Bit form – Form Settings

Overview

he following features are available under Form Settings –

✔ Allow Single Entry for each IP address

✔ Require user to be logged in for submitting the form

✔ Disallow empty form submission

✔ Validate form input for focus lost

✔ Disable entry storing in the WordPress database

✔ Enable reCAPTCHA V3

✔ Disable this form after limited entry

✔ Honeypot

✔ Limit form submission period

✔ Blocked IP list

✔ Allowed IP

✔ SMTP Configuration

✔ Form import & export

Allow Single Entry for each IP address

One form can be submitted one time from each IP address. Suppose you are submitting a form using/from this IP 123.123. 12.1. You can not submit the same form again from the same IP address but you can submit the form using another IP address that is not used yet to submit the same form.

Require user to be logged in for submitting form

To enable this option, users have to be logged in for form submission. You can set an error message to notify your user to log in

Disallow empty form submission

Enabling this option, users can’t submit empty forms. If users try to submit an empty form then the admin can display an error message from the Form settings option.

Validate form input for focus lost

Turning on this option validate the input of the fields. If the keep any field empty & move to another field, an error message will be displayed to the user. If this option is not turned on & the user forgets to fill up any field required, the error message will be shown when the user wants to submit the form.

Disable entry storing in WordPress database

Enabling this option your form submission data will not be stored in Bit Form responses.

Disable this form after limited entry

If you want to disable the form after certain entries you can use this feature. Suppose you have decided that after 100 times submissions you want to disable the form then this feature is for you

Honeypot

It is a well-known fact that spambots are in real trouble today. One of the common problems web developers face is that spambots create web forms to submit spam messages to websites. Spam prevention is not easy because of intelligent bots. Though re-captcha will help you in this situation by setting some challenges or tricks to avoid bots, sometimes you can get into an endless trap which is annoying to some visitors. So, we have come up with a better experience for spam protection while submitting web forms & that is an intelligent Honeypot, aka a hidden field.

The main goal of today’s article is – how you can prevent a bot from submitting the form using Honeypot in Bit Form. Our previous article demonstrated to you how you could add hidden fields manually using conditional logic. But now, you can use Honeypot by enabling a simple option from the settings. In this article, we will show you how you can do that.

What is Honeypot & how does it work?

Honeypot is a security technique that helps an administrator to prevent form submission by a spam bot. With Honeypot, an admin can prevent spamming, which decreases spamming compliance of your website.

Honeypot works by setting up an automatic trap that will catch the hackers when they try to submit a form with a script. It checks if the hidden field is filled up by someone who will be obviously a bot because a real human can not view the field.

How does Honeypot work on Bit Form?

To set up Honeypot on Bit Form –

✔ Create a form or select a form you have created before.

✔ Navigate to Form settings from the Settings option.

✔ Enable the option Honeypot trap for the bot & save the settings

This setting will automatically create some hidden fields that a real human can’t access, but the bot will take it as a part of web forms. As it starts to try to fill those fields, it will end up revealing as Spambots Whenever bots try to fill those hidden fields & submit the form an error message will be displayed Trying to submit the form by bot.

Limit form submission period

If you want to disable the form after certain entries you can use this feature. Suppose you have decided that after 100 times submissions you want to disable the form then this feature is for you

Blocked IP list

The blocked listed IP addresses can not submit your form. Suppose you have noticed that from specific IP addresses, a form is being submitted as spamming and you do not like it. In this case, you can use this feature, you can list those IPs here and form submissions from those IPs will not be accepted anymore. And you can also disable the blocked listed IPs whenever you want. For example, you want to disallow submission from the below-listed IPs

103.145.119.253

103.145.119.251

103.145.119.250

Just put these three IPs on blocked list and enable blocked option. Now, no more submission will be accepted from those IPs

Allowed IP

In some cases, some organization or company want to accept form submission from some specific IP addresses. Only in those situations, this feature will be helpful for them.

By enabling this option only the listed IP can submit this form.

Suppose you have listed these two IPs 123.123. 12.1 and 123.123. 12.2 Now, only form submissions from these two IPs will be accepted.

SMTP Configuration

A new addition to our Bit Form plugin is – SMTP configuration. A lot of site owners face the spam mail problem for using the WordPress default PHP mail function.SMTP is a protocol that helps your WordPress site to make its email deliverability more easygoing & reliable. By enabling this feature you can send mail from your site to your recipients via your preferred mail server.

How does SMTP works :

First, you have to open an account on your desired hosting provider (e.g.: MailGun, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Zoho mail). By opening an account you are authenticating your WordPress site. They will provide you with the necessary credentials (e.g.: Encryption type, SMTP port ). You have to put this information when configuring SMTP on your site. Once your site is authenticated you can send mail through your preferred SMTP server. All the email validation work will be done on your specified SMTP server.

You don’t have to use different SMTP plug-ins or different workflows of SMTP providers. We bring it all in one feature. To access all the mail services you need professional mail addresses. The mail services you can use through this feature:

✔ MailGun SMTP [5,000 free email /per month for 3 months]

✔ Gmail SMTP [6,000 free email/per month]

✔ Hotmail

✔ Yahoo

✔ AWS SES

✔ ZOHO Mail

✔ Outlook

Process of SMTP settings :

To configure you need to go to WordPress Dashboard. Then click on Bit Form. From Bit Form to Settings. Then go to the SMTP option.

1.Bit Form SMTP general settings :

➤ Enable SMTP: Enabling SMTP YES you are ready to configure general SMTP settings.

➤ From Email Address: Set the email address from where you want to send mail to recipients.

➤ From Name: Set the name that will be shown to your recipients as the part of Form or Sender

➤ Reply-To Email Address: Set the email address to whom you want to send the mail.

➤SMTP Host: Set the outgoing mail server that you have to choose. (e.g: smtp.gmail.com)

➤ Type of Encryption: Choose the encryption type regarding your hosting server.

➤ SMTP Port: Choose the port to relay your outgoing mail to the SMTP server. Here are all the configuration details :

☆ Mail Gun :

    SMTP Host: smtp.mailgun.org
    Type of Encryption:TLS
    SMTP Port: 587

☆ Gmail :

    SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
    Type of Encryption: TLS
    SMTP Port: 587

TIP

The mail you use must be professional mail, then it will work to send the mail..

☆ Hotmail :

    SMTP Host : smtp.live.com
    Type of Encryption : TLS
    SMTP Port: 587

☆ Yahoo :

    SMTP Host : smtp.mail.yahoo.com
    Type of Encryption : SSL
    SMTP Port: 465

☆ Outlook :

    SMTP Host : smtp.office365.com
    Type of Encryption : STARTLS
    SMTP Port: 587            

☆ Zoho :

    SMTP Host : smtp.zoho.com
    Type of Encryption : TSL
    SMTP Port: 587

Note: When configuring Zoho SMTP, you need to provide the entire email address and the correct password for authentication. You may require an Application-specific Password to set up the account on other devices if you’ve enabled Two-Factor Authentication.

➤ SMTP authentication: Set the authentication YES always.

➤ SMTP Username & Password: Enter your username & password that you use to login into your mail server.

After clicking the Save Changes your SMTP configuration will be finished. Now you are ready for the test to see whether SMTP settings work or not!

Enabling Less secure apps & generate apps password:

To set-up the SMTP configuration- you need to enable the less secure apps options to generate app password of your mail service.

1. Gmail:

✔ Log-in to your Gmail account.

✔ Navigate to the Security option. From this option, you will find a Less security Apps window.

✔ Now, turn ON the Allow less secure apps.

Note: If the “2-step verification is enabled on your Gmail account then you can’t turn on the “Allow less secure apps” option

✔ Next, to set the password- click on App Password & sign in to your Gmail account.

✔ Then set an app name or any other custom name to generate the password.

✔ In the next window a password will be automatically generated.

2. Zoho Mail:

✔ Log-in to your Zoho mail account.

✔ Navigate to the ‘Security’ option. From this option, you will find the “App Passwords” window.

✔ Click on “Generate New Password.

✔ Then set a app name to generate the password.

✔ In the next window a password will be automatically generated.

2.SMTP Testing :

This testing option will help you to verify that actually, your website can actually relay outgoing mail to the referred recipients. SMTP testing option consists of :

➤ To Field: Type the email address to whom you want to send the mail.

➤ Subject Field: Include the subject of your message.

➤ Message Field: Write your message to this text field.

Let’s see an example to clear this out!

▪ Let’s say you open an account on a mail server using your Gmail (e.g.: [email protected]) to send all the emails from your site.

▪ Now you want to see what will recipients see when they get your mail. Then set an alternate Gmail([email protected]) in the ‘To’ field & set the subject, message.

▪ Clicking on ‘Send Test’ your mail will relay to the Gmail SMTP server. Gmail will validate the information you have set before(username, password)

▪ When Gmail will validate your mail then the mail will be delivered to [email protected]. Hence your mail will be delivered safely to your recipient via the SMTP server.

Form import & export

Bit Form comes with an Import & Export Form feature that allows you to migrate your forms to & from multiple WordPress websites. It consumes your time effortlessly as well as within a minute. Read this documentation to know more.

Export Forms:

1. First, go to your WordPress dashboard, then click on Bit Form.

2. Now, choose any form from the list which you want to export from your site.

3. Then click on the menu from the right side of the selected form.

4. Choose Export among the actions. By clicking this option, you can only export the form & related other styling & integration, but not the entries related to the selected form.

5. A JSON file will be downloaded after clicking the Export option.

Import Forms:

1. Go to another domain where you want to import the form. Then click on Bit Form.
   • Note: Make sure that Bit Form is successfully installed on your new domain where you are going to import the form.
2. Now click on the Create Form, hover to the (+) icon & you can see the Import option. Click on the option.

Then, click on Choose File & upload the downloaded JSON file from your computer. Here you have to select the property that you want to import with your form. They are:

⇛ All

⇛ Form Settings

⇛ Confirmations

⇛ Conditional Logic

⇛ Email templates

⇛ Integrations

If you want to import all properties, click on the All option.

4. After successful import, you will see the form on the form list.

Watch the full video tutorial here!