Forms reads your website through the AspirePro for WordPress plugin. The plugin finds the forms on your site, sends AspirePro the entries from the forms you choose, and holds on to them if AspirePro can't be reached. Connecting a site needs the Connect websites permission in AspirePro and an administrator login in WordPress.
What you need#
- A WordPress site running WordPress 6.2 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.
- At least one of the supported form plugins: Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7 or WPForms (Lite or Pro).
On a WordPress multisite network, each site connects on its own.
Install the plugin#
- In AspirePro, download the plugin. It's on the Forms page before any site is connected (Download the plugin), and always on Forms settings → Websites (the Download the plugin button at the top).
- In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip you downloaded, and install it.
- Activate AspirePro for WordPress.
Updates arrive on WordPress's usual Plugins and Updates screens.
Connect the site#
The quickest way is a connection code:
- In AspirePro, open Forms settings → Websites and choose Create a connection code. You get a code like 7KQ4-M9XD-2HJW, with Copy code beside it. It works once, for 30 minutes.
- In WordPress, open Settings → AspirePro, paste the code into Connection code and choose Connect.
- WordPress shows the site as connected to your organization.
Spaces, dashes and capital letters in the code don't matter. If it has expired or was already used, create another. The site is connected by whoever created the code, so they need the Connect websites permission when WordPress uses it.
Or connect by signing in, starting in WordPress:
- In WordPress, open Settings → AspirePro and choose Connect to AspirePro.
- Your browser opens an AspirePro page asking which organization the site should send its entries to. Type your organization's web address — the first part of the address you sign in at — and choose Continue to my organization. The request waits 30 minutes; after that, start again from WordPress.
- Sign in if you aren't already. AspirePro asks Connect yoursite.com to your organization? Choose Connect website, or Cancel to turn the request down.
- You're taken back to WordPress, which now shows the site as connected.
A moment later the site's forms appear on the Forms page, grouped under the site's address. Nothing is sent yet: switch on Capture for the forms you want. See Choose forms and map fields.
Connecting a site that was connected before gives it a new key and keeps its forms and submissions.
If the site's address changes after it connects — a copy moved to a staging address, say — the plugin stops sending and asks you to reconnect, so a copy never sends entries as the live site.
Keeping the plugin up to date#
New versions of the plugin come from AspirePro. Each connected site hears about a new version the next time it checks in, within minutes, and WordPress then shows the usual update notice on its Plugins screen, with Update now.
To have new versions installed without anyone clicking, open Settings → AspirePro in WordPress and choose Turn on automatic updates (it's the same as Enable auto-updates on the Plugins screen). WordPress then installs each new version on its next automatic update run. The Updates card on that page also shows when a newer version is waiting. AspirePro never installs anything on your site by itself.
In WordPress#
The plugin's screen under Settings → AspirePro shows:
- Connection — which organization the site is connected to and when it last heard from AspirePro, with Disconnect, Reconnect, and Reconnect with a connection code.
- Forms — every form it found, grouped by form plugin, with the pages each is on and a Capture switch. The switches change the same setting as the ones in AspirePro. Re-scan forms sends AspirePro a fresh list straight away (it also happens when a form is saved, and once a day). Set up in AspirePro opens the form's page in AspirePro.
- Send a test entry — sends made-up answers for a form. The entry shows in Forms → Submissions marked Test and never creates or changes a contact. It works whether or not the form is captured.
- Activity — the last 500 entries with their delivery status, Resend on any that failed, and Resend all failed.
- Settings — Attribution (the small script that remembers how a visitor found the site) and Send visitor IP. Each only takes effect when it is also on in AspirePro's Forms settings.
The Websites page#
Forms → Forms, then Websites, opens Forms settings → Websites. Anyone who can open Forms can see it; the actions need Connect websites.
Each connected site shows:
- Website — its name and address, and whose site it is when it belongs to a client.
- Status — Connected, Paused or Disconnected, plus Not reporting when the site has gone quiet, and N failed this week when entries from it couldn't be processed.
- Forms — how many of its forms are captured, out of how many found.
- Plugin — the plugin version it runs.
- Last heard from — when the plugin last got in touch.
If HubSpot manages your contacts, the page also says what that means for form entries. See HubSpot-managed fields.
Edit#
Edit site sets the site's Name and whether This is a client's website. Pick the client company when the site belongs to a client — a support request form on a client's own site, say. Everyone who fills in its forms is then added under that client, and the company matching settings on its forms don't apply. What people type as their company name, website or phone stays on the submission and is never written to the client's record. Leave it empty for your own site.
Pause and resume#
Pause stops the site sending entries to AspirePro until you choose Resume. The site keeps collecting entries from its captured forms while it is paused and holds them; they are sent within the hour after you resume. Use pause for a short break, and switch off Capture on individual forms when you mean to stop one for good.
Rotate key#
Each site has its own key. Rotate key issues a new one; the site keeps working on its old key for 24 hours. Reconnect the site from WordPress within that time — paste a new connection code under Reconnect with a connection code in Settings → AspirePro, or choose Reconnect — so it switches to the new key. Rotate when you think the key may have been copied — when a developer with access to the site leaves, for example.
Disconnect#
Disconnect site stops the site sending entries straight away. Its forms and submissions stay in AspirePro. The plugin shows that a reconnect is needed and keeps new entries on the site until you connect it again from WordPress. Disconnecting from the plugin's own screen does the same, from the other side.
When a site stops reporting#
The plugin gets in touch with AspirePro at least once a day, and every few minutes while people use the site. If a connected site hasn't been heard from for two days, it is marked Not reporting — on the Websites page, on its heading on the Forms page, and in a banner on the Submissions page — and people who can connect websites get one notification. The usual causes are the plugin being deactivated or removed, or the site being down.
Once the site gets in touch again, the warning clears on its own. Entries that were waiting on the site are sent then.