Forms, entries and the emails they send

FormFlow runs on any WordPress site. WooCommerce is optional: with it active you get extra email blocks and the WooCommerce email designs, without it everything else works the same.

1. Install the plugin from Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, or copy the flexa-formflow folder into wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate it on the Plugins screen.
3. Open Flexa FormFlow in the admin menu. A short welcome guide offers to set your brand color and build a first form.
4. Create a form, copy its shortcode, and paste it into any post or page.

The admin menu has one entry, and the app inside it has eight sections.

The builder has three columns: the palette of field types on the left, the canvas in the middle, and the inspector for the selected field on the right.

1. Go to Forms and click New form. Give it a title; that title is what the admin notification refers to and what {form_title} resolves to.
2. Drag a field from the palette onto the canvas. Drag fields up and down to reorder them.
3. Select a field and edit it in the inspector. It has four tabs: Settings (label, placeholder, and the choices for a dropdown, radio or checkbox field), Validation (required or not), Logic, and Style. A hidden field swaps its placeholder box for a Value box, since nobody types into it.
4. Set the field width per breakpoint. Two fields at half width sit side by side on desktop and stack on a phone, with no CSS to write.
5. Open Form settings for the submit button label, the success message, the CAPTCHA choice, and the two emails the form sends.
6. Use Preview to see the form the way a visitor does, at desktop and phone width, then publish it.

Pro adds a Phone field with country flags and calling codes, a Country field, and a Step item that splits a long form into pages. Those are covered in the Pro guide.

Any field can depend on the answer to another one. Pick the field to watch, the comparison, and the value; the field then appears only when the rule matches.

Rules run in the browser as the visitor types, and again on the server when the form is submitted. A field that is hidden by its own rule is not required, so a conditional required field cannot block a submission the visitor has no way to fix.

Two ways, same result.

[flexa_formflow id="123"]

Or add the FormFlow Form block in the editor and pick the form from the dropdown. The block panel lists published forms by title.

The front-end form loads one small stylesheet and one script. The builder's preview loads the same stylesheet, so what you see in the preview is what visitors get.

Every form is protected the moment it goes live. There is no switch to forget.

The first three are always on. To add a CAPTCHA, enter the provider keys once in Settings, then pick that provider on the form. Secret keys are stored encrypted, and Test keys confirms them without involving a visitor. Every answer is verified on your server before an entry is saved or an email is sent.

Every submission is stored in your own database. Nothing is kept behind an external service.

The Entries list filters by form and by read status. Clicking a row opens a peek panel beside the list; the detail view shows the whole submission with its date, the page it came from, and any notes a workflow added. Entries can be marked read or unread, and deleted.

The email builder is a block editor that writes email-safe HTML. Blocks are dragged in from a palette, selected on the canvas, and styled in the side panel.

Insert form data with tokens. {field:ID} prints one answer, and the Dynamic data list offers the rest without any syntax to memorize:

Each block has a ⋮ menu: duplicate, copy, paste after this one, copy styles, paste styles, remove. A copied block or a copied style pastes into another email too. Arrows beside the selected block move it one place, including inside a column.

Set global styles once (brand color, page and content background, text color, font, content width) and every template follows them. Preview at desktop and phone width, pick a real entry or a real order to preview against, and send yourself a test before going live.

The editor saves itself as you go, a moment after you stop typing, and the header says whether the draft is saved, saving or still unsaved. If a save fails you get a toast saying so, and leaving the screen stores the last change before the editor closes. The ⋮ menu beside Send test holds Export as JSON and Reset to default; the reset asks what to start from, suggests the design this template came from, says why, and can be undone.

Any block can carry conditions. The block is in the design, but a reader only sees it when their entry matches.

Select a block and open Visibility at the bottom of the inspector. Choose whether to match all or any of the rules, then add rules. A rule is one of the form’s fields, an operator, and a value to compare against. The block gets a Conditional badge once it has at least one rule.

The field list comes from whichever form the Preview data source picker in the toolbar is set to, so pick the form first. One use: a thank-you email with a paragraph for Enquiry type is Support and a different one for Enquiry type is Sales, both in the same design.

Starting from a blank canvas is slow, so the editor ships a pattern library: ready-made headers, intros, banners, calls to action, galleries, offers and footers, plus order and shipping sections on WooCommerce stores.

Browse them by category or search, preview one at full size, insert it, and then edit it like any other blocks. Undo works on an inserted pattern.

The global header and footer keeps branding in one place. Pick a ready-made set, then decide per email whether to use the global one, keep its own copy, or turn it off. Section backgrounds let neighboring blocks form one tinted band with no seam between them.

Templates can be saved to the library, exported as JSON (one or all of them), and imported on another site. An import warns about missing block types and images hosted elsewhere before it adds anything.

A form sends up to two messages, both set in Form settings, both optional.

When no template is chosen, a clean default layout is used, so a form you built in two minutes still sends a readable email. Subjects accept the same tokens as the body.

On a store the Emails screen gets a second tab. It lists the 17 WooCommerce transactional emails FormFlow can take over, from New order through to Reset password, so you design them with the same builder instead of WooCommerce's fixed template.

1. Open Emails and switch to the WooCommerce tab.
2. Flip the toggle on the email you want. FormFlow sends that one from then on. Flip it back and WooCommerce takes it over again, with nothing lost.
3. Type a Subject line, or leave it blank to keep WooCommerce's own. Order tokens work here as well as in the body.
4. Pick a Template. Default design keeps WooCommerce's layout; Customize copies that layout into a template of your own and opens it, after which the button reads Edit design.
5. Preview renders the email against sample data or a real order (search by order number, name or email), at desktop or phone width, and can send a test to any address.

A workflow is a trigger, an optional gate, and a list of actions. It runs when a form is submitted, either any form or one you name.

The builder has two views over the same draft: a list, and a canvas where steps are nodes you can pan, zoom and fit to view, with settings in a side panel. Run test docks a panel beside the flow and reports every step, using the latest entry, a recent entry you pick, or values you type. A test saves nothing and sends no email.

Each run is logged. The Logs tab shows the same per-step report the test panel gives, so a workflow that quietly skipped an action tells you which step decided that and why.

The Integrations screen is the map of what a workflow can reach. It shows what is already working (webhooks, and Zapier or Make through a catch hook), what is waiting on another plugin (SMTP delivery, WooCommerce), and what Pro adds (the CRM and marketing connectors).

The Library has two halves: a catalog of ready-made content, and the items you saved yourself.

A pack installs a set of related items at once: forms, email templates and workflows for a trade or a use case. A pack's detail page reports any of its installed items you have since deleted and offers to put back only those, leaving the rest of the pack alone.

Optional, off until you add a key, and never used on the front end.

Choose a provider in Settings (Anthropic, OpenAI or Google Gemini) and paste an API key. The key is stored encrypted and is never shown in the browser again. A request leaves your site only when you click an AI tool in the builder:

• Generate a form sends the description you typed.
• Writing assistant (rewrite, shorten, change tone, subject ideas) sends the text you asked it to work on, the tone you picked, and your site name.

No visitor data, entries or submitted values are sent, and there is no FormFlow server in between: the request goes from your site straight to the provider with your own key.

No email arrives

FormFlow hands the message to wp_mail(). If other WordPress mail (a password reset, for instance) also fails, the problem is delivery, not FormFlow: install an SMTP or delivery plugin. If other mail arrives and FormFlow's does not, open the form's settings and check that the notification is enabled and has a recipient, then use the editor's test send.

A visitor says the form will not submit

Check the CAPTCHA first: a published form set to a provider with no keys shows a challenge nobody can pass, and the Dashboard flags it. After that, look for a required field hidden by a show/hide rule.

A token prints raw in an email

A token that has no value is left empty rather than printed, so raw text in a sent email usually means a typo in the token name. Insert tokens from the Dynamic data list instead of typing them.

Where are submissions stored?

In your own database, in the plugin's own tables. Nothing is sent to a third party. The technical reference lists the tables.

What happens when I uninstall?

Nothing is removed unless you turn on Delete data on uninstall in Settings first. With it off, your forms, entries and templates survive a reinstall.

Does it need WooCommerce?

No. WooCommerce only adds the store-specific blocks and the WooCommerce email designs.