About this plugin
💛 This plugin is dedicated to my mother. Every update carries her blessings.
NaveenCodes Smart Contact Inbox turns your WordPress admin into a proper inbox for Contact Form 7 submissions. Every CF7 form submission is automatically captured, threaded by sender, and displayed in a clean email-style interface — no external services, no SMTP plugin, no paid add-ons required.
Key Features
- Centralized inbox — All CF7 form submissions appear in one place, grouped by form name.
- Threaded conversations — Messages from the same email address are automatically grouped into a conversation thread, just like email.
- Chat-style thread view — Visitor messages appear on the left, admin replies on the right, with timestamps.
- Direct reply — Reply to visitors straight from the WordPress admin using WordPress’s built-in wp_mail() function. No SMTP plugin needed.
- Status tracking — Messages show New, Read, or Replied status at a glance.
- Unread badge — Admin menu badge and admin-bar notification update in real time.
- Tags — Label threads with custom tags (Lead, Support, Spam, etc.). Filter the inbox by tag in one click.
- Saved Filters — Save any filter combination (form + tag + email + search) and re-apply it instantly.
- CSV Export — Download the current inbox view (with all active filters) as a CSV file.
- Filter & search — Filter the inbox by form name, tag, sender email, or keyword.
- Pagination — Handles large inboxes without slowdown.
- Bulk delete — Remove multiple conversations at once from the inbox table.
- AJAX replies — Replies are sent and saved without a page reload.
- Spam Shield — Honeypot trap blocks bots silently (no CAPTCHA). Block specific email domains and keywords from the Settings page.
- Settings page — Toggle the reply feature on/off, customise the reply subject format, and override the From email address.
- Debug page — Built-in diagnostic tool showing CF7’s raw field data, system status, and a one-click test to verify the inbox is working.
How It Works
- A visitor submits any Contact Form 7 form on your site.
- NaveenCodes captures the submission (name, email, message, form title).
- The message appears in NaveenCodes → All Messages in your WP admin.
- Click the message to open the full thread view.
- Type a reply and click Send Reply — the email is sent via wp_mail() and saved to the thread.
Thread Detection
NaveenCodes detects the sender’s email by scanning the value of every CF7 field, not just the field name. This means it works with any CF7 field naming convention automatically.
No External Dependencies
This plugin uses only WordPress core APIs:
- wp_mail() for sending replies
- Custom Post Type for message storage
- WordPress admin AJAX for real-time actions
No database tables are created. All data is stored as standard WordPress posts and post meta.
Privacy
All submission data is stored in your own WordPress database. Nothing is sent to any external server. On plugin uninstall, all stored messages and options are permanently removed.