How to use the double opt-in for Contact Form 7 (v2.11)

With our plug­in Forge12 Dou­­b­le-Opt-in for Cont­act Form 7 you extend the Cont­act Form 7 Word­Press plug­in with an addi­tio­nal opt-in sys­tem (DOI).

For this, only a few simp­le steps are nee­ded to con­vert your form(s) to Word­Press forms.

Install Double-Opt-in Plugin #

First, the plug­in must be instal­led via the Word­Press Plug­in Mana­ger. To do this, sim­ply go to the backend of your Word­Press web­site to the Plug­ins’ menu item and sel­ect the Instal­la­ti­on menu item in the sub-navi­­ga­­ti­on (Word­Press Dash­board > Plug­ins > Install).

Use the Upload Plug­in but­ton to upload the plug­in to your ser­ver.

Then click on the “Acti­va­te” but­ton to regis­ter the Cont­act Form 7 Dou­­b­le-Opt-in plug­in with Word­Press.

Configure double opt-in #

After instal­ling the plug­in, your Cont­act Form 7 forms, new set­tings are available (Forms > Cont­act Forms > [any_form] > Dou­­b­le-Opt-in).

To enable opt-in for one or more of your forms, first go to the form’s set­tings (Forms > Cont­act forms > [any_form]). The­re you will find a new tab cal­led Dou­­b­le-Opt-in.

The­re you can defi­ne all important set­tings for the dou­ble opt-in pro­ce­du­re.

Fur­ther­mo­re, in addi­ti­on to the stan­dard Cont­act Form 7 tags, addi­tio­nal short­codes are available for use in the mes­sa­ge body:

How the double opt-in system works #

Acti­vat­ing the dou­ble opt-in sys­tem also chan­ges the beha­vi­or of the form.

User confirms double opt-in

The­se steps are exe­cu­ted in case the user con­firms the dou­ble opt-in:

1. Dou­ble opt-in mail is sent
2. Visi­tor con­firms the dou­ble opt-in link
3. Dou­ble opt-in infor­ma­ti­on is stored
4. Nor­mal e‑mail (1) is sent
5. Nor­mal e‑mail (2) will be sent — if this has been acti­va­ted.

User does not confirm double opt-in

The­se steps are per­for­med in case the user does not con­firm the dou­ble opt-in:

1. Dou­ble opt-in mail is sent
2. Visi­tor does not con­firm the link within 7 days
3. Data will be dele­ted

Old data will be dele­ted auto­ma­ti­cal­ly by a WP cron job after the time you sel­ec­ted. You have seve­ral opti­ons to choo­se from here.

What data is stored #

A dou­ble opt-in must be log­ged. This ensu­res that the e‑mail can real­ly be assi­gned to the reci­pi­ent.

For this pur­po­se, our plug­in stores some infor­ma­ti­on. The infor­ma­ti­on can be view­ed at any time via Tools / Forge12 Dou­­b­le-Opt-in.

All data is stored for the dura­ti­on you set in order to be able to pro­ve that a visi­tor has regis­tered via the dou­ble opt-in and that this has been con­firm­ed. Even after an opt-out, the data will be kept for 30 days.

Export Double-Opt-in Data #

All per­for­med opt-ins can be expor­ted as a CSV file at any time. Both indi­vi­du­al and all opt-ins can be expor­ted. If cate­go­ries are used, only opt-in infor­ma­ti­on of a cer­tain cate­go­ry can be expor­ted as well.

Export all opt-in data

To export all data, go to Forge12 Dou­ble Opt-In > Dash­board in the Word­Press backend. The­re you will find an over­view of the most recent opt-ins. At the end of the table, you will find the but­ton to export all ent­ries as CSV.

Export individual opt-in data

It is also pos­si­ble to export only sin­gle infor­ma­ti­on. To do this, go to Forge12 Dou­ble Opt-In > Dash­board in the Word­Press backend. Then move the mou­se over the desi­red opt-in to get the link to the details page. On the details page, you will find the but­ton to export the data (Export as CSV).

Export all opt-in data of a category

To export all opt-ins of a cate­go­ry, go to Forge12 Dou­ble Opt-In > Cate­go­ries > [cate­go­ry name] in the Word­Press backend. The­re you will find all opt-ins that have been assi­gned to the respec­ti­ve cate­go­ry. The opti­on to export the opt-ins can be found at the end of the table (Export as CSV).

How to use the opt-out system #

With ver­si­on 2 of the opt-in sys­tem, the pos­si­bi­li­ty of giving visi­tors the opti­on to unsub­scri­be from per­for­med opt-ins was inte­gra­ted.

The opt-out page for the visitor

First, you need a new page, on which ever­y­thing else will be dis­play­ed for the visi­tor later. To do this, sim­ply crea­te a new page in the backend of Word­Press and insert the fol­lo­wing short­code.

[f12-cf7-doubleoptin-optout-list]

Of cour­se, you can con­ti­nue to design the page and add addi­tio­nal con­tent. The only important thing is that the short­code is pla­ced on the page.

Configure the opt-out

Next, go to Forge12 Dou­ble Opt-In > Opt-out in the backend of Word­Press. The­re, you can now make all fur­ther set­tings for the opt-out.

The opt-out form

The last thing to do is to inte­gra­te the opt-out form. For this, you use the fol­lo­wing short­code.

[f12-cf7-doubleoptin-optout-form]

The short­code crea­tes a simp­le form through which the visi­tor can access the opt-out pro­cess.

Once the form has been sub­mit­ted, a one-time link is gene­ra­ted and sent to the sel­ec­ted e‑mail address. The link is only tem­po­r­a­ri­ly valid and will be dele­ted after­wards.

The short­code for the form can be pla­ced any­whe­re on the page. The dis­play can then be done via the Word­Press Cus­to­mi­zer or by sepa­ra­te CSS files.

The Opt-Out List

As soon as the visi­tor clicks on the opt-out link, he will be redi­rec­ted to the pre­vious­ly crea­ted page, whe­re he will recei­ve an over­view of all per­for­med and pen­ding opt-ins. This can look like the fol­lo­wing, for exam­p­le:

The visi­tor then sees whe­ther and when the opt-in was per­for­med and how long the data is stored. Via Opt-Out now! He can also unsub­scri­be from per­for­med opt-ins. The column “valid until” results from the con­fi­gu­red set­tings.

Available filters and hooks for the extension #

For deve­lo­pers, we offer the pos­si­bi­li­ty to access built-in Word­Press hooks to con­nect the sys­tem to exter­nal inter­faces.

Double opt-ins

Allows to pro­cess opt-ins that have been per­for­med twice. (e.g. when the opt-in link is cli­cked twice).

/**
 * @param string
 * @param OptIn $OptIn
 */
function already_confirmed($hash, $OptIn){
   // Do Something
}
add_action('f12_cf7_doubleoptin_already_confirmed', 'already_confirmed', 10, 2);

Before the opt-in confirmation

Allows to edit an opt-in befo­re it is saved.

/**
 * @param string
 * @param OptIn $OptIn
 */
function before_confirm($hash, $OptIn){
   // Do Something
}
add_action('f12_cf7_doubleoptin_before_confirm', 'before_confirm', 10, 2);

After the opt-in confirmation

Allows modi­fy­ing the opt-in after con­fir­ma­ti­on. Also allows pas­sing the opt-in to inter­faces after con­fir­ma­ti­on.

/**
 * @param string
 * @param OptIn $OptIn
 */
function after_confirm($hash, $OptIn){
   // Do Something
}
add_action('f12_cf7_doubleoptin_after_confirm', 'after_confirm', 10, 2);

After sending the opt-in mail

Allows to per­form fur­ther steps after sen­ding the opt-in mail.

/**
 * @param array $form_data - An Array containing all dynamic form fields and placeholder data.
 * @param int $post_id - The Form ID
 */
function after_optin_mail_sent($form_data, $post_id){
   // Do Something
}
add_action('f12_cf7_doubleoptin_sent', 'after_optin_mail_sent', 10, 2);

Summary #

Using the Forge12 Dou­­b­le-Opt-in Plug­in for Cont­act Form 7 is quick and easy thanks to its inte­gra­ti­on. Thanks to the log­ging of the data, pro­of of the dou­ble opt-in can be pro­vi­ded at any time.

Do you have ide­as how to extend the plug­in, or would you like to have addi­tio­nal fea­tures? Then just wri­te us a com­ment.