Reply directly to sender from form submission emails

Is there any possibility of replying to a senders e-mail directly from the form submission?

Currently, I have to press on the “persson_159@icloud.com” link in the submission email to reply, instead of just hitting the “reply” button in OS X Mail (or whatever program you use), which exclude the initial email delivered to me.
When I press the “reply” button in OS X Mail, all I got in the “To”-field is “Webflow forms”, instead of the senders e-mail.

Is there any way to change this?

1 Like

Hello All,

I am looking for a way to have a form submitted through the site be sent as an email but with the sender’s email as the sender to quickly reply to. I would also like to be able to have the subject be New Inquiry from: (Name Field) with their message filling the body of the email. Basically as if they sent the email directly. Any way to do this?

My client and I are working on a PHP script to do this and also acknowledge different forms and send them to different addresses. I really wish webflow would incorporate the ability to use a variable like a radio button to select the email address the form will be sent.

Any guidance you guys can supply would be great and keep up the good work!

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Hi there, the ability to setup a reply-to variable, that would hold the users email address, is not yet part of the forms functionality for Forms hosted on webflow.

If you are planning to use the forms to post to an external php mail script that is using PHPmail and your own mail server, then you can set the mail headers to include the From name and reply-to address for the mails getting sent out. You could for example, set the reply-to email address to be taken from the users email address entered on the form…

Some example PHP code that you might use:

<?php

$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];  
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$message = $_POST['message'];
$to = "recipient@your-server.com";
$headers = 'From: '.$email."\r\n" .
        'Reply-To: '.$email."\r\n"
        'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers, "From: " . $name);

header('Location: contact_thankyou.html');

?>

Also, this method could be used, for example, you can setup a drop down list box on your form, containing multiple email addresses, and when user choose the email address they want to send to, you can update the $to variable in the php code to use the value selected in the drop-down list box that is passed in the POST parameter to the PHP script.

This is of course, one option for sending mails via PHP with external php server, but this is a simple method to achieve what you are trying to do… Let me know if you need clarification on something… happy to help ! Cheers!

3 Likes

Hey thanks CyberDave for all that info. I found this website PHP form to email explained | HTML Form Guide that contains a script at the end which includes email injection filtering. It is very important to my client that it remain secure.

Another question, If I did it with your script, could I make a radio button change the recipient value? Any would I be able to have an alias for it in the form like Store1 in the form = store1@domain.com etc.

Thanks so much!

Dave

Hi, well the php code I gave, is really just an example, of how you could accomplish this if you were running your own PHP enabled server, there may be many ways to actually code that in PHP. If you find a script that offers some secure email filtering and good for your client, then you should use what works best for you.

Regarding the form itself that you would create in webflow, you could perhaps create a form with a drop-down list or radio button selection, and in that list, you could put the different store names and store email addresses, then write your own php form handler to process the selections that is made by the user.

I should say again, this is just example alternative way you could handle this need of yours, by doing that PHP coding external to webflow, since you mentioned that you may be making your own php form processing script that is also external to webflow.

How can I trigger/include this php script once user click on submit button? Can you please send an example or screen shot for calling a php script on submission.

Hi @andy2015, could you watch my video link, and let me know if that answers your question? Summary: Set the Action field to the url of the PHP script and use GET or POST. Field names will be sent to your PHP script as variables. I recommend you use the POST method when transmitting form data.

http://quick.as/l4qxi3jn

I hope that helps, cheers, Dave

1 Like

Hi,

I got a problem when I working with the form data.

In the Dashboard > Forms there is a box called “Replay to Address” I wonder can I use the email that visitor have registered via the form, and reply back to that user.

Can I use the variable ? I saw only few options to use such as…“siteName, formData and formDashboardUrl.” but no the email im looking for.

Thanks

1 Like

Hi, please see this topic.

Setting the reply-to variable is not possible yet for Forms hosted, but if you are using an external mail handler for your forms, then you can code this in your external PHP mail handler.

Cheers

Are there plans to make this happen? It’s definitely a efficiency killer to half to copy and paste the email address on every form submission.

1 Like

Hi @Bradley_Byrd

Still working by copy and paste?

I think you can use Zappier to help. I used to use it for my clients.

1 Like

Hi @Bradley_Byrd and @koftkoft, sorry for the late reply. Webflow form submissions are stored in the forms dashboard panel in Site Settings. The values of the submissions can be downloaded as a csv list, so you can get those email addresses from there instead of copy and paste, that is one suggestion. We would appreciate knowing how you would like the Reply To Address form variable should work for you

Cheers, Dave

Hi Guys,
i got the same question from a restaurant!

They want to forward the form also to the customer. Dave can you make an extra setting at:
Send form submissions to:
{{formPublisher}} or @formPublisher or just formPublisher?

Kind regards,
Koen

Hi @koen, that is a good idea. I am changing the category on this topic to Wishlist, and we will see about adding this feature when we do forms updates.

1 Like

You can set this up using a gmail account and filters so that the email goes to the gmail and gets forwarded to as many email adresses as you like. Check out my tutorial here http://forum.webflow.com/t/multiple-forms-going-to-different-emails-workaround/10442

Doesn’t solve the reply directly to the email issue though.

I should mention to anyone doing a php script, form validation WILL NOT WORK in safari! Spammers will spam the crap out of you if you haven’t built in spam protection into your script and anyone can push submit without entering anything, which will just send you tons of blank emails.

Guys, how far along is this from moving off the wishlist to production? I’d like to have a form that presents a field for the customer’s email address then automatically send a confirmation email to that address when an order has been received.

A way of parsing submission data from a specified form field ID into the Reply To Address field in Notification Settings would be great!

Keep up the good work. :smile:

2 Likes

I think you can do that with mailchimp

I get that the Dynamic CMS things have taken all your time, but this is really something basic that should just get fixed. Setting a reply-to-address shouldn’t really be that hard. It’s just another field. Or am I being naive?

My newyears wish… list nr. 1!
Enybody else agree?

1 Like

@danro @brryant @callmevlad

Guys. Is this something we can every expect. Or not? This is such an annoying thing. And a lot of my clients complain about it as well. It’s just a natural behavior to REPLY TO THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVE. But every time I realize that I am replying to a no-reply address from webflow, in stead of copy/pasting the actual email address to the “TO:” field of the mail. It’s very annoying.

Help us out pleaasee :frowning: