The talented team behind WordPress.com has launched a major update to their built-in contact forms.
The old built-in contact form system was in need of a major overhaul, and that’s exactly what it got in this update. The new forms are not just contact forms, but fully customizable forms with the ability to add or remove fields, select from a variety of field types, and mark specific fields as required.
The team also added a new “Feedbacks” section to the Dashboard, which is basically similar to the Comment management section, but specifically for managing the data collected by your new forms. As with comments, all form data is passed through Akismet to keep the spam bots from abusing your forms.
Of course, the new custom form system isn’t just for WordPress.com users. Users with self-hosted/installed WordPress blogs can enjoy the new system by installing and activating the Grunion Contact Form plugin.
Have you had a chance to try the new custom form system? What do you think of the improvements?
Disclaimer: I work for Automattic, Inc.
Shouldn’t there be some kind of disclaimer that you work for Automattic when you are posting now? Otherwise it just comes across as free advertising for WordPress.com because this site is supposed to be an independent resource. Either way it comes across as advertising, The rules change when you go to work for the company you are reporting on.
This site *is* an independent resource and we try to make sure that all of our disclaimers are up to date. I agree that there should have been a disclaimer and we will add it to the post as soon as possible.
Thank you for keeping us honest and for holding us in such high regard.
Good to hear Mark. The disclaimer is a good step for sure. May actually be best to have Automattic related news be reported on by people not employed by Automattic, just to keep some editorial integrity in check. Other than that, keep up the good work!
I have ultimate trust in my team. I don’t think it will be necessary to limit types of post.
Freedom of content production and versatility of insights while upholding integrity and principles are our means to serving our ultimate goal of helping and informing all WordPress users. You will see.
It definitely came across as an advertisement to me. I assumed the showcase post from the other day was just written by a WordPress.com fan, but now I see it was an employee who is a fan of their employer!
To be honest, I had been a fan and user of WordPress.com for years before I was hired (2 weeks ago).
It has always been my policy here (even before being hired by Automattic) to treat all WordPress.com news as of general importance to the overall WordPress community, simply due to the fact that most WordPress enhancements debut on WordPress.com before being rolled into the core or released as plugins.
I apologize if you felt that these were advertisements or misguided fanaticism.
No need to apologise. I know it wasn’t intended as an advertisement, it just read like that.
My two cents: I’d have written the article around the Grunion Contact Form plugin and pointed out that it’s also available on WordPress.com toward the end rather than concentrating on it’s use on WordPress.com. Judging by the advertising here on WLTC, the majority of the site visitors here use their own WP install anyway.
This is an excellent plugin. I’ve been using the old one
for a while now due to it’s simplicity, but this new update has
maintained most of the older plugins simplicity whilst adding most
of the functionality of it’s direct competitors. I released a
plugin today which partially simplifies the new plugin a little
more to like the older one worked:
http://pixopoint.com/2010/12/2.....nk-plugin/
http://pixopoint.com/products/.....dmin-link/
I use Contact Form 7. I wonder how the Grunion differs from Contact Form 7.
Grunion integrates better with WordPress and is easier to use. Contact Form 7 has more features.
I think, that Contact Form 7 not so hard! I use this on my
russian blog http://pomogu.co.cc/ , and i like it!!!) But everyone
chooses what he likes more! Anyway I have an opinion…
Havn’t had a chance to try it out get. I didn’t even know
about it untill now. Thanks for the info, will try it out soon
🙂
Why does my username and email show up in the email field and name field of the custom form on the published page?
If you’re logged in to WordPress.com, your information will be automatically filled in when you visit any contact form on WordPress.com.