backups centrally by combining the power of UpdraftPlus with UpdraftCentral. Need to create a temporary clone of your site? UpdraftClone makes it quick and easy to create a temporary sandbox for changes you want to try out. Simply select the versions of WordPress and PHP that you want, and we’ll do the rest. More about UpdraftClone The full suite of plugins from Team Updraft and friends UpdraftPlus. Backup, migrate and restore. Rated 5* on the plugin directory and trusted by more than 3 million WordPress website owner WP-Optimize. Clean the database, compress images and caching. Optimize your WordPress website. 5* user rating. 1 million + active installs. All-In-One Security (AIOS). Secure your WordPress website. Comprehensive, feature rich and easy to use. 5* user rating and 1 million + active installs. WP Overnight. Quality Extensions for your WooCommerce store. 5* rated invoicing, order and product management, customer management solutions and more. Easy Updates Manager. Take control of updates. Lots of features for free, and a Premium version with even more – over 300,000 users. Internal Link Juicer.Boost your SEO. Automate internal links within your WordPress website. Save time and rank higher in the search engines. For other useful, free plugins see our lead developer’s profile, here. Are you multilingual? Can you translate? Do you want to help people that speak your language to backup, migrate and restore their WordPress websites? The UpdraftPlus backup, migration and restoration plugin is ready and waiting. The translation process is easy, and web-based – please go here for instructions: https://updraftplus.com/translate/. Or, if you’re already an expert WordPress translator, just pick out the .pot file from the wp-content/plugins/updraftplus/languages/ directory – if you scan for translatable strings manually, then you need to get these functions: _x(), __(), _e(), _ex(), log_e(). Many thanks to our existing translators. License Copyright 2011-24 David Anderson This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA Non-English translators are provided by volunteers, and wordpress.org does not give plugin developers control over their translations; thus relying on them is at your own risk; UpdraftPlus cannot guarantee that translations from the original English are accurate. We recognise and thank those mentioned at https://updraftplus.com/acknowledgements/ for code and/or libraries used and/or modified under the terms of their open source licences.