Install Drecha Forms and create your first form

Before you begin

Drecha Forms requires WordPress 6.2 or newer and PHP 8.1 or newer. The Free plugin works without a Drecha account, license, submission quota, or external processing service. You need an Administrator account to install it.

Install and activate Drecha Forms

1. In WordPress administration, open Plugins > Add New Plugin.
2. Select Upload Plugin.
3. Choose drecha-forms.zip and select Install Now.
4. When installation finishes, select Activate Plugin.

If WordPress says the destination folder already exists, do not overwrite an unknown copy. Open Plugins > Installed Plugins, identify the existing Drecha Forms installation, and update or remove it only after making a backup.

Confirm the plugin is active

1. Open Plugins > Installed Plugins.
2. Find Drecha Forms and confirm that its action is Deactivate, which means it is active.
3. Confirm that Drecha Forms now appears in the main WordPress administration menu.
4. Open Drecha Forms > Dashboard and review the getting-started checklist.

Create a form

You can start with a reviewed template or with an empty form. Both choices create a draft that remains fully editable.

1. Open Drecha Forms > Templates and select Use this template, or open Drecha Forms > Forms.
2. To start empty, enter a descriptive title such as Contact us and select Create form.
3. In the builder, click a field in the field library or drag it into the preview.
4. Select a field in the preview and configure its label, required state, placeholder, description, and validation as needed.
5. Open the form settings to review confirmation and notification settings before publishing.
6. Select Save. The builder also autosaves changed drafts after a short delay, but wait for All changes saved before leaving the page.

Publish and embed the form

1. In the builder's Status control, change Draft to Published.
2. Select Save and wait for All changes saved.
3. Open Drecha Forms > Forms and find the shortcode shown beside the form, for example [drecha_form id="1"].
4. Edit the WordPress page that should contain the form.
5. Add the Drecha Form block and select the published form. On a shortcode-aware page builder, paste the exact shortcode instead.
6. Publish or update the page, then open it in a private browser window.

Only published forms appear in the Drecha Form block selector and render publicly. If a shortcode produces no form, confirm the status and the numeric form ID.

Submit and verify a test entry

1. Complete every required field as a visitor would.
2. Submit the form once and confirm that the configured success message or redirect appears.
3. Return to WordPress administration and open Drecha Forms > Entries.
4. Open the new entry and compare each stored value with the test submission.
5. If notifications are enabled, verify both the delivery log and the recipient inbox. A successful wp_mail response means the message was accepted by the configured mail transport, not that it reached the inbox.

Troubleshoot the first form

The Drecha Forms menu does not appear

Confirm that Drecha Forms is active and that you are signed in with a role that has the manage_drecha_forms capability. Administrators receive this capability during activation.

The builder does not finish loading

Refresh once, then check Tools > Site Health for REST API or JavaScript errors. Security and caching plugins must allow authenticated requests to the Drecha Forms management REST endpoints.

The form is blank on the public page

Return to the builder, set Status to Published, save, and verify that the block or shortcode uses the correct form. Clear the page cache after changing the form status.

A test entry is stored but no email arrives

Submission storage does not depend on email success. Review the email delivery log, run the test-email tool, and configure a reputable SMTP plugin if the host's default mail transport is unreliable.