DocsForms

What happens after a submit

After a submission is saved, its actions run in order: emails, a message or redirect, webhooks, WordPress posts or users, and integrations — with conditions, retries and tags.

Every submission is saved first, then the form’s actions run in the order you set. A failing email or integration never loses a lead.

Built-in actions#

Action	What it does
Email	To, CC and BCC, from name and address, reply-to, an HTML body (a plain-text version is made for you), and files from upload fields as attachments. Use separate email actions for the admin, the visitor and routing.
Message	The text the visitor sees after sending.
Redirect	Send the visitor to a page or URL, with query parameters and an optional delay. Answers can only be added after the address, never change where it goes.
HTTP request	Any method to any API: headers, query, a JSON, form or raw body with tags, authentication from a connection. The response is logged.
Create or update a post	Of any post type: title, content, excerpt, featured image from an upload, terms and custom fields (ACF included).
Create or update a user	With a safe role, optional sign-in and notifications.
Developer hook	Runs a WordPress action for your own code. See Hooks and filters.

Integrations add their own actions — add a contact to HubSpot, a row to Google Sheets, a message to Slack.

Order, timing and errors#

Drag actions into order; duplicate, disable or delete them.
Each action runs during the submit or in the background after the visitor has their answer. Background actions that fail are retried after 1, 10 and 60 minutes.
If an action fails, choose whether the rest continue or stop.
Actions can have conditions, with an otherwise branch.

Tags#

Put answers and facts into emails, messages, redirects and requests:

Tag	Gives
`{field:name}`	An answer, by field name
`{field:name.first}`	Part of a field, like a name’s first name
`{field:name:label}`	A choice’s label instead of its value
`{all_fields}`	Every answer, formatted
`{submission_id}`, `{form_name}`	The submission and the form
`{current_page_url}`, `{site_name}`, `{admin_email}`	Where it was sent from, and the site

Every dynamic data token works too. Values are escaped for where they go: HTML in emails, URLs in redirects, JSON in request bodies.

Who can change actions#

Anyone who can build pages can edit messages, redirects, and emails to the site admin or to the visitor’s own email field.
Adding or changing any other action — where a form sends its data — needs the Manage forms permission.
Actions that create users or publish posts also need those WordPress permissions.

Email delivery#

Emails are sent with WordPress’s own mail, so an SMTP plugin delivers them if you use one. Set Settings → Forms → Emails come from to an address on your own domain, so emails aren’t marked as spam.

On the features pages

Forms & submissionsScreenshots and everything included