How to set up the JotForm plug-in in WordPress

Jack Wallen walks you through the process of integrating Jotform into WordPress for easier signups, registrations, lead generation and more.

JotForm is one of the most powerful form services on the market. With the tool, you can create incredible forms that make it considerably easier to collect data from various types of users and groups.

But what if you have a WordPress site that you’d like to integrate the power of JotForm into your WordPress site? With such an integration, you could include the JotForm form building drag-and-drop interface to create powerful and useful forms for the collection of data. Even better, you gain access to over 10,000 templates.

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How do you make this happen? It’s easier than you think. Let me show you how.

What’ll need to integrate JotForm and WordPress

As you probably already expect, you’ll need a running instance of WordPress and a JotForm account. You’ll also need a WordPress user account with admin privileges, and make sure you’re logged into both accounts in the same web browser.

How to install the JotForm plug-in

Log in to your WordPress instance as an admin user, then hover over the Plugins entry in the left sidebar and click Add New. On the resulting page, type JotForm in the Keyword search.

Once the results appear (Figure A), click Install Now associated with JotForm Online Forms.

Figure A

From within the popup window, click Install Now to begin the installation. When the installation completes, make sure to click Activate (Figure B).

Figure B

How to use the JotForm plug-in

This is where it gets a bit tricky. In order to use the JotForm plug-in, create a new Post or Page. On either the new Post or Page, click the + button and then click the Classic button (Figure C).

Figure C

Click on the newly added block to reveal the JotForm icon (Figure D).

Figure D

Click the icon and you will be prompted to log in to your JotForm account (Figure E).

Figure E

Upon successful authentication, you should see a list of the forms you’ve saved to your JotForm account (Figure F).

Figure F

Select the form you wish to add to the page and you’re good to go.

The caveat and a better solution

I’ve experienced a few hiccups with this plug-in. First off, it doesn’t exactly behave perfectly well with all browsers. When I first attempted to use the plug-in, I was working with the Opera browser. That browser didn’t seem to want to recognize that I was already logged into my JotForm account, so the plug-in refused to see my forms. In Firefox, I was able to get it connected but the connection didn’t want to stick.

Chrome seemed to handle everything without too much trouble, so if you experience any issues, try again with Google’s browser.

Problems aside, if you want to use your JotForm forms, this plug-in is a good route to go for a WYSIWYG solution. If that route doesn’t ultimately work for you, you could always use the JotForm Embed code and add it to an HTML box in a WordPress Post or Page. If I’m being totally honest, that’s my preferred route.

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