To date, I have 12 plugins listed on the WordPress plugin repo[1. You’ll actually see 14 plugins on my profile, but two of them are WooThemes plugins for which I am only a very minor contributor.] that I conceptualised, developed and published under my own steam. I also have a few plugins available for purchase on WooThemes.com that I either built myself or as part of a team at Woo. I’ve never really introduced any of those plugins or explained why/how I built them, so I thought I’d start introducing each of my plugins right here on my blog.
I’ll start with my latest plugin (published yesterday): Jetpack Contact Form Auto Reply. It was recently featured on WP Tavern.
What is it?
The title for Jetpack Contact Form Auto Reply is pretty self-explanatory really – he plugin enhances the contact form that is packaged with Jetpack to allow you to send a custom automatic reply to anyone who fills in the contact form. In the plugin settings you can craft your automatic reply using the WordPress WYSIWYG editor, so you can use any rich text or images that you like.
You can also specify the ‘from’ name and address (it defaults to your site name and admin email address), so you don’t end up sending your private email address to everyone who contacts you.
Who is it built for?
I actually built this for my own use, but seeing as though more people would find it useful I wrote it with distribution in mind. This plugin is ideal for anyone who wants to send important follow-up info to people who contact them. You may want to inform people of the usual turn around time for your replies, or perhaps you need to direct them to more efficient support channels – it depends on your needs.
Why did I build it?
Like I said – I built this plugin for my own use. In my case, I was receiving a lot of messages from people asking for support for my plugins hosted on WordPress.org as well as plugins on WooThemes.com that I’ve worked or not. My auto reply directs people to the appropriate forum for their query – either the plugin’s support forum, the GitHub project’s issue list, or the WooThemes help desk.
[wp-pic type=”plugin” slug=”jetpack-contact-form-auto-reply” align=”center” layout=”large”]
I’ll be posting about my other plugins over the next little while, so if there’s a particular one you’re interested in then hang tight and you’ll find out all about it soon.
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