Whether you’re a novice exploring the world of Ninja Forms or a seasoned user well-versed in its capabilities, there’s a hidden gem called Developer Mode that might have escaped your attention. What can you find locked behind the Developer Mode? The answer is advanced Ninja Forms features.
If you crave more control, more customization, and more intricate functionalities, this powerful setting will help you elevate your form-building experience to new heights. Let’s unlock the hidden features together and delve into the power of enabling Developer Mode in your WordPress forms!
How to enable the Developer Mode setting in Ninja Forms
Eventhough Developer Mode sounds like there is some complicated work behind it, it’s easy. All you need to do is click on a checkbox field!
If it is that simple, why hide it in the first place? Our developer team’s intention was to improve user experience and minimize the visual overload of specialized options in the form builder.
To enable Developer Mode, navigate to Ninja Forms > Settings in your WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the Advanced Settings section. Check the Form Builder “Dev Mode” and save these settings. That’s it. Now you have access to advanced Ninja Forms features!
What Ninja Forms features hide under the Developer Mode?
We will categorize the hidden advanced features into a section related to form actions, and another for form fields. This way, you can easily find your way around the form builder.
Form actions automatically initiate specific actions once your WordPress form is submitted, This can include sending notification emails, saving form submissions, redirecting users to a different URL, and more. Let’s take a look at what features of form actions are hidden in the Developer mode:
Advanced settings for Email Notification/Email Confirmation
When you enable Developer Mode, you will see extra settings under the Advanced tab within your email notification or email confirmation action.
First, you have the option to set “From Name” and “From Address”. You can also decide if you want to send an HTML format of your email message or a plain text format.
Additionally, you can send a carbon copy of the email (CC) meaning the person receives a copy of an email sent to someone else (the recipient). You can also send a blind carbon copy (BCC), which works the same way as the CC field, but other email recipients won’t see the address of the BCCed person.
Unlocking Developer Mode will add an additional feature to the Advanced tab of the Record Submission action. You will see the field called Designated Submitter’s Email Address.
This setting can be used if you want to allow this email address to make data export and delete requests on behalf of their form submission. You can learn more about these Ninja Forms’ GDPR features on our GDPR documentation page.
2. Hidden advanced features for form fields
Before we dive into the advanced functionality of Ninja Forms fields, you should know that all our field types are accessible to all users, including our free users. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t block field types to paid plans. We aim to provide our users with freedom, as that’s the essence of form-building.
Now let’s take a look at the hidden features behind the Developer Mode for specific form fields. First, we want to emphasize that not every form field has the same settings, even after unlocking the Developer Mode.
Most Ninja Forms fields have Display settings and Advanced settings visible without a Developer Mode on. However, the advanced features are not included. Also, enabling Dev Mode unlocks additional settings for fields including Restriction settings and Administration settings
Value field settings
This setting is available to form fields that give users an option to select from multiple options. It includes the Checkbox field, Radio List, Multi-Select, and Select Field.
The data that is entered into the Value field is what’s passed into the final form submission and it will display in submissions and any email confirmation/receipt you send. The Calc Value is what is used when that field is called from a calculation.
You want to make sure your Value field is always filled out so the data is passed to your submissions. The only exemption when you would leave the Value field empty is for a placeholder option in your Select field.
In this scenario, you would leave the Value field for the placeholder option empty, so you can prevent the placeholder from submitting. If you want to learn more about creating a placeholder option for your Select (Dropdown) field, take a look at Dropdown Select Field in WordPress Forms (Quick Guide).
Label Position settings
You will find the Label Position setting under the Advanced settings of the form fields. There you can choose to position the label either above the element, below, to the right, or to the left, or hide the label completely.
This setting is extremely helpful if you want to hide the label completely and display only a placeholder within the field. It is often used for newsletter sign-up forms if you only want a single-line form.
Located under the Display settings of the Ninja Forms fields, this feature is often overlooked and underrated. Help text, or in other words, tooltip is a great way to display additional information. It features an informational icon next to the field label and when the user hovers over the icon, a small window appears containing the text.
Custom Class Names (Container & Element)
Enabling the Developer Mode, you unlock another powerful setting: Custom Class Names under the Display settings. Instead of explaining what it is, we like to throw here a practical example. This powerful setting lets you create inline Radio buttons, so instead of displaying them vertically, you can display your buttons horizontally.
Not all existing Ninja Forms fields have Restriction settings available after enabling the Dev Mode. The field types that feature Restriction settings are the following: Name Field (First & Last Name), Email Field, Single Line Text Field, Paragraph Field, Single Checkbox Field, Address Field, City Field, Zip Code Field, Phone Field, Confirm Field, and Anti-Spam field.
The options for restrictions vary depending on the type of field. Here is an overview of all existing Ninja Forms advanced features under the Restriction settings:
The feature we want to highlight here is the Input Mask. This setting helps you customize the way data is entered into your form. It’s like giving instructions on what data is allowed to be entered into your fields and in which format. It’s like applying restriction rules to your form field.
So next time when you want to validate a Zipcode field with numbers, create a birthday field, or create a custom mask for a phone, you know the place! Want to learn more about Input Mask? Check our blog post How to Use Input Mask in Your Contact Form and learn some practical examples.
Mark your form field data PII (personal information)
Some of the Ninja Forms fields have the option to mark the data as personal information. This GDPR feature is under Advanced settings and helps you with privacy regulation compliance.
By default, all stock User Information fields in your form builder except for Zip, City, US States, and Country are marked as personally identifiable information.
Default Value
While the Default value is displayed almost for any field without enabling Developer mode, the only exception is the Star Rating Field. Enabling Developer Mode, you can access the Default Value setting field which loads pre-populated with any text entered as the Default Value.
This setting supports the use of merge tags to display unique or custom values. Using the Default Value field in WordPress forms is popular especially when creating coupon codes.
Field Key & Admin Label
You can find both of these Ninja Forms advanced fields under the Administration settings. Field Key is a unique programmatic key. You can use it to identify and target your field for custom development.
One is generated for each field automatically, and this is what you see pre-populated in the setting. It can be changed, though doing so will not update it in anything you’ve already written.
The text you enter into Admin Label will replace the Label of the form field as it appears when viewing and exporting submissions only.
Did you enjoy exploring hidden Ninja Forms’ Advanced features?
Congratulations on getting all the way here! We hope you liked this journey of discovering the advanced Ninja Forms features that reside in the Developer Mode. Now you can apply one of these features to elevate your WordPress form-building experience!
Are you new to Ninja Forms? Download our free core plugin here (zip) and explore the most popular free features our WordPress form builder offers. You’ll surely fall in love with our plugin packed with so many incredible free features and a user-friendly interface.
See for yourself what Ninja Forms has to offer and why we have been a successful contact form builder since 2011!
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