The Wordpress Contact Form - (block)

It is interesting that a simple contact form is available in the basic Wordpress package but it is made out to be something special by those that want to sell you a solution.

While is it possible to construct a Contact form using the Block Editor it is not well explained in my opinion.
The template that wordpress.com give you has the required fields such as Name, Email Address and your Comment (or question), but it does not mention the way that the response when the visitor presses "Submit" actually works.

I find that the way that the code needed to construct the response the visitor sees and the email that gets sent to the Wordpress user is cryptic. For example, the default recipient of the Contact Message is the author of the contact page. This can be changed to a designated email address that does not even have to be an Admin of the website.

Form Responses

Wordpress has a logging system for all form responses under the "Feedback" menu in the GUI.

The log can be downloaded as a "spreadsheet" and I have a copy of it as it was when I gave up control. The log still exists as far as I know. My new "practice" site has this GUI option.

Form Responses - what the person submitting the form sees

This is customisable to a degree. When I did this I added a message to click on the VH Icon instead of pressing "back" as this confusingly took the visitor back to the unsubmitted form.

Wordpress have updated this since I last looked and workecd on a form.

Who gets the message

At the time of writing this I am still the recipient of the Contact message.

This is a prime illustration that anything that is on a website needs to be tested thoroughly. We will have to see how the booking form goes!

2 Submit buttons - the lower one is a hyperlink to an email address - this results in an error. The top button still works and sends the message to me. The form action is code

Update April 2024The setting for the destination for the email when the submit button is clicked is not totally clear. The email I recieved on the 21st of April could be the signs of another attempt at looking at the contact form.

....or, it could be an attempt at editing the menu structure?????

Form Handler

The Submit button needs a Form Handler. This is built-in the Wordpress forms.

The handler is a PHP file or embedded code that forms the Form Action Attribute.

Email address verification

In keeping with many other forms the email address verification is pretty crude and mearly consists of checking that the entered text looks like an email address. It does not check to see if the email address actually exists.

This can be checked using RapidAPI but the coder would have to know how to make an API call and I doubt if Wordpress offer this functionality. It may if you use a plug-in that specifically addresses this problem. Again, this would be too difficult for the average Wordpress user to understand let alone implement.

This also doesn't prevent the spammer using a valid email address that they have pulled from an anonymous source. This would not be difficult to do.