Capture form data before submission with the Form Abandonment add-on, so you don't lose users who leave your forms halfway through. It allows users to automatically save and continue their progress by filling out the form later using a secure entry edit link.

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The Form Abandonment add-on comes with the following features:

• Abandoned Form Recovery. Capture form data before it's submitted to save more leads and optimize forms.
• Save and Continue. Logged-in and logged-out users can save forms and continue later using an edit link or auto-save a multi-paged draft.

Download and install

1. If you haven't already, install and activate the current version of Formidable Forms Premium on your WordPress site.
2. After confirming your Formidable Forms license, go to Formidable → Add-Ons and toggle on the Form Abandonment WordPress plugin.
   

   

Set up form abandonment

Capture all the data entered in your form before it's even submitted. Form Abandonment allows you to retrieve incomplete forms and save more leads.

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1. Go to your form Settings → Form Abandonment.
   

   

2. Click to toggle Turn on form abandonment to enable the abandonment of forms to capture the entries.
   

   

3. Click to toggle Require an email address or phone number before saving to monitor the form fields and only capture the entries when an email or phone field exists on the form and the form submitter fills it.
4. Click the Create a form recovery email button to create a premade email action for abandonment purposes, and it will send an email including an entry edit link to a visitor who left the form unsubmitted. The new action opens on the Actions & Notifications tab.
   

   

5. Click Update to save your changes.
6. When a user starts filling out the form, the entry is saved with the In Progress status. It is saved about every 20 seconds while they type, and again when they leave the page. If the entry remains inactive for an extended period of time, the status is automatically changed to Abandoned, which then can trigger an email notification.

Save and continue partial submissions

Allow your logged-in and logged-out users to save their progress in your forms and return later to complete and submit their entries with a secure edit link.

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Set up edit link

Create a secure edit entry link to allow users to edit their previously submitted entries. This link can be accessible to all user roles, including those not logged in. If a user was logged in at the time of entry submission, they will need to log in again to access the edit link and make changes to their entry.

1. Go to your form Settings → Form Permissions.
2. Under Entry Editing, select the Allow front-end editing of entries checkbox.
3. In the Role required to edit one's own entries, select the user roles you want to allow to receive an edit link to their submitted entry.
4. To create an edit link email, click the Create new email notification button. Once an entry is created, it triggers the sending of an email. The new action opens on the Actions & Notifications tab.
   

   

5. Click Update to save your changes.

Allow saving drafts

Allow saving drafts in your form to let users save their progress and return to their entry using a secure Continue link. This feature comes in handy, especially when users have to fill out lengthy and complex forms, allowing them to complete the form submission at their own pace.

1. Go to your form Settings → Form Permissions.
2. Under Save Drafts, select the Allow saving drafts checkbox. In the dropdown next to it, choose Logged-in Users, Logged-out Users, or both. It starts with Logged-in Users only, so add Logged-out Users to let visitors save drafts.
3. To create a save and resume email, click the Create new email notification button. Once a user has saved a draft, it triggers the sending of an email. The new action opens on the Actions & Notifications tab.
   

   

4. Click Update to save your changes.
5. When you save a draft while logged out, it will generate a success message with a Copy Continue Link button. Clicking on this button will allow you to return to your entry to continue. The button only appears when your site uses HTTPS (SSL).
   

   

Save drafts automatically

Saving drafts automatically can be enabled when you go to your form Settings → Form Permissions → Save Drafts. When this option is enabled:

• The auto save will be triggered anytime a draft is edited.
• It can apply to both logged-in and logged-out users.
• It saves every 20 seconds by default but can be adjusted with the frm_auto_save_interval hook.

View partial submissions

To see these partial submissions, open your form and click the Entries tab. To see another form's entries, click the arrow next to the form name at the top of the page and choose that form.

Entry Status

By default, Formidable includes the Submitted, Draft, and Spam entry statuses. This add-on adds In Progress and Abandoned.

When users save their progress in your form, the entry is stored as a draft.

When an entry is marked as In progress, it indicates that the user has started filling out the form but still needs to submit it. If the user has not changed the form entry for 1 hour, the entry status will automatically change to Abandoned, provided the form has yet to be submitted.

Entry details

To find an entry's edit link, open your form's Entries tab. Then click View under the entry.

The Entry Edit Token box in the sidebar holds the edit link, a Copy Edit Link button, and a Reset Token option. The box shows when front-end editing is on for the form, and for draft and abandoned entries. Copy Edit Link only appears when your site uses HTTPS (SSL).

Send form abandonment emails

Users can be notified through email based on various actions, such as saving a draft, abandoning an entry, or creating an entry with front-editing enabled.

Create abandoned form recovery email

When you activate Form Abandonment, an email can be automatically sent out whenever a user abandons a form entry.

1. Go to your form Settings → Form Abandonment.
2. Click the Create a form recovery email button.
3. To customize the message, go to your form Settings → Actions & Notifications and look for the Abandoned Form Recovery email action.
   

   

   

   
   The [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id]] shortcode in the Message adds the link. To open the link on the page where your form is published, add the page_id parameter to it.
4. Click Update to save your changes.

Create edit entry link email

When Allow front-end editing of entries is enabled, an email can be automatically sent out whenever an entry is created.

1. Go to your form Settings → Form Permissions.
2. Click the Create new email notification button under the Entry Editing section.
3. To customize the message, go to your form Settings → Actions & Notifications and look for the Send Edit Entry Link email action.
   

   

   

   
   The [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id]] shortcode in the Message adds the link. To open the link on the page where your form is published, add the page_id parameter to it.
4. Click Update to save your changes.

Create save and continue email

When Allow saving drafts is enabled, an email can be automatically sent out whenever a draft is saved.

1. Add an email address field in your form before you create the email. The Save and Resume email is sent to the first email address field in the form. If the form has no email field yet, the email's To stays empty.
2. Go to your form Settings → Form Permissions.
3. Click the Create new email notification button under the Save Drafts section.
4. To customize the message, go to your form Settings → Actions & Notifications and look for the Save and Resume email action.
   

   

   

   
   The [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id]] shortcode in the Message adds the link. To open the link on the page where your form is published, add the page_id parameter to it.
5. Click Update to save your changes.
6. A logged-out visitor on a later page of a multipage form can click Save Draft before filling in the email address. A popup then asks for an email address before the draft is saved. The popup appears when the Save and Resume email is sent to the form's email address field and its Message includes the [frm-signed-edit-link] shortcode.
   

   

Form abandonment shortcode

This shortcode generates a secure link to edit any abandoned entry. It includes the required secret to validate those who are not logged in. By default, it is automatically included in the recovery email action.

[frm-signed-edit-link id=[id]]

Parameters

• page_id: Open the link on a specific page. Use the ID of the page where the form is published. Without it, the link opens the form on its own preview page.

  [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id] page_id=4560]

  Replace 4560 with the ID of the page.

• label: Customize the label of the URL.

  [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id] label="Click to edit entry"]

• class: Apply a custom class to the link. If no class is specified, the default Formidable style is used.

  [frm-signed-edit-link id=[id] class="class_name_here"]

Frequently asked questions

How does the entry status column work for abandoned entries?

When a visitor abandons a form, it captures the entry as In Progress. By default, a cron runs every hour to check if the entry has not been submitted. If it's not submitted, it will trigger the recovery email action (with the edit link shortcode) and set the entry status to Abandoned.

Could customers exclude some fields from being captured as abandoned entries?

Yes. By default, passwords and credit cards are not saved. You can exclude more fields with the frm_abandonment_exclude_field_types hook.

What happens to abandoned entries when the add-on is deactivated?

If you deactivate the Form Abandonment add-on, the entry status will be changed from Abandoned to Draft. Once you reactivate the add-on, it will display as Abandoned or In Progress again.

Does the link to edit an entry expire?

The recovery link has no expiration. It will no longer work when the abandoned entry is deleted or submitted.

Entries can also be deleted automatically. When the form's Automatically delete entries after setting is on (in the form's Settings → GDPR tab), in-progress and abandoned entries are deleted with the other entries once they're older than the number of days you set. Their recovery links then stop working. Learn more about GDPR settings.

How secure is the recovery link?

We used OpenSSL with AES-256-CTR encryption, a secure way to protect a link as long as it is not accidentally exposed.

What happens to in-progress entries for forms with GDPR fields?

In-progress entries will not be saved to the database for forms that contain GDPR fields unless consent has been granted. This ensures compliance with data protection regulations.

Troubleshooting

You do not have sufficient permissions

When a logged-out user saves a draft, the form permissions must be set to allow editing for logged-out users. If not, no copy link will be generated, and the email link will display an error message stating You do not have sufficient permissions to access this form.

You do not have permission to view this form

A logged-out visitor sees this message when they open the link from a recovery, edit link, or save and resume email. This happens when the form key is contact-us or contact-form. A form made from the Contact Us template and the default contact form usually have one of these keys. For security, Formidable blocks the preview page of these forms for visitors, and the link opens the form on that preview page by default.

To fix it, add page_id to the shortcode in each email action's Message, using the ID of the page where the form is published. Then click Update.

[frm-signed-edit-link id=[id] page_id=4560]

Replace 4560 with the ID of the page.

Related developer hooks

• Block the Google cache with the frm_abandonment_block_google_cache hook.
• Customize the output of the frm-signed-edit-link shortcode with the frm_abandonment_edit_entry_url hook.
• Change the default 1 hour between in progress cron job to abandoned with the frm_mark_abandonment_entries_period hook.
• Exclude some fields from being captured as abandoned entries with the frm_abandonment_exclude_field_types hook.
• Change the default 20 seconds autosave interval value in milliseconds with the frm_auto_save_interval hook.
• Disable the modal popup that is triggered for logged out draft entries with the frm_abandonment_logged_out_modal hook.