Required fields not working when using ‘CF7 Smart Grid Design Extension’

If it helps anyone, using the “WP Rollback” plugin to take CF7 back to version 5.5.6 seems to fix this (temporarily). That means the CF7 update to version 5.6 three weeks ago probably triggered this.

The problem is 100% reproducible for me on several sites.

Thanks for your post Phil – your investigation is most appreciated.

If the version update to 5.6 for the actual “CF7” plugin is the issue, as opposed to the “CF7 Smart Grid Design Extension” plugin, how does one go about fixing this? I’ve not done this before, so do you know a way to report this to the “CF7” plugin developer so that they’ll actually address the problem and fix it?

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by DoubleG.

@aurovrata will investigate the issue and will eventually provide a fix – but I guess the man has a life too and isn’t able to deal with this right now. Meanwhile I’ve rolled back to CF 7.5.5.6.1 and everything is working fine the last 3 weeks.

Ok, thanks for the heads up. Totally understand re allowing time! #patience

He’s really good and supportive, great person to deal with. Fingers crossed he’ll find time soon to look into this…

The way to report it to the CF7 developer is to go to the WordPress plugin page (https://en-gb.www.ads-software.com/plugins/contact-form-7/) which can be reached by clicking the “details” link in Plugins, then select the “Support” tab. You should absolutely do that.

This might not be their fault, though – until it’s investigated we don’t know. It may be that this grid design plugin was relying on undocumented behaviour (even a bug) in the old version of CF7. On the other hand, the CF7 people may have just “made it better” without checking whether it breaks everyone else, which is bad. Either way, it’s not obvious who should change to fix it now.

Thanks for your last message Phil. I logged my original message on both this support forum & the CF7 support forum. I’ve also just noticed that the CF7 Plugin Author @takayukister posted the fact that it’s the same issue on the other forum post and that the post is ‘duplicated’ on this forum. Do you happen to know whether @takayukister & @aurovrata communicate with each other regarding issues of compatability?

I’m not aware of any communication mechanism and I know that an earlier clash with a different plugin (Pods) went unresolved for more than two years even though bugs had been raised on both sides, so it’s up to users to report these problems and provide information to reproduce them really – there’s no money for testing in the open source world.

Greetings everyone,

Apology for the late reply, I was away on work/holiday in Japan and didn’t get time to chase up these requests for support.

CF7 5.6 has had some code change that breaks this plugin. This is quite regular issue with the Author of CF7 who doesn’t seem to take into consideration extensions for his plugin.

I will look into this tomorrow on priority basis.

For now please revert back to CF7 v5.5.6.1

Do you happen to know whether @takayukister & @aurovrata communicate with each other regarding issues of compatability?

@doubleg the short answer is no. @takayukister has an aversion for constructive criticism. You may want to read this post for more details.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Aurovrata Venet.

@aurovrata will investigate the issue and will eventually provide a fix – but I guess the man has a life too and isn’t able to deal with this right now. Meanwhile I’ve rolled back to CF 7.5.5.6.1 and everything is working fine the last 3 weeks.

@saax many thanks for the kind words, it so happens I was on holiday. I wish to reiterate my commitment to continuing to support this plugin, and will fix this bug on a priority basis.

I have also v5 in the pipeline, which will focus on improving performance on the front-end with some major rewrites remove jquery-ui dependency.

I’m glad you’re back, mate – I was really starting to worry.

I think it’s time to buy you a beer (or two) again ??

Regarding v5 and “performance”: is it the speed that the column layout gets applied when loading a form? That fraction of a second where I can see the “unprocessed” form?

(Pods) went unresolved for more than two years even though bugs had been raised on both sides, so it’s up to users to report these problems and provide information to reproduce them really – there’s no money for testing in the open source world.

@phil-mckerracher I remember your request for Pods support, but this requires a fair amount of code inspection on the Pods plugin to see how they are handling cpt and custom meta fields which I suspect not to be WP core compatible. I try to stick to WP core coding stds and hence prefer to code my own customisation rather than relying on Pods or ACF type of plugins. So unless I get a project with a client that insists on making it work with such plugins and therefore sponsors this work, I don’t have the resources to sponsor this out of my own pocket ??

Having said this I am more than happy to help other coders contribute to the plugin (and will give them due credit too on the plugin page), or even build extensions for this plugin. So if you have a coder who wants to take this up, I am happy to guide them.

I think it’s time to buy you a beer (or two) again

@saax always up for beer, but one day I hope we can drink one together ?? Which side of planet are you on?

> Regarding v5 and “performance”: is it the speed that the column layout gets applied when loading a form? That fraction of a second where I can see the “unprocessed” form?

the columns layout is pure CSS and as such should is already the best one can do. However, tables & tabulated sections (for repetitive fields) along with dynamic dropdowns use javascript and there is room for improvement there.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Aurovrata Venet.

Ok, so the performance boost won’t be affecting me so much – my forms are pretty simple, but beautiful, thanks to your plugin ??

I’m originally from Germany but moved to the Irish west coast (near Galway) 15-ish years ago. So definitely, if you are in the area: shout!