Automattic’s Jetpack WordPress plugin tempted us with all the new things they would be adding when it was first released. We didn’t know what they would be adding, but the ‘coming soon’ boxes gave us an idea of how much awesome would show up in only a matter of time.
So far, the add-on’s have been pretty solid. Reducing the need for some other plugins you may have used in the past, as Jetpack is becoming more and more like one giant sized solution.
The latest update is by far the most exciting.
Check your plugin updates, Jetpack now includes a fully customizable contact form!
Jetpack Contact Form
[wpvideo xjznIgf9]
This has been my favorite addition so far.
After making your Jetpack update, you’ll notice you have a new icon on your post and pages:
This will open up your new contact form builder!
This means you can add a contact form on any post. Pretty cool, right?
You can move your fields around, edit them and even add them!
The contact forms are sent to another new admin menu called, ‘Feedback.’ You can reply, just like comments. Or you can enter in any email address of your choosing and have them land straight into your email inbox:
When you’re all finished, Jetpack plops the shortcode magic into your Post or Page:
Once you get a feel for the shortcode structure, you can even edit and modify straight from the shortcode.
The available field attributes are as follows [via WordPress]:
label Gives the field a descriptive label
type Available options include:
- text – Displays a regular single line text box
- textarea – Displays a multi-line text box
- radio – Displays radio options
- checkbox – Displays a single checkbox
- select – Displays a drop down with multiple options
- email – Displays a single line text box
- name – Displays a single line text box
- url – Displays a single line text box
required If you’d like the field to be required, add required=”true” if not, simply leave this out.
options Select and radio fields have a fourth option called “options”. This is a comment separated list of all the options available within the drop down or radio field. An example would be:
[contact-field label=”Sex” type=”radio” options=”Female,Male” /]
You should also know [via WordPress]:
- Your email addresses are never shown in the form directly, and the sender never learns it unless you reply to the email.
- Any blog users with Editor or Administrator roles can see feedbacks.
- All contact form messages are filtered through Akismet, so the amount of spam you receive will be minimal, if not zero.
- Visitors can type anything into the name and email boxes, so it is easy to fake an identity. If a logged-in WordPress.com user sends you a message, the email will tell you that it was sent by a verified user and you can trust the name and email. As with anything online, know that anonymity is both a curse and a blessing.
- You can include any text or other allowed elements above or below the contact form.
- If you have Custom CSS, you can customize the look of the form.
- Each post, page, and text widget will only display one contact form. You can have multiple contact forms in the sidebar by using multiple text widgets.
- Self-hosted/installed WordPress(.org) users can enjoy the same functionality with the Grunion Contact Form plugin.
Conclusion
Should you dump your current contact form?
Right now, I use Contact Form 7. I have a few sites that include some complicated data fields, so I may wait to switch those over. However, those websites that I have a simple contact form, I’ll be switching to this right away.
It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s already built into Jetpack. And Automattic is awesome.
Enough reasons?
Time will tell. Since this doesn’t run CAPTCHA (it uses Akismet), I’m anxious to see how it handles junk. As of now, I’m jumping in with both feet.
How about you?
Learn more on the Contact Form Support page.
Phil Schneider says
Looks like I’ve found my first blog maintenance task of the evening! This is fantastic!
Eric Dye says
😀
Daniel Berman says
A wonderful update, to a very intriguing plugin.
Is there a good way to test if the wordpress mail function is up and running, with enough data to let my host know what they need to look at if its a server issue?
I have a hosting account where don’t get emails from WordPress, and another account with the same host, same hosting package where I do.
Daniel Berman says
Turns out my host had reset some PHP settings & didn’t tell me after a recent software upgrade.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/check-email/ appears to be a good plugin for sending test email. It could use some diagnostics though.
Eric Dye says
Nice! I’ll have to check that plugin out.
Mark Robinson says
If it means one less plugin then I’m all in!
Mark Robinson says
Or rather 2 if you include captcha!
Eric Dye says
No kidding! Me too!
Daniel Berman says
Atleast with Contact Form 7, it always adds an extra CSS stylesheet which loads on all pages despite the contact form only being on one page. Hopefully Jetpack won’t pull something similar.
Eric Dye says
Good point. If Jetpack has this built in, now, perhaps themes will start styling it in.
Louis says
Hmm, it looks good, so I installed it, but it doesn’t seem to actually send email to the address I specify. It could be Akismet is blocking it, but how can you tell? These services, while free and cool, are very black box.
Louis says
Nevermind, it works, it’s just a bit slow. All my test messages eventually ended up in my spam folder, so there’s that to look out for, but they got past Akismet.
Daniel Berman says
Do you have an SPF Record setup for your domain? http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=33786 Make sure it includes the static IP of your web host. Hopefully this will keep emails from your web host out of your spam box.
Louis says
Hi Daniel, thanks for the advice! I will try that out.
Eric Dye says
Drop a support question to Jetpack. They answered me with a fix for something else that happened with Jetpack, before.
James Cooper says
Hmmm, interesting. I normally use wufoo for my contact forms. Their shortcode plugin makes adding the forms to WP a doddle.
Eric Dye says
WOOT!
Jonathan Blundell says
I did this update and realized it took over all my Contact Form 7 forms. It uses the same shortcode as Contact Form 7’s original shortcode. So if anyone installs this alongside Contact Form 7 you’ll want to be sure and update the shortcodes from Contact Form 7. The latest shortcodes should start with contact-form-7 instead of the old version: contact-form
Eric Dye says
Good call! (I better go check mine!)
Dorian says
Hi, do you know if one can change the caption of the ‘send button’?
Eric Dye says
Probably. You would have to search around the plugin code, but then your changes would be overwritten every time you upgrade the plugin.