Build the Contact page and first enquiry form

Lesson 12 of 24

Verify and install Forminator, build a minimal Garden enquiry form with four useful fields, embed it on a Contact Page and prove the labelled form renders for a signed-out visitor.

Before you start

Before you begin The visitor can understand Cedar Lane’s services but still cannot send a question. Use the same disposable local practice site. Earlier recovery exercises do not prove a complete backup or restore, so do not install or test this plugin on a live site. This chapter uses Forminator as the course candidate. Recheck the current official plugin listing and exact version before screenshot capture. Forminator has many features; this course deliberately does not add payments, file uploads, newsletter signup, tracking or account registration.

1. Verify Forminator before installing

Open Plugins → Add New and search for Forminator. Check the exact plugin name, publisher, version, recent update history, WordPress/PHP requirements and official listing. Read the recent release notes during rehearsal, especially security fixes. Do not install a stale similarly named package because the screenshot in an older tutorial looks familiar.

4. Add only the details needed for an enquiry

Build four labelled fields in this order: 1. Name — required. 2. Email — required and validated as an email. 3. Type of service — required selection with: - Lawn care - Seasonal tidy-ups - Regular garden care - Not sure 4. Message — required multi-line text. Do not add Date of birth, phone, precise home address, attachments or payment fields merely because the builder makes them available. For each field, open Settings and choose Required, then Apply. For Email, also choose Validate → Validate Field. Required alone checks for an empty value; it does not turn on the email format check in Forminator 1.57.2. Publish Changes after editing a live form. The next lesson, Validate and trace the enquiry, verifies rejection of an invalid email.

5. Use a success message that says only what we know

Set the form’s successful submission message to: Thanks — your test enquiry was recorded on this practice site. Do not say “Email sent” or “We’ll reply soon” yet. The next lesson, Validate and trace the enquiry, will test storage and local mail capture. A later environment-gated lesson covers real monitored delivery after the sender, inbox and secret-handling decisions are approved.

6. Create the Contact Page

Create a new Page titled Contact. Add this introduction above the form: Use this fictional course form to practise a clear enquiry journey. Enter synthetic details only. Do not send real customer or personal information through the practice site. Embed Garden enquiry using Forminator’s supported block/embed route for the pinned version. Publish Contact.

7. Inspect the form as a signed-out visitor

Open Contact in a signed-out browser. Confirm the four visible labels, required indications, submit control and demo notice. Do not enter or submit a real enquiry in this chapter. We are checking the page and field design before testing failures and delivery.

8. Keep Contact out of navigation until the path is tested

For now, leave Contact published but do not add “Send an enquiry” buttons or a Contact navigation link. A public-looking action should not become prominent until the validation, storage and delivery path has been checked. Complete Validate and trace the enquiry to check validation, stored submissions and local mail capture. Then Connect the complete enquiry journey adds the links on this local practice site. Real inbox delivery remains a separate later exercise and is not required for this local journey.