CF7 dynamic email recipient

April 3, 2025 · AI Conversations

User
contact form 7 submissiion hook send to email based on dropdown selection
Assistant
To send the Contact Form 7 submission to different email addresses based on the dropdown selection, you can use the `wpcf7_before_send_mail` hook.

### Step-by-step solution:

#### 📝 1. Create your dropdown field

In your Contact Form 7 form, define a dropdown like this:

<select name="department">
  <option value="sales">Sales</option>
  <option value="support">Support</option>
  <option value="marketing">Marketing</option>
</select>

And include the usual fields like name, email, message, etc.

—

#### 🧠 2. Add this code to your `functions.php` (in your theme or custom plugin)

add_action('wpcf7_before_send_mail', 'custom_cf7_dynamic_recipient');

function custom_cf7_dynamic_recipient($contact_form) {
    $submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();

    if (!$submission) {
        return;
    }

    $posted_data = $submission->get_posted_data();
    
    // Map dropdown values to email addresses
    $email_map = [
        'sales'     => 'sales@example.com',
        'support'   => 'support@example.com',
        'marketing' => 'marketing@example.com',
    ];

    $selected_department = $posted_data['department'] ?? '';

    if (array_key_exists($selected_department, $email_map)) {
        $mail = $contact_form->prop('mail');
        $mail['recipient'] = $email_map[$selected_department];
        $contact_form->set_properties(['mail' => $mail]);
    }
}

—

### ✅ Notes

– Make sure the dropdown field name (`department` in this example) exactly matches what's used in the form.
– You can add logging or admin notification if an unrecognized value is selected (just in case).

Would you like to support sending a CC/BCC to specific departments as well, or add conditions based on more than one field?

User
what is the field name in cf7
Assistant
In **Contact Form 7**, the **field name** is the value inside the shortcode, typically after the field type. For example:

[select* department "Sales" "Support" "Marketing"]

In this case:

– `select*` is the field type (`*` means required)
– `department` is the **field name** ✅
– The options are "Sales", "Support", and "Marketing"

So, in your PHP code (like when using the `wpcf7_before_send_mail` hook), you'll refer to this as:

$posted_data['department']

To confirm the field name in your form:
1. Go to the **Contact > Contact Forms** in your WP admin.
2. Edit the form.
3. Look at the code — the word **after the field type** is the field name.

Need help grabbing the value of a checkbox, radio, or multi-select field?

User
It is a elementor form
Assistant
Ah got it — since you're using an **Elementor Form**, not Contact Form 7, the setup is a little different. But you can still **send emails conditionally based on a dropdown selection** using a custom PHP hook.

—

### ✅ Elementor Forms: Send to different email based on dropdown

Elementor uses the `elementor_pro/forms/new_record` hook.

Here’s how you can do it:

—

### 🧩 1. Make sure your dropdown has a field ID

In your Elementor form:
– Add a dropdown field (let’s say called “Department”).
– Set the **Field ID** to something like `department`.

Your options might look like:

Sales
Support
Marketing

—

### 🧠 2. Add this code to `functions.php` (or a custom plugin)

add_action('elementor_pro/forms/new_record', function($record, $handler) {

    // Make sure it's our form
    $form_name = $record->get_form_settings('form_name');
    if ('Contact Form' !== $form_name) {
        return;
    }

    // Get submitted fields
    $raw_fields = $record->get('fields');
    $fields = [];
    foreach ($raw_fields as $id => $field) {
        $fields[$id] = $field['value'];
    }

    // Get the dropdown value
    $department = $fields['department'] ?? '';

    // Define email mapping
    $email_map = [
        'Sales'     => 'sales@example.com',
        'Support'   => 'support@example.com',
        'Marketing' => 'marketing@example.com',
    ];

    // If department matches, override the email
    if (array_key_exists($department, $email_map)) {
        $handler->add_email([
            'from' => get_option('admin_email'),
            'to' => $email_map[$department],
            'subject' => 'New submission from ' . $department,
            'message' => 'You have received a new message from the ' . $department . ' form.',
        ]);
    }

}, 10, 2);

—

### 🔁 Optional Adjustments

– Change `'Contact Form'` to match your Elementor form’s **Form Name** (under form settings).
– If you want to send the full message content or include fields like `name`, `message`, etc., you can build a full message using `$fields`.

—

Want to send the **default admin email** *plus* a department-specific email (i.e., both)? Let me know — I can adjust the code for that too.

User
we have used elmenetor form widget
Assistant
Perfect — since you're using the **Elementor Pro Form widget**, here's a complete and clean way to **send form submissions to different email addresses based on the dropdown selection**.

—

### ✅ Goal
When a user selects a department (e.g., "Sales", "Support") in a dropdown, the form submission goes to a specific email address.

—

### 🧩 Step 1: Set up your Elementor Form

1. **Add a Dropdown field** to your Elementor form.
2. Set the **Field ID** to: `department` (this is important!).
3. Add options like:

Sales
Support
Marketing

4. In the form settings, set a **Form Name** like: `Contact Form`.

—

### 🧠 Step 2: Add the following code to your theme's `functions.php`

add_action('elementor_pro/forms/new_record', function($record, $handler) {
    // Change this to match your form name in Elementor
    $form_name = $record->get_form_settings('form_name');
    if ('Contact Form' !== $form_name) {
        return;
    }

    // Get submitted fields
    $raw_fields = $record->get('fields');
    $fields = [];
    foreach ($raw_fields as $id => $field) {
        $fields[$id] = $field['value'];
    }

    // Get the department field value
    $department = $fields['department'] ?? '';

    // Map departments to specific email addresses
    $email_map = [
        'Sales'     => 'sales@example.com',
        'Support'   => 'support@example.com',
        'Marketing' => 'marketing@example.com',
    ];

    if (array_key_exists($department, $email_map)) {
        $email = $email_map[$department];

        // Send email to selected department
        $handler->add_email([
            'from'    => get_option('admin_email'),
            'to'      => $email,
            'subject' => 'New message for ' . $department,
            'message' => "You have a new form submission from the {$department} department.nn" . print_r($fields, true),
        ]);
    }

}, 10, 2);

—

### 🔍 Tips

– You can customize the email `message` to include only the fields you want (`$fields['name']`, `$fields['message']`, etc.).
– You can also CC or BCC if needed.
– Don’t forget to replace `'Contact Form'` and email addresses with your actual form name and recipients.

—

Let me know if you want:
– To send one email to admin and a copy to the department
– To include uploaded files or format the email as HTML

Happy to help with that too!

User
How to get form name
Assistant
Great question! To get the **Form Name** in Elementor's Form widget (which is used in the PHP hook), follow these steps:

—

### ✅ How to find the **Form Name** in Elementor:

1. **Open your page** with Elementor.
2. **Click on the Form widget** to edit it.
3. In the **left panel**, scroll down to the **"Additional Options"** section.
4. You'll see a field called **"Form Name"**.

📌 Example:

If your form's **Form Name** is set to `Contact Form`, then this line in your PHP code should match:

if ('Contact Form' !== $form_name) {
    return;
}

—

### ✏️ If you haven’t set a Form Name:

– Elementor will **default to empty**, and `$form_name` will return `''`.
– In that case, either set a Form Name in the widget **(recommended)** or change your condition to:

if ('' !== $form_name) {
    return;
}

But naming your form is best for clarity — especially if you're using more than one form.

—

Let me know if you want to dynamically handle all forms without checking form names or apply rules to multiple forms differently.

Assistant
To get the **form name** in Elementor, you need to check the settings for the form widget you're using. Here's how you can do that:

### Step-by-Step to Get the Form Name in Elementor:

1. **Edit the Page** where your form is located.
2. **Select the Elementor Form Widget** by clicking on the form.
3. In the **left sidebar**, under the **Content** tab, scroll down to **Form Settings**.
4. There, you'll see a field named **Form Name**. This is the name you'll reference in the code to ensure you're targeting the right form.

—

### Example of Form Name Setting in the Code:

Let’s say your **Form Name** in Elementor is `Contact Form`. The code will look like this:

$form_name = $record->get_form_settings('form_name');
if ('Contact Form' !== $form_name) {
    return;
}

In the example above, `'Contact Form'` is the form name. You need to match this value with the actual form name you've set in Elementor.

—

### 🔑 Key Point:
Make sure the form name in your code matches exactly with the one you've set in the Elementor widget.

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