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Form Settings

You can use the form settings to:

  • Change the name of your form
  • Change how your form behaves when it is submitted
  • Apply custom CSS classes to form elements
  • Change spam settings
  • Track visitors
  • Hide tabs
  • Control tab validation

… and more!

To access the form settings, click the settings icon at the top of the layout editor.

WS Form - Form Settings

The form settings sidebar will then appear. You can edit any of the settings in each of these tabs and then click the Save & Close or Save button. If you do not want to save your changes, you can click the Cancel button.

The form settings tabs are:

Basic

Label

This is the label (title) of your form. As well as entering a label into this field, you can also edit the label at the top of the page. You should enter an easy-to-understand label for your form, for example, Contact Us or Appointment Request. This label is used to identify your form in WordPress and can also be added to the top of your form for website visitors to see using the Render Label setting.

Show Label

If enabled the label will be shown at the top of your form for website visitors to see. If you do not want the label to appear, uncheck this box.

Form

Enable Form Submit On Enter

Allow the form to be submitted if someone types Enter/Return. Not advised for e-commerce forms.

Lock Save & Submit Buttons

A common issue with forms is that sometimes website visitors will double click a submit button. On a conventional form, this can often cause duplicate submissions to be processed.

WS Form comes with built-in duplicate protection. When this setting is enabled, it will disable the save & submit buttons once they have been clicked to prevent duplication from happening. We recommend leaving this setting enabled.

Unlock Save & Submit Buttons

When this setting is enabled, it will enable the save & submit buttons once the form has been successfully submitted or submitted. It will also enable the button if a form error occurs. We recommend leaving this setting enabled.

Reset Form After Submit

When enabled WS Form will reset the form after it is successfully submitted so that any data in the fields is removed. We recommend keeping this setting enabled.

An example of when you would want to disable this setting might be if someone is doing repeated data entry into a form and only changing part of the submission each time.

Custom Form Action

If you do not want WS Form to process your form, enter a custom form action URL to post the form data to in this setting. WS Form will still perform client side validation before posting the data to the URL you have entered. Actions will not fire if a custom form action is entered.

If you do not have a custom form endpoint, leave this field blank.

Tabs

Remember Last Tab Clicked

If enabled WS Form will store the last tab a website visitor has clicked in a cookie on their browser. This makes navigating a complex form easier if they return to the form at a later date to complete it. This is particularly helpful if you have added a Save button to a form, which will save the current form so that it can be retrieved later.

Tab Validation

Tab validation prevents users from progressing to the next tab unless the current tab is validated. Check this setting to enable this feature.

Show Invalid Fields

If a tab contains invalid fields and the user attempts to progress to the next tab, WS Form  will show invalid feedback. If you have the Focus Invalid Fields setting enabled (See below) it will also focus on the first field that is invalid.

Hide Tabs

Check this settings to hide the tabs but retain tab functionality (e.g. Next Tab button)

Fields

Invalid Feedback Text

If a required field is empty when the form is validated, invalid feedback text will shown.

The default invalid feedback text is: This field is required.

You can change the invalid feedback by changing this setting. You can also override invalid feedback text at a field level too.

The following WS Form variables can be used in this setting:

Variable Description
#label The field label.
#label_lowercase The field label lowercase.

Focus Invalid Fields

If this setting is enabled, WS Form will focus on the first invalid field it finds when a form is submitted. This is a convenience feature that makes it easier for a website visitor to locate issues within their data entry.

Errors

Show Server Side Error Messages

Shows error messages if a server side error occurs when a form is submitted.

Type

There are four different types of error message:

  • Success (Green)
  • Information (Blue)
  • Warning (Orange)
  • Danger (Red)

Position

You can choose to position error messages to show above or below your form. For large forms we would recommend enabling Scroll to top if you choose top positioning, so that the message is seen by the user.

Hide Form When Shown

If enabled the form will be hidden when the error message is shown.

Clear Other Messages

If enabled any other messages on the screen will be cleared first.

Scroll to Top

If enabled the browser will scroll to the top of the page when the error message is shown.

Show Duration

Use this field to enter how long the error message is shown before the next action fires. The value entered should be in milliseconds (1 second = 1000 milliseconds). If you enter a value in this field, the following two options are also available.

Hide Message After Duration

If enabled the error message will be hidden after the Show Duration has elapsed.

Show Form After Duration

If enable the form will be shown after the Show Duration has elapsed.

Styling

Fields

Default Label Position

When WS Form is installed, labels are positioned at the top of a field. You can change this setting to set label positioning to be one of the following options:

  • Top
  • Left
  • Right
  • Bottom

Note that some frameworks do not support all of these label positions.

Changing this setting will affect all fields that have their label position set to Default.

Default Label Width

If the label position of a field is set to left or right, you can specify how wide the label will be. You can consider the overall width of the label and the field to be 12 columns. By default labels are rendered at 3 columns wide (1/4 width), which means the field itself is 9 columns wide (3/4 width). You can change the width of the label using this setting.

Default Help Position

When WS Form is installed, help text is positioned below each field. You can change this setting to set the help positioning to be one of the following options:

  • Top
  • Bottom

Changing this setting will affect all fields that have their help position set to Default.

Required Fields

Show Required HTML

When this is enabled, WS Form will output a small Required caption next to the label of any fields that are set as Required. If this is disabled, the captions will not be rendered.

Custom Required HTML

You can change the Required caption to anything you wish using this setting.

For example you could change it to:  <small>Required</small>

Classes

Form Wrapper

To add a class to the actual form element itself, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space between the class names.

Tabs Wrapper

To add a class to the tabs wrapper, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space between the class names.

Tab Content Wrapper

To add a class to the content wrapper of all tabs, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space

Section Wrapper

To add a class to all sections, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space between the class names.

Field Wrapper

To add a class to all field wrappers, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space between the class names.

Field

To add a class to all fields, enter a class (or classes) to this setting. To add multiple classes, add a space between the class names.

Heading HTML Masks

Form

If you have enabled label rendering (see above), then the label will be shown at the top of the form. For developers this will be rendered in an h2 wrapper. You can override this by entering a different mask into this field. Use #label where you want the label to be added.

For example you could change this to: <h3>#label</h3>

Tab

If you have enabled label rendering of a tab, then the label will be shown at the top of each tab. For developers this will be rendered in an h3 wrapper. You can override this by entering a different mask into this field. Use #label where you want the label to be added.

For example you could change this to: <h4>#label</h4>

Section

If you have enabled label rendering of a section, then the label will be shown at the top of each section. For developers this will be rendered in a legend wrapper. A legend is used because this label is added within a fieldset. You can override this by entering a different mask into this field. Use #label where you want the label to be added.

For example you could change this to: <legend><em>#label</em></legend>

Spam

Forms created by WS Form are inherently less likely to be prone to spam. This is because they are generated on the fly in a website visitor’s browser when a page loads and are often not even seen by spam bots. In addition to this, we offer a variety of additional spam protection measures.

To read more about preventing spam, click here.

Human Presence

Form spam and bogus comment creation have plagued WordPress since inception. Human Presence utilizes anonymized behavior analysis and proprietary algorithms to invisibly detect and eliminate malicious bot activity without complicated configuration. WS Form PRO is fully integrated with Human Presence provides a convenient and effective way of tackling form submissions from non-human sources.

Learn how to protect your forms with Human Presence.

Akismet

Akismet provides WordPress with the ability to check comments and form submissions against their global database of spam. WS Form PRO is fully integrated with the popular Akismet spam check plugin and provides a convenient and effective way of tackling form submissions containing spam content.

Learn how to protect your forms with Akismet.

HoneyPot

HoneyPot spam protection works by adding a hidden field on your form that is intended to fool spam bots into thinking they need to complete that field. If completed the email is rejected.

If you enable this setting, WS Form will automatically add HoneyPot protection to your form. There is nothing else you need to do!

Spam Threshold

If your form is configured to check for spam (e.g. Human Presence, Akismet or reCAPTCHA), each submission will be given a score between 0 (Not spam) and 100 (Blatant spam). Use this setting to determine the minimum score that will move a submission into the spam folder.

Limit

By Submission Count

Limit by submission count

Check this setting to enable the limit by submission count features.

Maximum Count

Enter the maximum number of submissions permitted. After this limit is reached the Limit Reached message will be displayed, or the form will simply be hidden if the Limit Reached message is empty.

Duration

The duration setting allows you to determine over which period the maximum count will be counted. If this is set to All Time, the form will keep displaying until the maximum count is exhausted. If you choose a time duration setting, the submission count will be throttle to the maximum count within the chosen time duration.

Limit Reached Message

Enter the message you would like to display when the maximum count limit is reached. If you leave this blank, the form will be hidden when the limit is reached.

Message Style

You can wrap your Limit Reached Message in a styled box, or you can select None to output the message as is.

By Schedule

The By Schedule options allow you to determine a start and end date for when the form is shown on your website.

Note that scheduling is ignored if you are previewing a form. To test this feature you should test the form on a public facing page.

Schedule Start

Enable this setting to set a scheduled start date/time for your form.

Before Message

Enter the message you would like to display if the start date has not yet been reached.

Message Style

You can wrap your Before Message in a styled box, or you can select None to output the message as is.

Schedule End

Enable this setting to set a scheduled end date/time for your form.

After Message

Enter the message you would like to display if the start date has passed.

Message Style

You can wrap your After Message in a styled box, or you can select None to output the message as is.

By User

The By User options allow you to choose which user status can access the form.

User Status

Choose from one of the options to determine who can access the form:

  • Any
  • Is Logged In
  • Is Logged Out
  • Has User Role or Capability

If you choose Has User Role or Capability, additional settings will appear that enable you to choose one or more roles or capabilities.

Tracking

The tracking tab contains features related to tracking your visitors. These are disabled by default to respect privacy regulations.

Google Events

This features is only available in WS Form PRO.

WS Form can fire events at Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics levels. Learn More.

Note that WS Form PRO does not install any Google tags for you. You should do that with an additional plugin or embed it in your theme code.

Enable

When checked, event firing will be enabled.

Form Submit

Enable this to fire an event when a form is submitted.

Tabs

Enable this to fire an event when a tab is clicked. One event is fired per tab per form session.

Fields

Enable this to fire an event when a user interacts with a field.  One event is fired per field per form session.

Tracking

When a form is saved or submitted, WS Form can store a wealth of tracking information along with that form to help you gain a better understanding of your audience.

The available tracking settings can be found here.

Conversational

To learn more about Conversational Forms click here.

Data

The data tab will appear if you have any actions that provide support for this feature. Auto populate pulls data from an external source and makes that data available for setting the default value of fields.

To use this feature, check the Populate Using Action box, and then select the action you want to pull data from. Follow the on-screen prompts for setting up auto complete and then click the Save button at the bottom.

Woo

This tab will appear if you have the WS Form PRO Product Add-Ons extension for Woocommerce installed.