Adding Birthday field for Mailchimp Subscribe Plugin/Widget

Hey hey,

Thanks for posting! In order to add a birthday field to your plugin’s form, you’ll first want to ensure that you’ve added a birthday field to your MailChimp list, inside of your MailChimp account.

If you haven’t created one yet, you’ll want to log in and go to the Lists tab > click the arrow beside the list in question and click “Signup Forms”. From there, click on General Forms and use the “add a field” buttons on the right-hand side. You should see that Birthday field is one of those options.

Once you’ve added that Birthday field, you’ll then want to log back into your WordPress admin area and go to your plugin’s settings. Then, click the “update list” button at the top, where you should then see that the birthday field is recognized by the plugin for you to add it to your form if you choose.

If you have any questions about this process, feel free to post back here and we’d be happy to help! (btw, the site looks awesome and I’m very hungry now.)

-tk

Alright TK,
Thanks for the assistance! It definitely made sense–Adding the birthday field was a breeze. Now I’m going to look into the correct format for the field (which I assume is MM/DD/YYYY).

I have a new question: For some reason, when I input my information I get an error saying “>> You must fill in .” What does this mean and how can I repair the plugin so that it receives my visitor’s input?

Thanks again, and thank for the feedback about the site! ??

Best,
Ana

Hey there,

Awesome, glad to hear. As a heads up, MailChimp actually offers a specific Birthday field type, which you may consider using in place of the current “text” Birthday field that’s active on your signup form. Of course, it’s not required, so if you prefer the text option, feel free to continue using that, but just wanted to let you know that a Birthday field type is available!

In regards to the error message you’re seeing, that’s definitely a bit odd, and I can replicate that happening on my end when trying to use your signup form as well.

I’d recommend first double-checking your list inside of your MailChimp account to ensure that you have no required fields outside of what’s visible on your signup form (so, make sure that “Email Address”, “First Name”, and “Birthday” are the only required fields on your list). Once you’ve done that, log back into your WordPress admin area and go to th eplugin’s settings. From there, click the “update list” button at the top, which should refresh things. Finally, give the signup form another try to see if the issue’s been resolved.

If you’re still seeing the error message, I’d recommend disconnecting the MailChimp account from the plugin (by using the “log out” button in the settings) and reconnecting. You may also consider uninstalling and reinstalling the plugin if the above does not work as well.

If you’re still seeing issues, feel free to send me an email at mailchimptk[at]gmail.com with a link to your Mailchimp-hosted signup form (https://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-share-my-signup-form) , and I can take a closer look from there.

Thank you — All fixed now ??

Hey hey!

In taking a second look at your form, I noticed that you ARE using the Birthday field type, so feel free to disregard the first paragraph of my reply (the rest should still apply!).

The format (whether it’s MM/DD or DD/MM) will be dependent on the settings that you’ve chosen for that field, in your MailChimp account’s form builder (which it looks like you’ve discovered and addressed by adding that MM/DD text to your form.

It’s worth noting that as an alternative, you may consider using the Javascript Datepicker (which will display upon clicking inside the birthday field) by enabling that option in your plugin settings.

Let us know if you have any questions!