Comments for Easy, easy, easy contact forms for any web site.

Easy, easy, easy contact forms for any web site.

2009-02-05T07:22:37Z

One project that I had always hoped to find time to work on while at Six Apart was a plugin that provided Movable Type bloggers with a capable and easy to use contact form solution for their web site or blog. It was a recurring problem I had while working on the various Movable Type-powered web sites I helped to administer. But alas, I could never scare up the time or the resources to do it.

But as luck would have it, I have an abundance of time right now, and a great partner willing to take on some of the expense required to build a plugin as large in scope as this one. So at last, I am pleased to announce a free and public beta of the first ever Contact Forms Plugin for Movable Type. If you don't have time to install it, take a look at a quick four minute demonstration:

Contact Forms Plugin for Movable Type from Byrne Reese on Vimeo.

It has a very robust feature list including the ability:

to deploy multiple contact forms to a web site
to add custom fields to your contact forms
to view and respond to inquiries directly from within Movable Type
to add contact forms in posts, pages or templates
for designers to specify their own form HTML along with their themes
for developers to define their own custom fields via YAML

If you have questions, would like to be involved in the beta, or would like information on how to purchase the plugin once it is officially released, then by all means: contact me! Powered by the Contact Forms plugin of course!

Comment from Mark Carey on 2009-02-06

2009-02-06T22:18:59Z

Good work, Byrne, the plugin looks good.

However, its far from the first contact forms plugin. ;) Released over 2 years ago, my Entry Post plugin can be used to implement contact forms. The contact form on MT Hacks has been powered by MT for the past 2 years. :P

Comment from Byrne on 2009-02-06

2009-02-06T22:23:55Z

A fair point Mark, and I want to thank you for mentioning that. I think a number of solutions have existed for contact forms, but none were developed exclusively around the use case and workflow associated with processing inbound requests and inquiries, and they relied heavily upon hacking around the notion of an Entry/Comment based system. That being said, I think your EntryPost plugin is a really good alternative and is something everyone should consider when choosing the contact form solution for their web site.

Comment from https://me.yahoo.com/a/E2P_g1QOwMyuXGPYlulVPgAxI0iU#78b11 on 2009-02-09

2009-02-09T17:16:27Z

Hey Byrne,

This is exactly the plug-in I've been looking for but has some issues.

After creating a new contact form, I've tried implementing using both template tags and straight HTML onto a page. The form action generates an "An error occurred" each time. Look forward to v1.1!

Comment from Mark Carey on 2009-02-09

2009-02-09T18:02:31Z

Thanks, Byrne. I should also note that I really like the UI work you have done for this plugin. It looks really sharp and the I like the ability to read and respond to contact requests from within the UI. The contact form creation wizard is also very slick, making it really easy for anyone to setup a contact form, without the need to know a lot of HTML, etc.

Comment from Byrne on 2009-02-09

2009-02-09T20:42:20Z

Can you check what version of the plugin you have installed? Beta 3 is the most recent and most stable.

Comment from Mark on 2009-03-07

2009-03-07T19:51:05Z

Hi Byrne,

As a follow up to me.yahoo...'s comment, I have exactly the same problem with Beta 3. Basically when you fill the form out correctly and click 'Submit', a Movable Type page comes up saying 'An unexpected error occurred'. The space for additional information on the error is left blank and the Inquiry hasn't been added to the database. Additionally, nothing is available in MTs activity log.

Oh, and I'm using MT Pro v4.24-en.

Comment from Olivier Creiche on 2009-04-09

2009-04-09T20:18:01Z

You rock Mr Byrne! Congratulations.

Olivier

Comment from Judy Gallman on 2010-04-06

2010-04-06T23:09:52Z

Hi, I noticed your photos of the Alameda sandcastle contest. I am looking for high-resolution images we can use in the magazine to promote the event this year. I don't have a budget, but we give you a photo credit in the magazine. My dealine is Thursday, April 8.