More Flexible Input Masks & more

If you're not a regular change log reader, there are a lot of new features you may have missed over the last few months. For example, one new feature is a more flexible input mask. Added to the most powerful WordPress form builder flexible input mask gives you the ability to allow such things as extensions in a telephone field or foreign zip codes that include letters.

We are working on v2.01, that will include a major new field type, but there have been quite a few smaller features in the point releases that may make your life a little easier.

WordPress Form Builder Flexible Input Mask

Your phone fields include a "format" option. In that past, you could use either text or numbers, and anything else would be treated literally. For example, 999-999-9999 will allow for numbers joined by the dashes. But what if you want an extension? Or what if you want to allow either a number or a letter?

This format option is now much more flexible by allowing ? and * as part of the format. Anything after a ? will be optional, but you can still specify the format. For your optional extension, use 999-999-9999 ?ext 999. Or a postal code that allows either a letter or a number, use A***99. Any combination of letters, numbers, and wildcards is no problem.

Automatically delete files

When an entry is edited, or a file replaced in an upload field, the unused files can now be automatically deleted. By default, the files will remain on your site. We'd rather leave a file you don't need, than permanently delete one you do.

So, you'll need to take action to enable this option. You can do so in the field options for each of your upload fields.

Once you've checked this box, the rest is all managed for you. If you are using our custom code example to do this, you can remove it now.

Theme authors can get affiliate commissions

If you write WordPress themes, you may be packaging a form plugin with your theme. Contact Form 7 seems to frequently be included. But Contact Form 7 is very difficult for most people since it requires using straight markup to create and change forms. Also, since it doesn't save entries to the database, if an email doesn't get through, you'll never know anyone ever submitted your form.

We'd like the free version of Formidable to start replacing Contact Form 7 in theme packages like this. Now, every link throughout the free version can be an affiliate link. Not only will you get the revenue from your theme sales, but you can also get extra affiliate revenue and make life easier for your users. Your users are happier. You're happier. Everyone wins.

Contact us in the help desk if you'd like to join in. You'll need to be approved before the affiliate urls will be enabled.

Fill your add-on licenses automatically

If you've got a lot of our add-ons installed, it takes time to add and save each license key on your site. But with your pro license activated, you will find a button to autofill licenses on the Global settings -> Plugin licenses page. Click the button, and any missing licenses will be fetched from your account.

Easier styling

When you create a new style, you probably only want to change a few settings. You no longer have to start from the default style each time you create a new one. Duplicate your customized style, make the couple changes you're after, and you're off.

After changing your styling settings, browser caching often prevents your changes from showing right away. We've made efforts to improve this by using a timestamp instead of the Formidable version number to tell the browser the styling has changed. There are still caches that may need to be manually cleared, like Cloudflare and caching plugins, but this should help save your time and ours.

We've also added a few new styling options to help you get the look you want. The Form Title and Form Description styling sections have been added, you can remove the box-shadow on your fields to get a more clean and crisp feel, and you can control the weight of the text in your fields. If you find that you're needing a specific styling option that we don't have yet, let us know! We're always adding new options.

Add text to your auto increment values

The [auto_id] shortcode works great for adding a sequential, numeric value to an entry. But sometimes, a straight-up numeric value just isn't what you need. We added a custom code example a while back to help with this, but it's no longer needed. If you're using this example or another workaround, you remove it and add your prefix or suffix directly into your field with the [auto_id] shortcode. So your default value could be ss-[auto_id] or [auto_id]-ss or even ss-[auto_id]-ss.

You can now easily generate the reference or invoice numbers you would like.

New shortcodes

You can now use the [is_draft] shortcode to easily show if an entry is a draft in a View. This will be most commonly used in a conditional statement, like this:
[if is_draft]This is a draft[/if is_draft]

Showing uploaded files, linking to the full-size image, and showing the file name is easier than ever. You can now use [x show_image=1] to show images. Include add_link=1 if you want each image to link to the full-size image. If you want the file name to show as well (underneath the image), add show_filename=1. If you're using this code, you can remove it from your site now and use [x show_image=1 add_link=1] instead.

CSV export has been moved to the free version

We've also been working on improving the free version as well. Even using the free version, entries can be exported to CSV. We don't want the free version to feel crippled by missing a vital feature. Over the years, we have moved several features from the pro to the free version as we see a feature making the plugin less useful than other free plugins. These have included the back-end entry lists, email and url field types, and multiple emails and autoresponders. But of course the extra powerful fields and features will remain in the pro version.

What else has changed?

There have been many more additions and changes in addition to the ones mentioned above. You can always find the full list of changes here. Or click here if you want to see a list of all the changes in our add-ons as well.

As always, thank you for using Formidable, and thank you for your suggestions and input. Almost all the changes listed above came about because of your needs and requests. We're listening.