As I sat looking at my barely active forum I thought, “Even though no one will contact me, I need a contact form.” And so began a several hour trip through the web trying to decide how I would do this.
Usually, I would implement a standard php contact form with validation and if I’m feeling sassy, Google reCaptcha.
There are many options if you just Google, “simple php contact form.”
However, I also had many other things to do. I have a very busy life right now. Did I really want to sit and upload the files, paste the HTML, paste the JavaScript, put in the php mail or SMTP details, and so on? Plus, possibly then deal with troubleshooting if something wasn’t working?
During one of my Google searches, Google Forms came up. I’ve used Google Forms before. They work great. But, I usually don’t like using a third party form. However, due to lack of time, that’s what I ultimately went with.
If you’re looking for a very quick, well working, fast, validation implemented, built in hidden Google reCaptcha form, I recommend Google Forms.
The con to me is that is says Google Forms at the bottom and it’s an iframe. I say the iframe is a “con” because you have to either set the height just right, or use some CSS or JavaScript magic to make the iframe automatically adjust the height.
But, the pros are again, it’s easy. Also, you are using Google’s servers for the form processing, so it’s less for your server to deal with. It has built in hidden reCaptcha. You can quickly set up mulitple different types of fields with character limits, email validation, and more. You can even allow uploads, but that will require the person to be logged into Google to complete the upload. On top of all of that, it will put all responses into a Google Sheet if you want. It can also send the person a copy of their responses. Plus, you can easily customize the main colors and header (either use a solid color or an image at the top of the form).
In conclusion, if you use the Pages extension, Links extension, and create a Google Form, you’ve got a good looking contact form that works great and is powered by Google’s servers, with all records forever automatically saved in a spreadsheet.
