Contact Form

Usage

Contact Form adds a ready-made form to a page: Name, Email, Phone (optional) and Message, with a Send message button. There's nothing to set up. Add the block where you want the form, usually on the Contact page, and it works.

The fields and the button take the site's own form and button styles, so the form matches the rest of the site. In the editor the block shows the form as visitors see it; to try sending, view the page in a private window.

Where messages go

• By email to the site's contact email: the Email under Contact & Social (the one the footer shows). If that's empty, messages go to the site's admin email. Replying to the email replies to the visitor.
• Under Messages in wp-admin, a copy of every message, for Administrators and Managers. The Messages menu item appears once the first message arrives. Each copy shows the name, email, phone, the page it came from and whether the email went out. Copies are deleted automatically 90 days after they arrive. See Contact form messages.

The emails show in Dirigible → Email Log like the site's other emails. Before you rely on the form, send a test email from Tools to check that the site's email reaches your inbox.

What visitors see

• Name, Email and Message are required, and the form says which fields are.
• A missing or mistyped field is named in a box above the form and under the field itself. Screen readers read the box out.
• After sending, the form is replaced by "Thank you. Your message has been received."
• The form works without JavaScript too. The visitor then sees a short page saying the message was sent, with a link back to the site.

Spam protection

The form has its own spam checks, with no puzzle for visitors and no outside service. It turns away messages that:

• were sent by a script rather than from the page;
• filled in a field that people can't see;
• were sent in under 3 seconds;
• have a web address in the name, or more than 3 web addresses in the message;
• are over 5,000 characters.

Each visitor can send up to 5 messages an hour. The site emails up to 30 messages an hour. Messages past that are still kept under Messages, marked as not emailed, and you get one short email saying messages are waiting there. The site keeps up to 100 messages a day; after that the form asks visitors to try again tomorrow.

When to use it

Use it on sites without a form plugin. When a form plugin such as Gravity Forms is active, the block isn't offered in the inserter. A Contact Form already on a page keeps working, and the editor suggests replacing it with a form from that plugin.

Tips

• Use one form per page. Two forms on a page work, but visitors only need one.
• The form has no settings. For different fields, a file upload or a different recipient per form, use a form plugin.
• The form doesn't add a heading. Put a Heading block above it, such as "Write to us".
• Removing the block from every page doesn't switch off the site's form address, so nothing a visitor already has open stops working. Spam sent there gets the same checks and limits.