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 Settings Page (panels toggled closed)
- Coldform Settings Page (panels toggled open w/ default settings)
- Screenshot of the contact form (using default WP theme)
- Screenshot of the “success” message (using default WP theme)
- Alternate “coldskin” styles for the Coldform (default settings)
- Well-formatted plan-text email messages
- Squeaky clean HTML markup
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:
Alternate/Previous Versions
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v20121031 - Dutch (57KB ZIP) by Erik Stam
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v1.0 (12KB ZIP)
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v0.88.1 (8KB ZIP)
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v0.88.1 - Arabic (12KB ZIP)
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v0.88.1 - French (12KB ZIP)
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v0.88.1 - Spanish (74KB ZIP)
- WP Plugin - Contact Coldform v0.88.1 - Dutch (12KB ZIP)
160 Responses
Jeff Starr – May 11, 2009
@CherryPie: Very nice! I will add it to the list of examples! :)
CherryPie – May 12, 2009
Thanks for the compliment :-)
LuAnn Arena – May 15, 2009
Hey there-
Just installed Coldform and a custom skin. Looks great but all my email tests have failed so far. I receive the thanks for submitting message, but that’s it.
Any ideas? I’m a bit new to customizing my blog but I can find my way around ok.
Many thanks
Jeff Starr – May 17, 2009
@LuAnn Arena: It sounds as if your server is not sending the emails. A couple of things to try:
1) Switch the contact form plugin for one or more alternateives. If you experience the same issue regardless of which contact-form plugin you use, then your server may the culprit — in which case..
2) Contact your host and ask them if there is any reason why emails aren’t getting sent through your contact form plugin. They should be able to diagnose any issues and/or configurational discrepancies from their end.
I hope that helps!
Jeff Starr – July 19, 2009
There is a new version of Contact Coldform available for download. The plugin has been updated to work properly with WordPress version 2.8.1. To download the plugin, hit the download link above (you will see the new version number listed beneath the download link,
0.88.1). Note: translated versions of the plugin also have been updated and are available for download beneath the main download link. Thanks :)MommyGeek – August 6, 2009
Hey there,
Tried to upload and install — install was successful, but when I try to activate it says that there is no valid header! I’m on the latest version of wordpress — 2.8.3 I believe. Any ideas?
Jeff Starr – August 9, 2009
@MommyGeek: Hmmm, that’s a new one. I’m not sure what the issue could be other than a missing file somewhere. Perhaps try downloading a fresh copy of the latest version (
0.88.1) and retrying the installation?shawn – August 12, 2009
Just found this plugin and installed it on a virgin wordpress-mu 2.8.4a
I uploaded plugin to plugins folder, and activated it.
The problem I am having is in the admin, when I click the coldforum link it returns me to the admin homepage with a link http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/?c=1
ideas?
Marathon Alliance – August 13, 2009
Hey Jeff,
It appears the old HeadSpace2 bug is back again.
Using newest version of Contact Coldform and Headspace2 on WP 2.8.4.
Check it out on our Coldform “contact us” page:
http://www.marathonalliance.com/contact-us/The Coldform output gets echo’d again in the [title] tag.
-Ray
Marathon Alliance – August 19, 2009
Hey Jeff,
The form displays fine; but when you do a successful submission, the success message gets duplicated in the [title] tag.
So the problem still exists…
-Ray
Jeff Starr – August 19, 2009
@shawn: not sure about that, I’ve never tried the plugin on mu.
@Marathon Alliance: Just checked the page.. looks like you have resolved the issue, yes?
Jeff Starr – August 23, 2009
Thanks Ray, I’ll look into it.