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Contact form 7 Dynamic Attachments using custom upload field

The Moo Master October 7, 2016 Wordpress 22 Comments 54,559 Views

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1 CF7 Dynamic attachments implementation

A large problem we have come across with CF7 is the use of dynamic attachments using only a single form. The problem is CF7 is limited to fairly static variables which are tricky to interchange. If you want different attachments you generally need to create multiple contact forms. This short tutorial will explain how to create a custom upload field for posts/pages/custom post types which works with a single contact 7 form when sending email. Commonly this would be used to send a resource such as an eBook or possibly offers which are unique to a single WordPress page/post and you wanted a button in that email to link to a PDF or other resource.

Implementation time: 15 minutes

Prerequisites

Contact Form 7 Plugin installed
Just Custom Fields Plugin installed

CF7 Dynamic attachments implementation

For this we will be using Just Custom Fields plugin, Contact form 7 and a little bit of custom code added to the functions.php file through some easy to follow steps.

Create the custom field

We’re going to start off by creating the custom upload field in which your attachment will be stored

Open the setting page for Just Custom Fields
Select the Post/Page/Custom post type which you will be using to embed your CF7 Form.
Add a new Simple Media field with the slug for the field as _acf_uploadfield

Update the functions.php file

For those who don’t know how to update the functions.php file, check out the article here.

Open and append the follow code to your functions.php file. This piece of code will execute on successful submission of a Contact 7 Form before the email is sent.

It will create the shortcode _dynamic_attachments which can be used anywhere in the CF7 mail output. This shortcode will generate a full link to the media file of the custom upload field from the previous step. Output will look something like this http://example.net/wp-content/uploads/filename.pdf

OPTION 1: Full URL to attachment | Output (http://example.net/wp-content/uploads/filename.pdf) | Shortcode [_dynamic_attachments]


add_filter( 'wpcf7_special_mail_tags', 'dynamic_attachments', 20, 3 );
function dynamic_attachments( $output, $name, $html )
{
   $name = preg_replace( '/^wpcf7\./', '_', $name );
   if ( '_dynamic_attachments' == $name ) {
        $submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();
        $url = $submission->get_meta( 'url' );
        $ID = url_to_postid($url);
        $attachment_id = get_post_meta( $ID, '_acf_uploadfield', true );
        $output = wp_get_attachment_url( $attachment_id );
   }
   return $output;
}

add_filter( 'wpcf7_special_mail_tags', 'dynamic_attachments', 20, 3 );

function dynamic_attachments( $output, $name, $html )

{

$name = preg_replace( '/^wpcf7\./', '_', $name );

if ( '_dynamic_attachments' == $name ) {

$submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();

$url = $submission->get_meta( 'url' );

$ID = url_to_postid($url);

$attachment_id = get_post_meta( $ID, '_acf_uploadfield', true );

$output = wp_get_attachment_url( $attachment_id );

}

return $output;

}

If you want the media file to be an attachment only, you can use the following code and input the shortcode into the Attachments box on your CF7 mail form. ( If you run into problems, make sure your WordPress Temp directory is writable)

OPTION 2: Attachment relative root path | Output (Attached file to email) | Shortcode [_acf_uploadfield]


function dynamic_attachments( $cf7 ) {
  $submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();
  $post_id = null;

  if ( $submission ) {
    $unit_tag = $submission->get_meta( 'unit_tag' );
    preg_match('/^wpcf7-f\d+-p(?P<post_id>\d+)-o\d+$/', $unit_tag, $matches);

    if ( array_key_exists( "post_id", $matches ) && is_numeric( $matches["post_id"] ) ) {
      $post_id = $matches["post_id"];
    }
  }
  
  if ( !$post_id ) {
    return false;
  }

  $field = get_post_custom( $post_id );

  if ( !$field ) {
    return false;
  }
  
  foreach ( $field as $key => $id ) {
    if ( strpos( $key, "_acf_uploadfield", 0 ) === 0 ) {
      $file = get_attached_file( $id[0], false );

      if ( !$file ) {
        continue;
      }
        
      $name = basename( $file );
      $temp = sys_get_temp_dir() . "/" . $name;
      if ( copy( $file, $temp ) ) {
        $submission->add_uploaded_file($key, $temp );
      }
    }
  }

  return true;
}
add_action( 'wpcf7_before_send_mail', 'dynamic_attachments' );

function dynamic_attachments( $cf7 ) {

$submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();

$post_id = null;

if ( $submission ) {

$unit_tag = $submission->get_meta( 'unit_tag' );

preg_match('/^wpcf7-f\d+-p(?P<post_id>\d+)-o\d+$/', $unit_tag, $matches);

if ( array_key_exists( "post_id", $matches ) && is_numeric( $matches["post_id"] ) ) {

$post_id = $matches["post_id"];

}

if ( !$post_id ) {

return false;

}

$field = get_post_custom( $post_id );

if ( !$field ) {

return false;

}

foreach ( $field as $key => $id ) {

if ( strpos( $key, "_acf_uploadfield", 0 ) === 0 ) {

$file = get_attached_file( $id[0], false );

if ( !$file ) {

continue;

}

$name = basename( $file );

$temp = sys_get_temp_dir() . "/" . $name;

if ( copy( $file, $temp ) ) {

$submission->add_uploaded_file($key, $temp );

}

return true;

}

add_action( 'wpcf7_before_send_mail', 'dynamic_attachments' );

Update your CF7 mail output

The final step is to now update your output mail tags on Contact form 7 by adding the shortcode _dynamic_attachments anywhere in the mail output form.

Concluding

This is a great solution if you have multiple pages such as offers or ebooks where the landing page/post might change, but you want to use the same contact form + mail template.

If you want you can tweak the code to get other custom fields, text strings, numbers, offer codes… etc.

It is important to note that this contact from will now look for an attachment each time it sends – if no attachment has been uploaded to the post it is sending from, the mail output for that form submission will show blank field values.

I’m not a PHP developer, so i’m sure someone out there reading this post can offer a better improvement 🙂

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About The Moo Master

As today's world moves towards more cloud based solutions, it's not always easy to find an all-in-one solution to a business problem. We focus on business development. finding new, creative and innovative ways to use different IT systems to enhance and automate business processes. We're happy to share our knowledge and solutions we've come up with over the years to some of those unique IT/Business problems.

22 comments

Jasmin
July 13, 2017 at 7:49 am

Dear Moo Master,

I’ve being trying your method but does not seems to be working.

I only get the [_dynamic_attachments] shortcode in return of the email..

Reply
- The Moo Master
  July 13, 2017 at 10:18 am
  
  Hi Jasmin,
  
  Just noticed there was an error in my original code – Please try using [_attachment_url] or update the code and try using [_dynamic_attachments] again.
  
  Best,
  MooMaster
  
  Reply
Marcos Rojas Neri
August 31, 2017 at 5:43 pm

thanks for the code,

But it does not work for me, I’ve done it step by step and it does not work.

I am using:

[_attachment_url]
[_dynamic_attachments]
[Dynamic_attachments]

and it does not work.

Reply
- The Moo Master
  August 31, 2017 at 6:02 pm
  
  Hi Marcos,
  
  Do you receive any error when testing either [_attachment_url] or [_dynamic_attachments] ?
  
  Reply
  - Marcos Rojas Neri
    August 31, 2017 at 6:29 pm
    
    It does not show any error, the message that arrives by email does not have the link of the complete file. Only displays the [_dynamic_attachments] tag without the link.
    
    Here’s what I’m using:
    
    Plugin configured: Just Custom Fields
    
    Functions.php:
    
    Add_filter (‘wpcf7_special_mail_tags’, ‘dynamic_attachments’, 20, 3);
    Function dynamic_attachments ($ output, $ name, $ html)
    {
       $ Name = preg_replace (‘/^wpcf7\./’, ‘_’, $ name);
       If (‘_dynamic_attachments’ == $ name) {
            $ Url = explode (‘?’, ‘Http: //’.$_SERVER [“HTTP_HOST”]. $ _SERVER [“REQUEST_URI”]);
            $ ID = url_to_postid ($ url [0]);
            $ Attachment_id = get_post_meta ($ ID, ‘_acf_uploadfield’, true);
            $ Output = wp_get_attachment_url ($ attachment_id);
       }
       Return $ output;
    }
    
    ——————————————–
    Form
    
    Append purchase invoice (required)
        [File * UploadResume limit: 10000000 filetypes: jpg | pdf | word | png | gif | jpeg]
    
    E-mail:
    
    From: [your-name]
    Subject: [cf7-counter-rma]
    
    Message body:
    [Your-message]
    
    Serial number: [serie-755]
    Purchase Invoice: [UploadResume]
    [_dynamic_attachments]
    
    Reply
    - The Moo Master
      October 1, 2017 at 1:29 pm
      
      Hi Marcos,
      
      Sorry for my very late reply on this one – I’ve noticed since the latest version of CF7 there was a change.
      
      Please update to the new version of my code and it should work now.
      
      In particular, the following lines changed
      $submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();
      $url = $submission->get_meta( ‘url’ );
      $ID = url_to_postid($url);
      
      Best regards,
      MooMaster
      
      Reply
Jasmin
September 25, 2017 at 5:03 am

Dear Moo Master,

Still cant get it to work.

I have the same output even after updating the code

And when I use the second option i just get this: “/” without quotes.

Kind Regards

Reply
- The Moo Master
  October 1, 2017 at 1:32 pm
  
  Hi Jasmin,
  
  I’ve updated to a new version of the code. Please update the code and try again. It should now be compatible with CF7 version 4.9.
  
  Best regards,
  MooMaster
  
  Reply
Jasmin
October 2, 2017 at 1:31 am

Thank you so much Moo Master !!

That did the trick.

Regards

Reply
Jacques Choquette
October 14, 2017 at 3:48 pm

Is there any way to get the uploaded file to be included as an attachement to the email instead of just a link to the file?

I want the physical file to go out with the email not just a link

any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Reply
- The Moo Master
  October 14, 2017 at 4:04 pm
  
  Hi Jacques,
  
  Please try the code in the second example
  “OPTION 2: Attachment relative root path”
  And then place the shortcode into the attachment field (Make sure you’re using HTML as the content type for the CF7 Email)
  
  Best regards,
  MooMaster
  
  Reply
Jacques Choquette
October 14, 2017 at 4:27 pm

Thanks for the quick response but this does not appear to be working

I think it may have to do with the fact that contact form 7 docs here state the following
https://contactform7.com/file-uploading-and-attachment/

When the path is not an absolute path, it will be treated as a relative path to wp-content directory.

So it’s expecting

uploads/test-attachement.pdf

but this function is outputting

/wp-content/uploads/test-attachement.pdf

I think to get this to work the /wp-content/ needs to be removed from the output

Can you make a suggestion on how to modify that happy to send beer money in exchange for your assistance with this.

Reply
- Jacques Choquette
  October 14, 2017 at 4:51 pm
  
  Ok I figured out how to modify the output string like so
  
  $output = ‘uploads/’ . rawurlencode( basename( $parsed[ ‘path’ ] ) );
  
  so now the short code is outputting
  
  uploads/test-attachement.pdf
  
  I put [_dynamic_attachments] in the File Attachements field and have use HTML content type checked but it’s still not working.
  
  If I had code
  uploads/test-attachement.pdf in the Files attachement box it works. It seems like the short code is not running in the file attachement area.
  
  Reply
- The Moo Master
  October 14, 2017 at 4:53 pm
  
  Hi Jacques,
  
  Modified version of some similar code i’m using. Please try out the below.
  
  https://pastebin.com/R7swidHD
  
  If it works, feel free to send beer to 1FfLqTnYABc6K3Cy75eKD5PCEbyqU7pK3d 🙂
  
  Best regards,
  MooMaster
  
  Reply
  - Jacques Choquette
    October 14, 2017 at 5:34 pm
    
    Thanks but still not working
    
    I tried both [moometric_dynamic_attachments] and [moometric_dynamic_attachments] in the file attachements dialog box of the but no luck.
    
    Also not sure how to send funds to 1FfLqTnYABc6K3Cy75eKD5PCEbyqU7pK3d what is that reference number?
    
    Jacques Choquette
    [email protected]
    
    Reply
    - The Moo Master
      October 14, 2017 at 5:41 pm
      
      Hi Jacques,
      
      Please try using the shortcode of your ACF field name [_acf_uploadfield]
      
      Reply
      - Jacques Choquette
        October 14, 2017 at 6:05 pm
        
        Still no go but thank you for your assistance. Do you have a pay pal account I would like to send you something for your troubles regardless.
Jill
November 15, 2017 at 3:45 am

Thank You so very much for your code and assistance. I have been trying for days to get a dynamic attachment (woocommerce product thumbnail image) to attach to a CF7 form email submission and nothing I have tried to date worked.

You are a genious!! 🙂

Reply
Iffi
March 18, 2018 at 8:18 am

Hi,

I have setup woocommerce and have displayed the product enquiry button on the cart page (the products i have got here are from “add to cart” button). The problem i am having is to get the dynamic product name in to the ContactForm7 form.

can you please guide me if there is a way for having the dynamically included product name in the contact form 7.

Thanks.

Reply
- The Moo Master
  March 18, 2018 at 10:33 am
  
  Hi Iffi,
  
  You might be better off using something like the Dynamic Text Extension if you only need to insert a field from the existing post.
  
  Best,
  MooMaster
  
  Reply
Iffi
March 23, 2018 at 9:54 am

Hi MooMaster,

Thanks for the reply, actually i am already using it on the products pages and it is working Great (y).

But, currently i am working on the CART page, this page has for e.g. 3 products. i have setup a popup form(ContactForm7) with everything in it, but the only thing i need is, all the products in the cart page into the Product Enquiry form.

Can you please help me out with this.

Iffi

Reply
BaptisteO
May 1, 2018 at 10:37 am

Thank you ! Both options work very well, even with the ACF plugin! Thank you very much !

Reply