After sending
Emails
Notifications to your team and copies to visitors, recipients chosen by rules, merge tags, attachments and delivery checks.
Emails are set in the form's Emails tab. A new form has one email to your team, sent to the default recipient from Settings, Email.
Emails are sent after the entry is stored, in the background. If sending fails, the entry is still saved, the attempt is retried, and the entry's timeline shows each attempt and the reason. You can send any email again from the entry.
Settings of an email
| Setting | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | For you only, shown in the list and in entry timelines |
| Send this email | Turn an email off without deleting it |
| When | When an entry is sent, when a payment is confirmed, when a payment fails, or when staff change the entry status (optionally only for one status) |
| Recipients | To, Cc, Bcc and Reply-To. Each recipient is a fixed address (merge tags allowed, for example {settings:default_recipient}), the answer to an email field (To and Reply-To only), the author of the page with the form, an address stored in a custom field of that page, or the logged in visitor's account address (nothing is sent for visitors who are not logged in) |
| Add a reply to the visitor | Adds a Reply-To with the form's email field, so replying to the email answers the visitor |
| Choose recipients with rules | Send to different addresses depending on answers, for example by department. When no rule matches, send to the recipients above or do not send |
| Subject and message | Merge tags allowed. Choose formatted HTML or plain text; a plain text version of HTML emails is made for you. The message editor has headings, bold, italic, lists and links, and a source view; it works with the keyboard and screen readers. Size, space around the message and text direction are in Layout |
| Sender name and address | Empty uses Settings, Email. Use an address on your own domain |
| Attach uploaded files from | Attach files uploaded to the chosen fields |
| Only send when | A condition on the answers |
Cc and Bcc never take addresses from the form's answers, so a visitor cannot use your form to copy an email to someone else. To send a copy to the visitor, add a separate email with the visitor's email field as the To recipient.
Preview and test
Preview and test at the top of an email shows the subject, recipients and message as they would be sent, filled in with the newest entry of the form (or with sample answers when there are no entries yet). Switch between the formatted and plain text versions.
Send a test to sends that preview to one address you type. Only that address receives it: the usual recipients, Cc and Bcc are left out and the subject starts with [Test]. The result tells you whether the mail transport accepted the message; check the inbox to confirm delivery.
Merge tags
Merge tags insert answers and details into subjects, messages, recipients, confirmations and integration settings. Select the tag button next to a box to pick one; type in its search box to find a tag by name.
| Tag | Inserts |
|---|---|
{field:name} |
The answer to the field with that field name, as the visitor saw it |
{field:name|value} |
The stored value instead of the label, for example sales instead of "Sales team" |
{field:name.first} |
One part of a name or address field (first, last, line1, city, postal, country and so on) |
{all_fields} |
Every answer in a table; {all_fields|empty} includes empty answers |
{entry:reference}, {entry:id}, {entry:date}, {entry:status} |
Entry details |
{entry:admin_url} |
A link to the entry in the dashboard (staff only) |
{payment:amount}, {payment:status} |
Payment details |
{form:title}, {form:id} |
The form |
{page:url}, {page:title}, {page:id}, {page:meta:key} |
The page the form was on |
{user:display_name}, {user:email}, {user:login}, {user:meta:key} |
The logged in visitor |
{site:title}, {site:url}, {admin_email}, {settings:default_recipient} |
The site |
{date}, {time}, {datetime}, {today} |
When the entry was sent; {today|+7 days} gives a later date and {date:Y-m-d} a format of your choice |
{now|+2 hours} |
The date and time from now, moved by minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years, in the site time zone |
{ip}, {user_agent}, {referrer} |
The visitor's connection (when stored) |
{random}, {uuid} |
Unique codes |
The full list for your form, including every field, is in the tag picker. Values are escaped for where they go: HTML in HTML emails, plain text in subjects, encoded in addresses.
Making sure emails arrive
WordPress hands emails to your host's mail system. Many hosts send without the records that prove the email is genuine, and the receiving service files it as spam or drops it.
- In Forms, Diagnostics, send a test email to an address you can check. The result says whether WordPress handed it over and which mail transport was used.
- Use a sender address on your site's own domain (Settings, Email).
- For reliable delivery, install an SMTP plugin and connect it to a mail service that has SPF and DKIM set up for your domain. Flavonto Forms sends through whatever WordPress uses, so SMTP plugins work without extra settings.
- If an email is missing, open the entry: its timeline shows whether the email was handed to the mail transport, failed (with the reason) or is waiting for a retry.
"Accepted by the mail transport" means the email left WordPress. It does not prove it reached the inbox; only the receiving side can tell you that.
Emails in the visitor's language
On sites using WPML or Polylang, translated subjects and messages are used in the language the visitor filled the form in. See Multilingual sites.