WordPress Plugin: Contact Coldform

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!

Update!

Contact Coldform had a good run (10 years!), but it’s time for something far better: Contact Form X. CFX is superior to Contact Coldform in every way. Contact Form X gives you all the same features of Contact Coldform, plus you also get a recent-email dashboard widget, GDPR options, inline docs, Google reCaptcha, and of course the contact form itself is all Ajax-powered and super awesome.

Contact Coldform = 2008–2018.
Contact Form X = 2018 & beyond..

I encourage all users of Contact Coldform to upgrade Contact Coldform to Contact Form X. You can learn more and download the plugin at the WP Plugin Directory. And yes, I use Contact Form X for my own contact form here at Perishable Press. </update>

Overview

• Plug-&-play: display Coldform anywhere
• Sweet emails: Coldform sends descriptive, well-formatted messages
• Safe and secure: Coldform blocks spam and filters malicious content
• Ultra-clean code: lightweight, standards-compliant, semantic, valid
• Fully customizable: easy to configure and style via Coldform Settings

Features

• Slick, toggle settings panels make it easy to customize 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
• Bot trap: hidden input field further reduces automated spam
• Secure form processing protects against bad bots and malicious input
• User-friendly error messages help users complete all required fields

Customize Everything

• Includes option to enable users to receive carbon copies
• Coldform message includes IP, host, agent, and other user details
• Customize 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 delivers descriptive, well-formatted content
• Better performance: conditional loading of stylesheet only when needed

More Features

• Works perfectly without JavaScript.
• Option to load CSS only when 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.

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

Download

As explained at the beginning of this post, I am retiring Contact Coldform. The plugin will be updated through 2018 or so, and will encourage all Coldform users to upgrade to the far superior Contact Form X. Check it out and download via the WordPress.org Plugin Directory:

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Security Specialist. WordPress Buff.