Last updated on July 7th, 2024 at 10:49 am
When having contact form data sitting in your email isn't enough - there's a way to add it to your site database for easy reference.
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Every website has a form of some sort these days. Sometimes it’s just a simple contact form and other times it’s a full-fledged information form to provide a detailed quote to your clients. In either case, most form plugins simply email the form data to a reconfigured email address and that’s it. But what if you want to save that form data into your database? Well, if you’re a WordPress fan and use Elementor Pro to create your forms, there’s a simple plugin that will do it for you.
Why Save Form Data Anyway?
Typical forms email the form contents to a predetermined address and for a lot of folks, this is adequate. There are some circumstances in which you might want to save the data though…
Perhaps you get a ton of email and you’re afraid that the form entry emails will get lost in the mix, or maybe you’re running your website on shared hosting and email delivery from forms isn’t reliable. Or maybe you just want an easy place to go to keep track of all your forms.
What You Need
Well, first of all, you need Elementor Pro. If you haven’t started using the pro version of Elementor, I highly suggest you consider it. There are plenty of great reasons to buy it.
Secondly, you need to head over to the WordPress.org repository and install the free Elementor Contact Form DB plugin. The configuration is almost nil – you activate the plugin and it just works. In the settings, there are only 2 options to configure – the admin notification for messages and the user level for reading messages.
The plugin will keep a copy of every contact form entry submitted from an Elementor Contact Form. You can view them in your WordPress Admin Dashboard and even copy them to other post types.
Other Options
Other popular form plugins such as WPForms and Contact Form 7 offer this option only in their premium version, but if you already have Elementor Pro, you can skip out on them with this plugin.
Final Thoughts
While keeping a record of every contact form entry may not be necessary for everyone, the Elementor Contact Form DB plugin makes the task easy and reliable.
Always remember though, if you’re collecting identity information that you need to have a real privacy policy and ensure that you keep your site secure since you’re hosting personal information within your database. If you serve customers in a GDPR-enforced geographical area, you must have a privacy policy, protections for your users, and you must notify them that their form entry data may be saved into your database and how long you keep it for.
Sharif Jameel is a business owner, IT professional, runner, & musician. His professional certifications include CASP, Sec+, Net+, MCSA, & ITIL and others. He’s also the guitar player for the Baltimore-based cover bands, Liquifaction and Minority Report.
Hi!
Am I able to have the message simultaneously sent to the admin email address?
Hey thanks for stopping by! You can set multiple email addresses in the Elementor form widget to send messages to, you just separate them with a comma in the email section settings of the form.
How could I check the database for duplicates before adding them?
You would have to write a custom application or script to do that. The plugin I mention in this article doesn’t have that feature built-in.