Contact Form

Availability: Free + Pro. When Pro’s Lead Forms feature is enabled, it replaces this Free contact form.

A “Contact owner” form on every listing detail page. Visitors send a private message to the listing owner; the owner gets an email; no personally-identifying data is stored on the site. Honeypot + Akismet + per-IP and per-listing rate limits in front of every submission - and when Pro’s Lead Forms feature is on, this Free surface automatically stands down so the two never render together.

What it is

A minimal contact-owner surface for sites that don’t need full Pro lead capture:

• Renders inline on every listing detail page (after the fields, before reviews) - no shortcode or block placement required.
• Three required inputs: name, email, message. Plus a hidden honeypot field bots can’t resist filling.
• Submits to POST /listora/v1/listings/{id}/contact-form with a per-listing nonce.
• Anti-spam pipeline runs before any email is dispatched: honeypot rejection, keyword blacklist + URL density + Akismet, per-IP rate limit (3 messages per hour per listing), per-listing daily cap (default 20 - configurable via wb_listora_contact_form_per_listing_daily_cap filter).
• Owner receives a plain-text email at their WordPress account email. Reply-To is set to the sender so a one-click reply goes straight back to the visitor - without exposing the owner’s email to the sender on the page.
• Self-suppresses for the listing owner viewing their own page (no “contact yourself” affordance).
• Coupling rule: when Pro’s lead_form feature toggle is ON, should_render() returns false and the Free form hides - Pro’s analytics-enriched lead form takes over with the same UX shape. Set the wb_listora_render_contact_form filter to true to force the Free form on top of Pro (rarely useful).

How you use it

As an admin / site operator

1. Activate WB Listora - the contact form is on by default.
2. Confirm your site’s outgoing email works. Try Settings → Notifications → Send Test Email with the “New listing submitted” template - if that arrives, the contact form’s wp_mail() will too.
3. Tune the per-listing daily cap if needed: 20 is right for most directories. Reduce for low-traffic high-value listings, raise for high-volume vendors.
4. Listing owners get messages at their profile email (WordPress account email). Encourage them to keep that current.

As a visitor

1. Open any listing detail page.
2. Scroll past the fields tab to Contact owner.
3. Enter your name, your email, and a message of any length.
4. Submit. The page shows “Your message has been sent to the listing owner.” inline.
5. The owner replies directly to your email address - replies do NOT route back through the site.

As a listing owner

1. New messages arrive at the email address on your WP profile.
2. Subject format: New message from {sender} about {your listing title}.
3. Hit reply in your mail client - your reply goes straight to the visitor’s email (we set Reply-To).
4. The site itself never stores the visitor’s name / email / message text. If you need a record, save the email in your mail archive.

Anti-spam layers

The form runs every submission through the same anti-spam pipeline as listings, reviews, and claims:

Layer	What it catches	Configurable
Honeypot (hp field)	Bots that fill every input. Silent reject - bots think they won.	(no setting - built in)
Per-IP rate limit	3 messages per hour per listing per IP. Returns HTTP 429.	(no setting - built in)
Per-listing daily cap	20 messages per listing per day across all IPs. Returns HTTP 429.	wb_listora_contact_form_per_listing_daily_cap filter
Keyword blacklist	Banned words from Settings → Security → Banned Words.	Settings → Security
URL density cap	Submissions over the per-event URL limit.	Settings → Security
Akismet	Spam content check via the Akismet API. Falls open on outage.	Akismet plugin

See Spam Protection for the layered defence and Rate Limiting for the per-IP windows.

Settings & options

Setting	Default	Where
Per-listing daily cap	20	wb_listora_contact_form_per_listing_daily_cap filter
Per-IP cap	3 / hour / listing	(no setting - built in)
Email subject template	New message from %s about %s	(translatable string)
Reply-To header	Sender’s email	(filterable via wb_listora_contact_form_email_headers)
Render gate	On when Pro lead_form is OFF	wb_listora_render_contact_form filter

Developer hooks

// Raise the per-listing daily cap for verified listings.
add_filter( 'wb_listora_contact_form_per_listing_daily_cap', function ( $cap, $listing_id ) {
if ( wb_listora_is_verified( $listing_id ) ) {
return 50;
}
return $cap;
}, 10, 2 );

// Add a BCC for compliance archiving.
add_filter( 'wb_listora_contact_form_email_headers', function ( $headers, $post ) {
$headers[] = 'Bcc: compliance@example.com';
return $headers;
}, 10, 2 );

// Force the Free form to render even when Pro's lead form is active.
add_filter( 'wb_listora_render_contact_form', '__return_true' );

After every successful send, do_action( 'wb_listora_after_contact_form_submit', $listing_id, $context, $request ) fires - Pro’s Audit Log + Analytics features listen here to record the event.

Free / Pro coupling

Scenario	What renders
Free only	Free contact form (this page)
Pro active, lead_form toggle ON (default)	Pro Lead Forms - analytics-enriched, custom fields, integrations
Pro active, lead_form toggle OFF	Free contact form (this page)
Pro active, lead_form ON, filter override	Both render (use carefully)

Related

• Lead Forms (Pro) - analytics-enriched replacement with custom fields, source attribution, integrations.
• Spam Protection - the multi-layer defence the contact form runs through.
• Rate Limiting - per-IP sliding window windows on every write endpoint.
• Email Templates - message template customization.
• REST API - POST /listora/v1/listings/{id}/contact-form endpoint reference.