e Contact Form 7 plugin, or as some translate it “Contact Form 7”, is one of the popular free WordPress plugins for creating contact forms. The addition enables you to create a contact form, control email, and some advanced options for professionals as well. You can simply create the form and then add it to any page, article, or custom widget.
In this article, we will learn how to use and customize the add-on correctly.
Pros and cons of Contact Form 7
Positives
- Ease of installation and use
- Ready-to-use contact forms
- Compatible with all WordPress templates
- Feature to add re-captcha to prevent unwanted actions
- It can be controlled through website building tools (Visual builders)
- Automatic updates
Negatives
- The Contact Form 7 interface is not easy for beginners and requires a little learning to control the fields and settings.
- Limited support.
- Changes cannot be previewed directly and immediately.
- There is no feature to add forms directly through the WordPress editor, like some other plugins that offer this feature (Ninja Forms and WPForms). Where we need to copy the short code and then paste it where we want
Security vulnerability in Contact Form 7
A vulnerability has been discovered in Contact Form 7 that allows an attacker to upload malicious scripts. This vulnerability occurs when you upload files, as hackers can add and download a malicious program with the files you upload, so the attacker can access your site and database.
The vulnerability allowed the downloading of malicious types of files, which led to malfunctions on some sites. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at Web Security Astra, and has been resolved in Update 7 5.3.2.
If these negatives or defects make the addition inappropriate for you, it would be better to rely on an alternative that does not suffer from them, or at least most of them, and the Zaytoun program provided by Hassoub Company is one of the best alternatives that can be relied upon, and therefore we will shed light on it in the following paragraph before To explain how to use the Contact Form 7 add-on.
Use olive as an alternative to add Contact Form 7
While the Contact Form 7 plugin is not friendly to beginners because its interface is not simple, it does not provide professional support for free, and it does not allow adding a contact form through the plugin editor in WordPress, the custom Zaitoun program allows for facilitating the provision of various types of technical support on websites and e-stores with all of this. It also has many other features that make it more suitable in some cases, including but not limited to:
- It provides a free lifetime plan that is sufficient to add one contact form to the website, and most small and medium sites do not need more than that.
- Easy to use , as anyone with simple technical experience can create and add a contact form using the Zaytoun program.
- It does not take a long time to set up or use it , as within minutes everything needed to add a contact form to a WordPress site can be prepared.
- It provides a professional control panel that allows you to view the messages received through the communication form and manage them by implementing many useful actions on them.
- It supports the Arabic language excellently , as all the tools and elements in the program support the right-to-left direction and all phrases appear in Arabic.
- It provides many additional features , as it is not only possible to create a contact form using Zaitoun, but also a knowledge base and live chat system can be built easily.
- It offers excellent technical support via email, live chat, and knowledge base, and its support team is highly technical and provides clear, helpful responses.
How to install Contact Form 7?
To install the plugin, you must go to the WordPress control panel, then to ( Plugins << Add New ), then type (Contact Form 7 ) in the search box, then click on ( Install Now ).
After installing the add-ons, you must activate them by clicking on the button: Activate
After activation, the add-on will be present in the WordPress control panel, and the add-on will automatically take the site language you are using
Features of adding Contact Form 7
This free add-on offers many benefits and features, including:
- You can protect your contact forms from spam.
- The ability to filter unwanted messages with the addition of Akismet .
- The add-on supports the ability to create a reCAPTCHA test.
- The ability to block messages specifically (for example, messages containing specific keywords or specific IP addresses).
Contact form settings 7
After installing the add-on, we will have 3 settings to control everything related to the form:
- Contact forms.
- Add new.
- Integration with other services.
1- Contact forms
This tab contains all the forms that have been created, as well as the shortcode, which will be added to the page or article where you want the contact form to be located.
Follow us until the end of the article, to learn how to add the code to your pages or posts with illustrative images.
2- Add new
This tab contains all the options that the plugin offers for beginners and professionals to create a suitable contact form.
Follow us until the end of the article, to learn how to add an ideal template and configure the email settings with a detailed explanation with illustrative pictures.
3 – Integration with other services (Integration)
Contact Form 7 enables you to integrate and integrate with other services to provide more advanced features to users.
How to create a contact form in Contact Form 7
When creating a new form you can control 4 options:
1- The form
where you can edit the form from here and add and modify custom fields.
2-Email
where you can edit the email template
3-Messages
where you can edit the messages used in various situations.
4- Additional settings
where you can add custom codes and short codes
How to add a new contact form
Before we start creating and customizing forms, let’s see what the basic form, which comes with the plugin, looks like
There are many options that the plugin offers you in order to edit your form, so you can:
- Add text or email.
- Add a link (URL) or phone number.
- Date or text area.
- Drop-down menu.
- Checkboxes.
- Radio buttons.
- Acceptance.
- Simple test (qui).
- Add a file or submit button.
Let us now talk about the contents of the form as follows:
Add text
When you click on (Text), a window will appear for us through which we can specify:
- Field type (whether the user is required to enter it before submitting or not).
- Field name.
- Default value of the field
After completing, we click on Insert Tag, in order to add it to our form
The result will be as follows:
A field can be added to the email, specifying the field type, name, and value
The result is as follows
Phone number + URL link
You can add the phone number and put a link as in the previous method
number
A number or numbers can be added and contain options, such as:
- Field type (counter box or slider)
- Determine the minimum and maximum
The result will be as follows
text area
Drop-down menu
A drop-down list can be added to choose from
The result is as follows
Selection fields – checkboxes
Radio buttons
File – file
A field can be added to upload specific files, where the size allowed to upload files and the types of files allowed to be uploaded can be specified
The result is as follows
Simple test
Simple tests can be added
The result is as follows
There are many options for controlling email
- Specify the email address to be sent to
- sender’s address
- the topic
- Additional headers (the email address that must be answered for the user “that he entered in the form”).
- Message content (where we put the tags we want)
- Attached files (we put the tag of the file that we uploaded in the form).
- The second email (it is like an automatic response to the email that the user sent, where you can set the appropriate settings to send an automatic message to the user immediately after he sends the message)
All we have to do is choose from the tags above what we want to put, then copy them into the designated place.
Messages
Where you can select and change the messages that appear in all different cases
Additional settings
If you have programming experience and want to add special codes, you can add them, using the additional settings
Integration with other services
Contact Form 7 allows you to integrate with other features. For example, with Constant Contact integrated, you can send contact-related data collected through your contact forms to the Constant Contact API.
1-Constant Contact
Create reliable email subscription services in easy steps.
2- reCAPTCHA
reCAPTCHA protects your site against spam.
3-Flamingo
Where you can save messages sent by users.
4- Akismet
To prevent spam comments.
How to add the form to pages or articles
The form you created can be added simply by copying the short code that appears at the top of the page after you finish configuring the form and copying it to the page or article.
1- Save the form
2- Copy the short code
Contact Form 7 problems and solutions
Why does the email arrive with the name WordPress and not the sender’s name?
Some mail that arrives sometimes arrives in the name of WordPress and not in the name of the sender who filled out the form. The reason is that you did not configure the mail settings, and left them at the default settings.
When I use CAPTCHA, the image does not appear
To use CAPTCHA, you need to install the GD and FreeType library on your server. Also the temporary CAPTCHA folder must be writable.
Can I see messages sent through the contact form?
Contact Form 7 cannot store sent messages and view them after sending. To activate this feature, you need to download the Flamingo add-on, which does this.
Is there an automatic reply feature for messages?
Yes, Contact Form 7 provides the ability to automatically reply to messages and configure their settings through the second mail feature that was explained above.
Is HTML5 supported in Contact Form 7?
Yes, Contact Form 7 supports HTML5
Can contact forms be imported or exported?
Yes, this is possible, by going to your WordPress control panel, then Tools, then Import/Export.
In the end, the Contact Form 7 add-on is a good, free add-on for creating simple, direct forms, but you can try some other add-ons that offer more features and a more attractive user interface.
Share with us in the comments which extension you use to add a contact form to your site.
