HXFE — Code-First Forms

HXFE — Code-First Forms is a code-first WordPress form plugin. Instead of building forms in a GUI, you define them as PHP arrays and place a shortcode anywhere.

Because forms are PHP arrays, AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Codex) can read and edit them directly — no screenshots, no GUI walkthroughs, no copy-paste. Your forms live in your codebase: version-controlled, automatically deployed, and free from database migration issues.

Even if you don’t write PHP yourself, AI agents can handle the schema for you — just describe what you want in plain language and get back working code.

Why code-first?

• AI-ready by design — Forms defined as PHP arrays are the lowest-cost input for AI agents. Ask Claude, Copilot, Cursor, or Codex to “add a phone number field” and get back a diff-ready code change instantly. No screenshots needed, no GUI explanation required. You don’t even need to write PHP yourself — AI agents can build and maintain your forms from plain-language instructions. Ships with llms.txt, ai-reference.md, and CLAUDE.md for agentic coding tools

• Fully customizable — All styles use CSS custom properties (design tokens). Ships with DESIGN.md for a complete variable reference and customization examples.

• Git history for free — Every change to your form shows up in git diff

• Deploy without fear — Forms are code, so they deploy with your theme. No more “the form disappeared on production”

• Dynamic options — Pull select options from get_posts(), taxonomies, or any PHP source. No manual updates

• One schema, four UIs — Add step_mode: chatbot or one_by_one to transform the same fields into a completely different interface

Four UI modes from one schema

• Normal form — Classic input → confirm → complete flow (default)

• Step form — Multi-page with progress bar ( steps array)

• One-by-one — Question-at-a-time survey style ( step_mode: 'one_by_one' )

• Chatbot — Chat bubble interface with typing animation, header, and timestamps ( step_mode: 'chatbot' )

Key features

• 15 field types: text, email, tel, url, textarea, select, radio, checkbox, checkbox_group, number, date, file, honeypot, reCAPTCHA, privacy

• Conditional logic: show_if, required_if, skip_if (hide_if deprecated) — works in chatbot mode too

• Dynamic routing: to_rules, subject_rules, complete_redirect_rules, complete_html_rules based on submitted values

• Diagnosis mode: use complete_html_rules without to — show results without sending email

• Download after submit: download_url shows a download button on the complete screen (document request forms)

• Form availability window: available_from / available_until with custom before/after HTML

• Custom validation: pattern, minlength, maxlength, error_message schema keys + hxfe_validate_field and hxfe_validate_form filter hooks

• Field HTML injection: before_html / after_html schema keys

• Page slug tracking: subject auto-appended with [form-id@page-slug] for per-page aggregation

• Webhook support: send to Zapier, Make, Slack, or any HTTP endpoint

• SMTP built-in: Gmail, SendGrid, Mailgun, or custom SMTP

• File upload: attached to email, auto-deleted after send

• IP restriction and password-protected forms

• iframe embedding with per-form CORS control ( allowed_origins )

• Zero cookies: GDPR/EU cookie-compliant by design

• Clean default styles: CSS custom properties (design tokens) for easy theme integration, responsive at 768px

• Schema examples panel in admin: 11 copy-paste samples to get started fast

• AI-friendly: ships with llms.txt and ai-reference.md for agentic coding tools

• Source code: available on GitHub

Minimum example

com', 'subject' => 'Contact: {name}', 'fields' => [ [ 'key' => 'name', 'type' => 'text', 'label' => 'Name', 'required' => true ], [ 'key' => 'email', 'type' => 'email', 'label' => 'Email', 'required' => true ], [ 'key' => 'body', 'type' => 'textarea', 'label' => 'Message', 'required' => true ], [ 'key' => 'hp', 'type' => 'honeypot' ], ], ]; return $schemas; } );

Shortcode: [hxfe_form id="contact"]

Chatbot example

com', 'step_mode' => 'chatbot', 'bot_name' => 'Support Bot', 'bot_icon' => '🤖', 'greeting' => 'Hi! ' ], [ 'key' => 'email', 'type' => 'email', 'label' => 'Email', 'bot_message' => 'Thanks {name}! ' ], [ 'key' => 'hp', 'type' => 'honeypot' ], ], ];

Diagnosis chatbot (no email)

</p>' ], [ 'when' => 'default', 'html' => '<p>Thank you, {name}. </p>' ], ], 'fields' => [... ], ];

Organize schemas in separate files

php — one line require_once get_template_directory(). php';

Or use HXFE as a standalone plugin with glob() auto-loading.

External Services

This plugin optionally connects to Google reCAPTCHA when the recaptcha field type is enabled in a form schema.

What the service is and what it is used for:

Google reCAPTCHA is a spam-prevention service. When enabled, it loads a script from Google’s servers and verifies the user’s response server-side to determine whether the form submission is from a human or a bot.

What data is sent and when:

com. com/recaptcha/api/siteverify ) along with your site key. No other form field data is transmitted to Google.

reCAPTCHA is disabled by default. It is only active when a site administrator adds a recaptcha field to a form schema and configures valid API keys in the plugin settings.

Links:

com/terms

com/privacy