Formidable Forms – Knowledgebase Demo

Formidable Forms is a powerful plugin which allows you to easily create forms of all shapes and sizes – and so much more.

After activating the Formidable plugin in Plugins > All, you will see a new Formidable menu item added to your main navigation.

Email support if you don’t see the Formidable menu item.

Edit Contact Form

The easiest way to see how Formidable Forms works is to Edit the existing contact form.

1. Go to Formidable > Forms.

2. Click on the Edit link under Contact Us form.

3. This opens up the form builder.

In the build tab the list of field types you can add to your form are listed on the left and the current form fields are shown on the right.

Hovering your mouse over a field brings up three action menu options:

Duplicate field – used to create a duplicate copy of the field. For example, you could duplicate the email field to add an extra email field and then edit the description on the second email field to change it to alternative email address.
Delete field – removes the field from the form. For example, the contact form has a field for Name (First) and Last (Last). You could use Delete Field to remove Last name field then edit the description on the Name field to change it from First to your full name.
Move field – used to change the location of a field in the form.

Clicking on a field opens up the field options on the left where you can edit the field title, mark a field as required (or not required), field description and access the field options (used for advanced field customization).

For example, if you didn’t want the person to have to enter their name to submit the form you would uncheck Required in the field option. Example using required fields

You add extra fields to the form by drag and dropping the new field onto your form from the Fields list on the left side. Refer to Formidable Forms field type support documentation to learn more about fields.

For example, you might want visitors to upload at least one file with your form by adding a file upload field to your form.

You can also select the type of files they are allowed to upload.

Don’t select “Attach this file to the email notification”. If the file is too large it will prevent the form from sending the email notification.

Click Update each time you make a change to your form.

Email notifications

The contact form is set up to send a notification email when a form is submitted. By default, the email is sent to the address listed in Settings > General.

You can add the email address as follows:

1. Click on the Settings tab.

2. Click on Actions & Forms.

3. Click on Email Notification.

4. Add the email address(s).

This only needs to be changed if you want to use a different email address from what is listed in Settings > General or if you want to send the form notification to multiple people.

5. Click Update.

Refer to the following support documentation for more information:

ADD FORM TO A PAGE

How you add a form depends on if you are using the classic editor or block editor.

Classic Editor

Click on the Formidable button in the classic editor to add your form to a page.

1. Go to Pages > Add New.

2. Add your page title and your content.

3. Place your cursor where you want the form to appear and then click on the Formidable icon.

4. In the Formidable window select the form you want to insert, select your preferred options and click Insert into Post.

5. You will now see the Formidable forms shortcode added to your page. Shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that enables you to do things that normally would require lots of complicated, ugly code.

6. Click Publish.

7. When you view the page on your blog you will now see your form embedded.

8. Remember to test the form to confirm it is working.

Block Editor

In Block Editor you add the form to your page using a formidable forms block.

1. To add a new block you click on the + icon of any empty block or at the top left of the editor and search for the Formidable Forms block.

2. Select a form from the drop-down.

ADD FORM TO SIDEBAR

You can also add your form to your sidebar as follows:

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets

2. Drag and drop the Formidable Forms widget from the Available Widgets into the desired Sidebar.

4. Select Contact Us from the drop down menu under Forms and then click Save.

5. When you view your sidebar you will now see your form embedded.

6. Remember to test the form to confirm it is working.

Form Entries

All saved form submissions are listed in Formidable > Entries. This includes Drafts and Submitted forms.

On Form Entries page you can:

View, delete, print, duplicate or edit Entries.
Leave comments on each Entry
Resend notification email(s)

Form View

Any data submitted in a formidable form can be displayed in a page or post on your site using Views.

Make sure the View you are creating is for the specific form you intend to display the Entries for. There are four types to choose from in the View Format:

All Entries — list all entries in the specified form.
Single Entry — display one entry.
Both (Dynamic) — list the entries that will link to a single entry page.
Calendar — insert entries into a calendar.

You have to build your view starting with the Content area by using the field IDs or Keys of your form. They are all shown on the right panel under Customization. In case Single Entry Format is selected, you will have to use a combination of the Order and Filter advanced settings to determine which entry will display in the View.

Formats All Entries, Both (Dynamic) and Calendar will have Before and After sections. These boxes are optional, but the Before Content section is a good place to put table headers or other content that should not repeat with each entry. The After Content section is a good place to put table footers or other content that should not repeat with each entry.

For more information on form views refer to the following support documentation: Views

When all is set, you will want to add your view to a Page or Post. The process is similar to adding the Form itself.

Classic Editor

Click on Formidable forms button in the classic editor, select View from the left menu, select the View title and options, then Insert into Post.

Block Editor

In Block Editor you add the views to your page using a formidable views block.

Form Styles

Formidable > Styles is where you can change the appearance of fields, buttons, messages or titles. You might want to use these settings to match the fonts or colors of your theme, for example.

Import and Export

Follow the instructions below to import forms, entries, and/or Views as an XML or CSV file.

If your imported form/entry/view/style key and creation date match an item on your site, that item will be updated. You cannot undo this action.

Go to your Formidable → Import/Export page.
In the Import section, select an XML or CSV file to upload.
If the file is a CSV, select your delimiter (often a comma) and the form where you would like to import the entries.
Click Upload File and Import.
For CSV you will have an additional step with the Map Fields section, where you will see a column for the headers in your CSV, one for sample data from your CSV, and one for selecting which fields the CSV columns will go into. Map each column to the corresponding field. If you would like to update existing entries instead of importing new entries, you must map the Entry ID field to an Entry ID column in your CSV. If the entry ID in the CSV matches an entry ID in the form, the entry will be updated. Otherwise, a new entry will be created.

For exporting you should typically select ‘XML’ for the Export Format. However, if you only want to export entries, it’s better to select ‘CSV’ instead. Exporting entries as a CSV file is especially helpful if you want to modify the exported data or import it into an application like Excel.

If you select ‘CSV’ as the file type, it is recommended to select ‘UTF-8’ as the encoding type.

11 Creative Ways to use Formidable Forms

Formidable forms can be used for a wide range of purposes. Check out these Demos to how you can use Formidable to create job listings, directory, calendar, art gallery, bug reports.

Our example below shows how to create a new form for students to submit an image of their art work that is displayed as a page in a grid showcase.

1. Go to Formidable > Forms.

2. Click on Add New.

3. Click on Blank Form.

4. Add form name “Student art submission”.

5. Drag and drop your field types onto your form.

Fields used for this example are:

Student name (Text field – Required)
Grade (Dropdown field)
Artwork name (Text field – Required)
Artwork Image (File Upload field – Required)
Artwork description (Paragraph field)
Additional image of your artwork (File upload).

6. Click on each field to open up the field option to customize each field.

For example, click on the text field.

Change field label to Student name and select required.

For the dropdown field you would add the field label Grade level and the Grade dropdown options to select from.

For “Artwork Image (File Upload field – Required)” you would specify only allow image files so they can be displayed in the gallery, so make sure to only allow JPG, JPEG, JPE or PNG files and limit it to one file.

7. Click Update.

8. Click on Views tab.

9. Click on Add New.

10. Add title “Artwork gallery view”.

11. Add the following customization to your Artwork gallery view and then click Publish.

In Basic Settings area select Use Entries from: Student Art Submission and View format: (Both)Dynamic.
In the Before Content box, add the following:

<ul class="student-art">

In the Content box, add the following:

<li> <a href="[detaillink]"><img src="[e4qoe size=thumbnail]" alt="" /></a> </li>

Replace e4qoe with the ID or Key of field “Artwork image”
In the After Content box, add the following:

</ul> <div style="clear:both;"></div>

In the Advanced Settings area, set the Page Size to 20.
Click Publish or Update to save your View.

12. Go to Formidable > Styles > Custom CSS and add the following custom CSS.

.art-vote-links {margin-left:3px;} ul.student-art li { background-image:none !important; float:left; display:inline; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(34, 25, 25, 0.4); margin:5px 7px 10px 3px; padding:0; }
ul.student-art img{ width:250px; max-height: 150px; vertical-align: middle; opacity:1; -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden; backface-visibility: hidden; position:relative; }
ul.student-art img:hover{opacity:.6;} ul.student-art a, ul.student-art img{transition:all 0.3s ease 0s;} ul.student-art p a {color:#333333;} ul.student-art p a:hover{text-decoration:none;color:#298CBA;} ul.student-art p {margin:15px;color: #999999;} ul.student-art {clear:both;}

13. Go to Pages > Add New

14. Add insert your Artwork gallery view into a new page. Now all entries that are submitted to “Student art submission” form will be displayed in a gallery on the page.