Installation

Requirements

• WordPress 6.8 or later
• PHP 7.4 or later
• The block editor. Forming Forms builds forms out of blocks, so the classic editor is not supported.
• A working wp_mail() setup if you want notification emails. Most hosts send mail out of the box. If yours doesn’t, an SMTP plugin fixes it. See Email Notifications.

That’s all. You don’t need an API key or an account. No external service is involved unless you turn on a CAPTCHA or the Akismet check yourself.

Installing from your dashboard

1. Go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for “Forming Forms”.
3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

Installing manually

1. Download the ZIP from WordPress.org.
2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, and click Install Now.
3. Activate the plugin.

Or upload the unzipped folder to /wp-content/plugins/forming-form-builder over SFTP and activate it from the Plugins screen.

What activation adds

• A Forming Form Builder category in the block inserter, containing the Form block and the 12 field blocks.
• A Forming admin menu with Dashboard, Forms, Entries, Settings and Tools. See Dashboard, Forms, Settings & Tools.
• A private forming_entry post type that stores submissions, which you read under Forming → Entries.
• A {prefix}forming_forms database table that indexes every form on your site. It’s built in the background on activation and kept up to date whenever you save a post, pattern or template.
• An optional Forming: latest entries widget on the WordPress dashboard, which you can switch off under Forming → Settings → General.
• A REST route at forming/v1/submit that receives form submissions.
• Settings and Go Pro links on the plugin’s row on the Plugins screen.

Installing Forming Pro

Forming Pro is an add-on. Keep the free plugin installed and active, then upload the Pro ZIP from your BeautifulPlugins account and activate your license. See Forming Pro.

Updating

Forming Forms updates through WordPress.org like any other plugin, from Dashboard → Updates or automatically if you’ve turned on auto-updates on the Plugins screen.

Forms are stored in your post content as blocks, and entries are ordinary posts in your own database, so updating never touches either.

Deactivating and uninstalling

Deactivating the plugin stops the blocks from rendering and disables the submission endpoint. Your form markup stays in your post content and your entries stay in the database, so reactivating restores everything exactly as it was.

Deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen keeps your entries and settings by default. To remove them too, turn on Delete all entries and settings when the plugin is deleted under Forming → Settings → Data & privacy before you delete it.

Next step

Head to the Getting Started guide and build your first form.