WordPress Plugin: Contact Coldform : Perishable Press

Welcome to the homepage for Contact Coldform, a secure, lightweight, flexible contact form with plenty of options and squeaky clean markup. Coldform blocks spam while making it easy for your visitors to contact you from your WordPress-powered website. The comprehensive Settings Page makes it easy to take full control with plenty of options and several built-in themes for styling the form. Coldform delivers everything you need and nothing you don’t — no frills, no gimmicks, just pure contact-form satisfaction. Now available at the WP Plugin Directory!

Overview

Plug-n-play: use shortcode or template tag to display Coldform anywhere
Sweet emails: Coldform sends descriptive, well-formatted messages in plain-text
Safe and secure: Coldform blocks spam and filters malicious content
Ultra-clean code: lightweight, standards-compliant, semantic, valid HTML markup
Fully customizable: easy to configure and style from the Coldform Settings page

Features

Slick, toggling-panel Settings Page makes it easy to customize and style Coldform
Style Coldform using built-in “coldskins” or upload some custom CSS
Provides template tag to display Coldform anywhere in your theme
Provides shortcode to display Coldform on any post or page
Displays customizable confirmation message to the sender

Anti-spam & Security

Captcha: Coldform includes challenge question/answer (w/ option to disable for users)
Bot trap: hidden input field further reduces automated spam
Firewall: secure form processing protects against bad bots and malicious input
User-friendly: same-page error messages to help users complete required fields

Customize Everything

Includes option to enable users to receive carbon copies
Coldform message includes IP, host, agent, and other user details
Customizable form-field captions, error messages, and success message
Includes three built-in themes “coldskins” to style, or
Style the Coldform with your own custom CSS
Option to add a custom prefix to the subject line
Option to disable the captcha for registered users

Clean Codes

Coldform brings delicious code on every front:

Squeaky-clean PHP: every line like a fine wine
Crispy-clean markup: valid, semantic source code with proper formatting
Shiny-clean emails: Coldform emails deliver descriptive, well-formatted content
Better performance: conditional loading of styles only when Coldform is displayed

More Features

Works perfectly without JavaScript.
Option to load CSS and custom styles only when/where Coldform is displayed
Option to reset default settings
Options to customize many aspects of the form
Options to customize success, error, and spam messages
Option to enable and disable CSS styles

Installation and Usage:

Typical plugin install: upload, activate, and customize in the WP Admin.

Unzip and upload the entire directory to your “plugins” folder and activate
Use the shortcode to display Coldform on any post or page, or:
Use the template tag to display the Coldform anywhere in your theme.
Visit the Coldform Settings Page to configure your options and for more info.

Shortcode: [coldform]

Template tag:

<?php if (function_exists('contact_coldform_public')) contact_coldform_public(); ?>

For more information, visit the Coldform Settings page and readme.txt file.

Coldform Screenshots

Coldform Demos & Examples

Check out the Coldform Demo. Feel free to send a test message to check out the formatting of the success message. Also check out the error functionality by omitting any required field. Also, listed below are examples of Coldform “in the wild”.

Live Examples:

If you use the Coldform on your site, share a link and I’ll add it here. Thanks! :)

Coldform Download

Download Coldform from the WP Plugin Directory:

Download Contact Coldform

Alternate/Previous Versions

160 Responses

Dick Kirkland – November 18, 2009

Hi Mr. Starr,

The plugin seems to install great and I think I just have a WP server specific change to make. I noticed in #104 above, the user cited changing the mail() calls to wp_mail(). I’m wondering if I need to do this to the plugin files, as I normally receive email from the WP instance when a new user is added, etc.

Any insight on what code to edit to check out this hypothesis would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Dick
Dick Kirkland – November 18, 2009

Maybe the better question to ask is why do I receive email from basic WP processes, (ex. adding users), but not coldform?

I thought they were handled by the same mail() functions in php.ini

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dick
Dick Kirkland – November 18, 2009

I feel really dumb, but I didn’t have the first few fields filled out in the plugin’s UI. This caused my spam blocker to keep me from seeing the emails. I went to great lengths even using the WP SMTP Mail plugin’s configurations. Sorry to bombard this venue with so many posts.

If it helps anyone else, I’m using 2.8.6 and left the mail() functions as they are in the plugin’s code.

GREAT PLUGIN Mr. Starr, with the ability to style it up.

Thanks so much.

Keep up the great work.

Maybe the next version can have a choice for multiple recipients in the UI?
I saw a thread on how someone else was altering certain files to achieve this, but who wants to do that outside of coldform. :)?

Dick
Jeff Starr – November 22, 2009

Glad to hear you got it sorted, Dick. Thanks for following up with the solution — for plugins I think too much information is better than not enough ;)

Good idea about integrating the multiple-recipients functionality into the plugin itself. As soon as I can set aside some free time, I will look into setting it up.

Regards,
- Jeff
andrew j talcott – November 22, 2009

is there a way to turn the security question off?
Dick Kirkland – November 23, 2009

Hey Jeff,

No prob. I agree about the information sharing.
Who knows, maybe someone will have the same mistake as me.
Thanks for your efforts on this great plugin and attention to users’ concerns.
Have a great day.

Sincerely,
Dick
Simon – November 24, 2009

Hey Jeff! How are things?

I’m relaunching my site and am looking for a good contact form solution. Is there a way I can add the coldform to the .php file?  is ignored whenever I put it in the file.

Thanks for your help, once again!
Mezanul – December 6, 2009

Thanks Jeff for this great plugin! Before I found your plugin, I was using some other contact form plugins and I was never happy with them. Then I found your plugin and I replaced the old contact form plugin with yours.

Also, it is the most light of the previous ones! :)

Regards,
Mezanul
Jeff Starr – December 8, 2009

@andrew j talcott: not in the current version, but you could always hack the coldform.php file to disable it until the next version.

@Simon: have you tried just calling the coldform function directly? I think that should work.. something like this in your theme file: <?php contact_coldform(); ?>.

@Mezanul: awesome! Glad to hear it – thanks for the positive feedback :)
Marco – January 12, 2010

Hi have to tried calling the coldform function directly but not work? Help me?
Jeff Starr – January 12, 2010

@Marco: are you calling the function from within the loop?
eddie – February 2, 2010

using 2.9.1 i get a “The plugin does not have a valid header” when i try to ACTIVATE the plugin (the install it says was sucessful, though it doesnt show up as a deactivated plugin after activation fails)