Knowledgebase: Forms

The forms on Dirigible are created using Gravity Forms, a powerful WordPress plugin.

A major update in 2021 can cause a conflict with the way the forms appear. If your forms look a bit off, just navigate to the form settings and make sure that “Enable Legacy Markup” is unchecked. Please note, this setting is a form setting. This means that you’ll have to change this for each form that looks off.

For more information on Gravity Forms, check out their site.

Hello everyone, my name is Jake, and I’m a partner and developer at Dirigible Studio. Today, I want to discuss a necessary but unfortunate aspect of conducting business online: spam. You may have started receiving spam notifications in your email inbox through Gravity Forms, and that’s what I’ll be addressing today.

To begin, let me explain some of the technologies we use and how we mitigate spam. We utilize a WordPress plugin called Gravity Forms, which you likely have on your contact us page or other pages with forms. These forms incorporate Google reCAPTCHA, a method used to deter automated or spam form submissions.

You’re probably familiar with reCAPTCHA—it usually appears at the bottom of the form and requires you to click a button or checkbox and select specific images, such as all the airplanes. This is one of the methods we use to deter spam. Additionally, Gravity Forms often includes hidden fields that, if filled out by an automated robot, would be discarded by the form.

By explaining these technologies, I want to emphasize that we are already doing our best to prevent spam from reaching your inbox. Unfortunately, spam is an ongoing issue when you have an online presence that accepts form submissions. There are some types of spam that we cannot eliminate, such as someone manually typing nonsense and completing the reCAPTCHA themselves. There are services available worldwide where people are paid to do this.

It’s important to understand that technology and spammers are in an ongoing race to outsmart each other. While we strive to keep everything up to date, spam remains a part of the game. There are additional steps we can take, but they usually involve paid methods or subscriptions, which require extra investment. Personally, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend these options.

That’s why we have things set up the way we do. The stricter you become in restricting spam, the more it can impact legitimate inquiries and form responses from your customers. Making it more difficult for spammers can inadvertently make it more challenging for genuine people who want to get in touch with you. At Dirigible Studio, we actually recommend allowing some spam to come through to minimize any harm to your legitimate customers.

I understand that it doesn’t feel good, but it’s about prioritizing your customers over spammers. I hope this clarifies some aspects of spam for you. If you have any questions or if you’re interested in exploring more advanced methods of spam restriction, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your time, and have a great day!

Spam and Web Accessibility

Hello and welcome back! My name is Jake, and I’m a partner and developer at Dirigible Studio. In the previous video, we discussed how to combat spam. Today, I want to draw attention to another crucial aspect: web accessibility.

Web accessibility may not be a term you’re familiar with, and that’s okay. We take care of as much of it as possible on your behalf. Essentially, web accessibility is about making websites usable for people with different abilities. Some individuals may have vision or hearing impairments, and they use various tools to navigate the internet.

Now, how does web accessibility tie in with spam? Well, the tools we use, such as the reCAPTCHA tool mentioned in the previous video, are accessible. They provide both audio and visual components, and you can switch between them. These tools are compliant with screen readers and other accessibility features. By utilizing them, we aim to prevent spam in a manner that doesn’t hinder or challenge people with different abilities. It’s important to ensure that their experience on your website remains positive.

When implementing these tools, we also need to keep in mind certain rules and guidelines, such as ADA requirements and WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). As a website owner, it’s essential to follow these regulations and make your website accessible to as many people as possible.

These considerations are crucial, especially when you’re striving to minimize spam. It’s not just about avoiding unwanted emails. There are broader implications at play, and ensuring web accessibility is part of doing the right thing.

I wanted to emphasize this point because it’s a vital aspect of your website. Thank you for taking the time to understand its importance. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out. Thank you!

Collecting newsletter signups is one of the most powerful ways to use your website: learn how to wire up Gravity Forms to your Mailchimp account.

Hello everyone! Today, I’ll show you how to connect your Gravity Forms to your Mailchimp account so you can add subscribers from Gravity Forms and your dirigible site to your Mailchimp mailing list. Let’s get started:

1. Go to the Forms Settings page. If you’re a dirigible studio client, make sure the Mailchimp option is visible. If it’s not, it means we haven’t activated the Mailchimp add-on for Gravity Forms yet. Let us know, and we’ll take care of it for you. Mailchimp makes the process easy.
2. Click on “Connect to Mailchimp” and sign in to your Mailchimp account.
3. If prompted, select your personal account and complete any necessary authentication steps.
4. Once connected, the next step is to set up a simple Gravity Form that sends user information to Mailchimp.
5. Create a new form for Mailchimp sign-up.
6. With Mailchimp activated, you should be able to find an email field and optionally a name field. Adjust the form layout as desired.
7. Save the form and go to the form settings.
8. Navigate to the Mailchimp tab and add a new feed.
9. Name the feed according to your preference. If you have multiple audiences, you can create different forms to route people to their respective feeds.
10. Select the audience you want to connect to and save the settings.
11. Map the fields in your form to the corresponding Mailchimp fields. Skip any fields you don’t collect (e.g., birthday or phone number).
12. If you have groups in Mailchimp, you can reassign them using the options provided.
13. Consider enabling double opt-in for better subscriber verification.
14. Save the field mappings and feed settings.
15. Now that the feed is set up, you can add the form to your pages.
16. Create a new page and add the Gravity Form block.
17. Select the Mailchimp signup form you created earlier.
18. Customize the form layout as desired.
19. Publish the page and view it to see the form in action.
20. When users submit the form, their email addresses will be added to your Mailchimp email list, allowing you to contact them using Mailchimp’s automated tools.

That’s it! Thank you very much for following along.

Need help exporting form entries in Gravity Forms from your site’s dashboard? Here are the steps:

1. Navigate to the side menu and click on “Forms.”
2. From the dropdown menu, select “Import/Export.”
3. By default, the “Export Entries” option will be selected. You can proceed with that.
4. Choose the form from which you want to export entries.
5. There are sorting options available. You can select specific fields to export. In this case, we will choose to export all fields.
6. If you scroll down, you’ll find additional options like conditional logic and date range settings. These can help you further refine your export.
7. Once you’re satisfied with the settings, scroll down to the “Download Export File” button.
8. Clicking on that button will generate a CSV file. You can open this file in Google Sheets, Excel, or any other spreadsheet program you prefer.