[Resolved] Forms do not send email to post author

[Author]

Posts

[Minesh]

Ok - I got the following information from our next level support:

With only Toolset and Avada child theme are active. I can receive the email.

That means all notification works as expected at this end using your site copy. We do not see anything wrong with that hence we do not have any solution to share with you.

[nickH-5]

Thanks. I'd appreciate it if you could keep this request open while I test various scenarios as I have a feeling this is related to Wordfence.

[Minesh]

Ok sure - Please let us know your findings as soon as you able to locate your issue.

[nickH-5]

Minesh

I have now been able to prove that this is not a server issue.

There is another form for a different CPT on my live site which DOES send the email to the post author when the form is submitted. It is "Create Supporter" (ID:110908). On the live site you can see the form and test it here : hidden link

This form was created after the audio clip form (ID : 6057) which is giving the problem.

I have attached screenshots of the settings of both forms which appear to me to be exactly the same. I have tried removing the "From" address on the audio clip form but this has no effect. The notification is still not sent to the author

I then created a completely new form "Test Create Campaign" (ID : 115325) for a different CPT (Campaigns) with an author notification. You can see this form at hidden link This also does not send a notification.

So, in summary, the behaviour appears to be erratic but my server does not prevent notification emails. This is not a server issue.

I have also attached a screenshot of the email sending log where you can see that the create supporter form does send notifications to the author

[Minesh]

Thanks for sharing more information on this.

Please allow me to share the details with next level support and I will get in touch with you as soon as I know more.

[Minesh]

I'm passing this ticket to my college Beda who is going to handle this ticket and try to help you further.

[Beda]

1. Is this a test site that I can handle on as I need?
hidden link
Note, it will involve removal of plugins, eventual breaking site and errors displayed on it.
If this is not a test site, please can you set one up with the issue shown?

2. We are not able to replicate this issue neither on the Duplicates, nor Fresh installs, and that points clearly to a server/setup issue.
That a new form works is not meaning the old form does not work because Toolset is broken, it can also be that the old form is simply corrupt.
If a new form is not working, again it can mean that a very specific setting is the culprit, or the server is not liking how Toolset sends the emails
For example, there are Bugs in APACHE error handling that will break Toolset Forms notifications in very few cases where your device uses HTTP2 without QUIC. Very few cases, as I say, just one known until now and not replicable either:
https://toolset.com/forums/topic/cred-post-form-emails-not-sending

3. I need access to a full test site where the issue is replicated, without any other plugin but Toolset and a theme like Twenty Seventeen.
Then I can see the issue, grab a copy and escalate this

I recall your report handles as well the fact that this seems to happen only with AVADA, however, we also were not able to see any such issue with AVADA.
If the issue is away when you enable another theme, I will need to see this on the test site (withAVADA) so we can debug this directly.

Please if possible can you share or confirm the access to the TEST site (I cannot make my tests on a live site, this will potentially break it)
This may be on the same server, or another server - if the issue is replicated it does not really matter, as I will still be able to see and eventually replicate this problem.

What I also suggest to do is loading the site on a local MAMP or WAMP, and doublecheck that it is really not the server only, but generic to all servers.
Because we were never able to see this issue in action, it is very difficult to adjust/fix it as well.

I will be helping you from now on here directly, there will be no switch in support or personnel.

Thanks!

[Beda]

I apologise for having been unclear, I will elaborate below and add some first notes.

1. This test site seems to be rather slow.
I am not sure why this is, however my colleagues confirmed that it requires almost a minute to load.
This can be due to Server, too many plugins, or too many errors.
I see that several customizations are made, such as the WP Login screen, and others.
This may of course also cause broken behaviours as you report in this ticket.

2. I will need to disable all Plugins but Toolset on this site, as previously stated, also because of the 20 updates pending.
Please confirm this is allowed.
==> To start debugging an issue, before reporting it to the forums (either Toolset or other Support Forums), it is always reccomended to first make sure the issue is not due to other software.
Outdated Plugins, Themes or WordPress are such sources of issues.
If then the issue is not gone, a second preliminary test is to disable all Software but the one you think to be the culprit.
Once it is confirmed that the issue persists as well in such minimal installs, it is then possible to further debug this with the Technical Support.
We will do these steps anyway or ask you to perform them, hence, it is always a good idea to check this ahead.
I see that (even) Toolset, for which this BUG report is made, is outdated.
==> please update it.

3. I do not know what Form I should use, and where it should send the email to.
There are 38 forms, could you elaborate (with a direct link both to the form edit screen and the page where it's inserted) where I can find it?
==> The page linked here https://toolset.com/forums/topic/forms-do-not-send-email-to-post-author/page/4/#post-1220366 (test-create-campaign/) cannot be found (404) - hence I suspect this is an older backup. We require a test site where the issue is visible and replicable.
==> I saw that supporter-list is existing, and has a form (ID 110908, ). However, that page features a lot of JS errors, which we need to eliminate before we can confirm a BUG in Toolset. Those might be gone once we perform #2 above.

4. Which of the emails is not sent?
==> I see there are 2 notifications on the form I mentioned above (if that is the correct form). One is when the form is submitted, Send notification to the post author. This means it will NOT send an email if the post is created by a Guest (not logged in user). It will ONLY work if the post has an author, which means the user must exist when submitting a post with that form.
The second notification can only be tested 2 weeks before the expiration of the post as it's bound to the expire settings.
Since that is 98 weeks (100-2 weeks) from when the post is submitted, it's not something we can test properly. Also here, if the post is created by a Guest, it will not have an author and hence, not send the email to anyone.
==> I saw already that the Form is not visible to Guests, so I assume there must be some users on the site using this form, apart of the Admin. Which user to use for this test, does that matter? If not, I will just create a new user for the testing (with an email of mine)

5. I will also have to install a plugin to track the emails (Log Mails)

6. If it does not work I will have to recreate a new form and remove all content from it so to exclude any interference - we can then still re-add items one by one

This is crucial to be a test site, that you can dump afterwards.

7. I will also disable and remove the Child theme, and use a fresh copy of the Parent (Original) Avada theme (which is as well outdated)

After the points above are fulfilled and possible to achieve,, we can adjust this problem immediately, (if we can see and replicate it), or, we will have it working and discover an eventual compatibility issue, this will be shown by future tests that I will be doing as soon as the preliminaries above are met.

Thank you for your continued patience, and I apologise if this kind of information/requirements was not communicated to your properly in the previous handling of the thread.

[nickH-5]

Beda

Thank you.

First can I say that I have been hugely impressed by Toolset in general and the support I have received in particular. I perhaps have not always been clear enough in specifying the issues and symptoms, but your team have always been great.

1 I did experience slowness; I can't see any reason for this and it seems to have improved now but I will admit it is not as responsive as our live site.

2 This is entirely a development site; you can do anything you like on ads.radioverulam.com. I have updated all plugins (except a couple where there is no licence key for ads.radioverulam.com).

3 You are correct sorry; this is a slightly older site copy.

One of the forms where the issue exists is hidden link. This uses the form "Create Audio Clip" (ID :6057). The notification which is not sent is that to the post author (a logged in user)

The email should be sent on form submission to the person publishing the post when the form is submitted. So, if you amend the email in your user, you should be able to see the email if it is sent. Minesh also suggested that I add a plugin to show emails sent by the server (Email logs) so you can see logs there too.

Also, the user form not sending to the newly registered user is at hidden link and uses the form "Apply-4" (ID: 114275). None of the forms I have created to create a user with the role "pending" will send the notification email to the user. The notification not sent is "Email to user for password"

For comparison purposes, one post form which DOES send a notification to the post author on submission is hidden link which uses the form "Create Supporter" (ID: 110908)

Please do let me know if there is anything else you need and again thank you.

Nick

[nickH-5]

Hi Beda

Apologies; please ignore the paragraph about the user form which does not send emails. This was the subject of a separate support request and was a bug resolved in the latest release of Toolset Forms. Please ignore the paragraph :

Also, the user form not sending to the newly registered user is at hidden link and uses the form "Apply-4" (ID: 114275). None of the forms I have created to create a user with the role "pending" will send the notification email to the user. The notification not sent is "Email to user for password

[Beda]

The slowness of this site is problematic, as we cannot load the WP Admin without waiting several minutes.

Due to that, and also because as stated previously we need this replicated on a site without other Plugins or Themes, and since you confirmed I can go ahead with this, I removed all other Plugins, and used a native WordPress theme on the test site.
I also updated the Theme Twenty Nineteen since used now on the site.
I understand you mentioned this issue to be happening only with Avada, however I see you used a child of Avada and we do not support Child Themes, or Debug them.
If the issue happens only with Avada, please update and install an original version of the Avada theme.

Also, note that Toolset Avada integration is a deprecated plugin, it's not supported anymore.
You can now use Layouts without it:
https://toolset.com/documentation/recommended-themes/toolset-and-avada-theme-layouts-and-custom-templates-without-coding/

Things became a bit faster since - given that we have ca 70 plugins less active now.

Now, I understand the form is on hidden link, it's the Form "Create Audio Clip", with ID 6057
It is still not clear to me, what user is authoring those posts
As whom am I supposed to log in, and use that form?
Of course, if I try as "external support" I will never get an email since that email does not exist:
noreply@your-site.com

I cannot change it as if I do, it'll send a confirmation to that email first, which I cannot reach.

So I added a new user and tried to use that form as this new user (set as pending role)
I cannot see the form.
So I updated my user to admin, as otherwise I will never see the form, see Toolset Access Settings.

Now I can use the form, I submitted it, and as I am the author of the new post, I should get an email when submitting the form
I got an email immediately after submitting the form
I attached a screenshot of that.

Now I need to know how to replicate the issue.
Note, as stated, if this issue happens only with the Child Theme, we cannot assist it.
If it happens only with Avada, we can assist, but it will likely require another input from their Developers, which we will see during debug.

Thanks!

[nickH-5]

Beda

Thanks for all your work. I have also been investigating and I have now found the issue.

There is some code in functions.php for the Child theme (below) which was suggested by a support agent to delay post publishing. Removing this code has solved the issue. I can find an alternative way of delaying publishing or just live without the code.

I'm sorry; this turned out to be "obvious".

Nick.

// Make Audio Clips delay publishing by three hours to ensure audio is available when published

//add_action('cred_save_data', 'set_post_date_to', 100, 3);
add_shortcode('rvtest','set_post_date_to');
function set_post_date_to($post_id, $form_data) {
  //if( $form_data['id'] == 6057 ) {
    //$publishdate = $_POST ['datetime'];
	$publishdate= get_the_date('U' );
	$newDate = $publishdate+(60*60*3);
	$newDate = date($newDate,'Y-m-d H:i:s');
    $my_post = array(
      'ID'           => $post_id,
      'post_date' => $newDate,
      'post_date_gmt' => $newDate,
      'post_status' => 'draft'
    );
  return ('ID : '.$mypost['ID'].' orig date : '.$publishdate.'  new date : '.$newDate);
    // Update the post into the database
    //wp_update_post( $my_post );
  //}
}

[Beda]

Well, this is strange since the notification is bound to "when the form is submitted" and hence irrelated to the post's publish date, unless of course, you mean another form.

Further, that code is a ShortCode, it cannot affect (usually) the Form, unless you populate something with it, inside the form, but even then it'll not affect the "form submit" - only the "post date" will be affected.

However, if you found the issue to be within that code, and can omit it, then, of course, I would suggest to omit it and go ahead without it, as long this grants the sending of the email and still lets your site work as you wish.

If you would need further help on this I would still need the information as elaborated here:
https://toolset.com/forums/topic/forms-do-not-send-email-to-post-author/page/4/#post-1225804

Otherwise, we can close this ticket as solved!

[nickH-5]

It would appear I was wrong. The email only sends if the Child theme is deactivated. Removing all the code in the child's functions.php is not sufficient to make it work. I will work on your request.