AutomatorWP Caldera Forms

Whoever fills in your contact form may already have an account

A customer from two years ago comes back to your site without signing in and writes to you through the contact form. To WordPress they are a guest. To you they are someone with a history. The only thing linking the two versions is the email address they just typed into a field.

A public form receives guests, but your accounts are identified by data, and that data arrives inside the submission. Until someone cross-checks it, each submission stays a notification that a person has to read and handle by hand.

This add-on connects Caldera Forms with AutomatorWP, the WordPress automation plugin. It turns a form submission into the start of an automation and puts each field value within reach of its actions.

Four triggers and one tag

• A user submits a form, in the Free edition.
• A guest submits a form, in the Free edition.
• A user submits a field value on a form, in the Pro edition.
• A guest submits a field value on a form, in the Pro edition.

It also brings a field value tag, which passes any submitted form value to the actions.

Matching the form email against your accounts

Guest submissions are handled with anonymous automations, which apply the actions to a different user than the one who fired the automation. When you configure them you choose between two paths:

• Existing user: searches for the account, for example by email, to check whether the person who wrote is already on your system. If it is not found, you choose between Do not run the actions and Create a new user.
• New user: creates the account from the form data. If one with the same details exists, you choose between Do not run the actions and Select a existing user.

The value is set with the Form field value option, which generates text in the form TRIGGER_ID:form_field:FIELD_NAME. You only replace FIELD_NAME with the field slug, found in the field settings in Caldera Forms.

One anonymous trigger and no actions of its own

An anonymous automation takes a single trigger, while a logged-in one takes several. If you want to handle two different guest forms, plan on creating two automations.

The add-on brings no actions of its own. It only provides triggers and the tag. What happens next comes from other AutomatorWP integrations, among them WooCommerce, LearnDash and BuddyPress.

Reacting to a specific field value belongs to the Pro edition. With the Free edition, the automation starts on the form submission.

It replaces neither plugin. Forms are built in Caldera Forms and automations in AutomatorWP.

Your first connected contact form

You need AutomatorWP and Caldera Forms active, plus this add-on. The path with a contact form is this one:

1. In Caldera Forms, create a form with the contact template.
2. In AutomatorWP, create an automation and choose the anonymous type.
3. As the trigger, select Guest submits a form and your form.
4. In the action, choose Existing user and the search by Email.
5. In the value, use Form field value and replace FIELD_NAME with the slug of the email field.
6. Save the action, click Save & Activate and send a test with an email that exists and one that does not.

If your forms live in another plugin

AutomatorWP WP Fluent Forms offers equivalent triggers and adds others for scored quizzes. If you work with JetFormBuilder, there is AutomatorWP JetFormBuilder. And if you will use several paid integrations, AutomatorWP Pro brings the premium add-ons together in a single add-on, always with the free plugin installed.

Answers for building your first automation

Does it work without AutomatorWP?

No. It connects Caldera Forms with AutomatorWP and needs both plugins.

Can it act on guests?

Yes. It has guest triggers, and anonymous automations apply the actions to an existing or new account.

What happens if the email matches no account?

It depends on your setting: the actions do not run, or a new user is created.

Can I react to a specific option in a field?

Yes, with the field value triggers in the Pro edition.

Where do I find the field slug?

In the field settings inside Caldera Forms.

Can I put two triggers in an anonymous automation?

No. This type takes one per automation.