dotdigitalPRO

This knowledge base article relates to the WS Form dotdigital add-on. Included with the Agency edition or buy separately for other editions.

The dotdigital add-on lets you push new contacts using an action, pull contact data into WordPress using the WS Form PRO autocomplete feature, and create new forms from your lists in a single click on the add form page.

The dotdigital add-on requires WS Form PRO.

Tip: If you require a dotdigital account you can learn more here. Westguard Email is our very own edition of dotdigital.

Installation

The dotdigital plugin is installed in the same way as installing the WS Form PRO plugin.

Once installed you will need to activate the license for the plugin. When you purchase the dotdigital plugin, you will be given a license key. If you have lost your license key(s), click here.

To activate your license key:

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click the dotdigital tab at the top of the page.
  4. Enter your license key.
  5. Click the Activate button.

If your license key fails to activate, please ensure you are using the correct license key and not your WS Form PRO license key.

Connecting to dotdigital

In order to use the add-on, you need to obtain an API email and password from dotdigital. It’s a simple process.

Obtaining an API Email and Password

  1. Click on the User Settings icon on the bottom right of the screen and then click Access.

WS Form PRO - Dotmailer - Click on Access

2. Click on the API Users tab and click New User.

WS Form PRO - Dotmailer - Click on New User

3. Click Create A Key.

WS Form PRO - dotmailer - Click on Create a Key

4. You will be provided with an API email. Enter a password and then click Save.

Entering the API Email and Password

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click the dotdigital tab at the top of the page.
  4. Enter your API email and password.
  5. Click the Save button.

Creating a Form for dotdigital

Automatically

WS Form can create a form for any of our dotdigital lists in a single click. This process not only creates a form but also fully configures WS Form so that the form is ready to use immediately.

To create a dotdigital form in WS Form:

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Add New.
  3. Select the dotdigital tab at the top of the page.
  4. Click on any of your dotdigital lists to create a form.
  5. Wait a few moments while the form is created.

That’s it! Your form will be created and is ready to add to your website.

If your list does not appear, click the refresh icon in the dotdigital tab.

Manually

It is also possible to use any form created in WS Form and add an action so that it is submitted to dotdigital when a user saves or submits their form.

To add a dotdigital action:

  1. When editing your form, click the Actions icon at the top of the page. The Actions sidebar will open on the right-hand side of the page.
  2. Click the Add  icon to add a new action.
  3. Select Add to a dotdigital List from the Action pulldown. A series of settings will appear.

As with all sidebars in WS Form, click the Save button at the bottom to save your changes, or click Cancel to disregard your changes.

The dotdigital action settings are as follows:

When Should This Action Run?

You can choose to run the dotdigital action when the form is saved, submitted, or both.

dotdigital Address Book

Choose the dotdigital Address Book you would like contacts to be added to. If you have created a new address book since viewing this screen, you can click the refresh icon to retrieve the new list.

Status

Select the contact subscriber status you would like new contacts added as. Choose from:

Email Type

Select the email type you would like to sign up contacts for. We recommend leaving this as HTML..

Opt-In Field

Use this setting to select which of your fields to act as the opt-in field. We recommend adding a checkbox field with a single checkbox. It is always recommended that you have an unchecked opt-in checkbox on your forms to ensure you comply with GDPR requirements.

Field Mapping

Field mapping tells WS Form which of your form fields relate to the corresponding fields in dotdigital. For example you would want to map your Email field to the Email field in dotdigital.

To map a field:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the field mapping section.
  2. In the left-hand column, select your form field.
  3. In the right-hand column, select the corresponding dotdigital field.
  4. Repeat this process for each field on your form.
  5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Populate Forms Using dotdigital

As well as pushing form data with this add-on, you can also retrieve contact data and populate the fields on your form.

This feature is only available if a website visitor is signed in and their WordPress email address matches the email address of a contact in dotdigital.

To enable this feature:

  1. Click the form settings icon in the top toolbar when editing a form.
  2. Click the Auto Populate tab in the sidebar on the right.
  3. Enable the Populate Using Action setting.
  4. Choose dotdigital from the Action To Populate From pull down.
  5. Select the list you wish to populate data from in the List To Populate From pull-down menu.
  6. Map the dotdigital fields to your form fields.
  7. Click Save at the bottom.

Note that if you created your form using a dotdigital template the field mappings will automatically be created for you.