How to Create a File Upload Form in WordPress – (Step by Step)

Looking to create a file upload form in WordPress? Adding the file upload feature to your WordPress forms makes it easier to collect the information you need.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a file upload form in WordPress, step by step, the easy way.

Why Create a File Upload Form in WordPress?

Using a file upload form on your WordPress site allows you to easily collect different types of files and media from your site visitors.

There are a lot of different reasons for using a file upload form. Let’s take a look at a few of them:

• Accept job applications online and allow users to attach their CV.
• Allow guest authors to attach images via the front end guest post submission forms.
• Customer support forms where customers can provide more details through an attachment.

Step 0: Choose a Contact Form Plugin for WordPress

Using a contact form plugin is the easiest way to publish a contact form on your WordPress website.

However, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the thousands of WordPress contact form plugins in the WordPress.org plugin directory. That’s why we’ve narrowed it down to one choice for you:

WPForms is the BEST contact form plugin for WordPress websites. Some ways WPForms excels in comparison to other contact form plugins are:

1. Easy to Use:

WPForm is the most user-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress in existence. If you can point and click, then you can easily build a contact form with WPForms.

Its powerful drag and drop builder makes it super easy to create a beautiful contact form in minutes, not hours.

2. Form Templates:

The wide variety of form templates included with WPForms allow you to easily build a WordPress form without always having you to create one from scratch.

If you want to build a WordPress form tailored to your industry or niche, then you can install the Form Templates Pack addon. Regardless of the industry, you can find the right form template in WPForms.

3. Features:

With WPForms, building advanced forms on your WordPress website is a breeze.

The core plugin comes with all the essential features you’ll need to create a basic WordPress form on your site. By installing addons, you can easily build advanced forms, such as Survey /poll forms, login forms, user registration forms, order forms, donation forms, newsletter subscription forms, and more.

Get started with WPForms today!

Want to start with the free version instead? Try WPForms Lite.

Bonus: IsItWP users get a 10% discount on WPForms. Simply use our WPForms coupon: SAVE10

Read the complete WPForms review for even more information.

Step 1: Create a Simple Contact Form in WordPress

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin.

Next, go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form.

You’ll now see the setup screen where you’ll need to choose a form template and name for your form.

Let’s choose the Simple Contact Form template.

You’ll now be directed to the form builder where you can add new fields, or customize the existing fields with drag and drop.

By default, the Simple Contact Form template creates the following fields: Name, Email and Comment or Message.

To add new fields, you can simply drag them from the left-hand panel to the form builder on the right-hand side.

To customize a field, just click on it in the builder and customize it in the left-hand panel. In the builder, you can easily rearrange the form fields by dragging and dropping to your preferred position.

Step 2: Add the File Upload Feature

Now that we’ve created a simple contact form, let’s add the file upload feature to it.

To add a file upload feature, all you have to do is click on the File Upload field in the left-hand panel. Alternatively, you can drag the File Upload form field and drop it to your preferred position in the form builder.

After adding the field, you can customize the following details by clicking on it in the builder:

• Label: It tells your visitors what the form field is for.
• Description:You can write a description if you want to provide more details to your visitors about using the form field.
• Allowed File Extensions: Restrict the file types your users can upload by specifying the types in this field, each separated by a comma.
• Max File Size: You can specify the maximum allowed file size in megabytes. By default, WPForms allows a maximum of 128MB.
• Required: Mark the field as required by selecting the checkbox.

The best part is that it even lets you upload multiple files at once. All you have to do is to drag and drop the files in your file upload field.

Step 3: Enable Conditional Logic If Needed

Conditional logic in WPForms allows you to show or hide fields based on user inputs, so you can collect the most relevant information and avoid the clutter of having too many unwanted fields.

Using conditional logic, you can show the upload form field only if a user wants to upload a file.

To enable conditional logic, click on Enable conditional logic and customize the rules below the Conditionals section.

After customizing the form, click Save.

Step 4: Configure the General Settings of Your File Upload Form

To configure general settings, go to Settings » General.

Here you can configure the following details:

• Form name:Rename your form name if you want to.
• Form description: Give a form description.
• Submit button text: Customize the form button copy.
• Spam Prevention: To prevent spam bot submissions, simply enable this option.
• GDPR Enhancements: To comply with GDPR laws, you can disable storing form entries and user details, such as IP addresses and user agents. For more details, check out how to add a GDPR agreement field to your simple contact form.

Make sure to save your form when you’re done.

Step 5: Configure Notifications for Your File Upload Form

Next, let’s see how to configure email notifications for your form.

If notifications are turned on, then you’ll receive an email whenever someone submits a form.

To improve email deliverability, files are not attached to emails. Instead, a downloadable link is sent in the notification emails.

Step 6: Set Up Your File Upload Form’s Confirmation

Next, let’s see how to configure form confirmation message. The confirmation message tells your visitors whether the form was successfully processed or not.

WPForms has 3 confirmation types to choose from:

1. Message: You can show a simple thank you message confirming the form’s been successfully processed.
2. Show page: You can redirect your customers to a thank you page on your website using this option.
3. Go to URL (Redirect): This option can be used when you want to redirect site visitors to a different website.

We’ll show you how to set up a simple form confirmation in WPForms.

Head over to Settings » Confirmation in your form editor.

Next, select the confirmation type you want to create. For the sake of this example, we’ll choose Message.

Make sure to edit the confirmation message the way you want and then save your changes.

Now, you can go ahead and publish the contact form on your website.

Step 7: Publish Your File Upload Form

With WPForms, publishing your contact form is easy. The plugin allows you to publish your form anywhere on your site, including posts, pages, sidebar widgets, or widgetized footer areas.

Let’s take a look at how to publish your form in posts or pages.

Create a new post or page in WordPress and then click on the Add Form button that you’ll find just above your text editor.

Next, select your contact form in the modal popup and click Add Form.

After adding the form, you can publish the post or page.

Step 8: View Uploaded Files

To view uploaded files, you can navigate to WPForms » Entries.

Then, choose the right file from the dropdown menu and click on View.

You can now find the form entries including the uploaded file in your WordPress dashboard.

That’s it!

We hope this guide helped you easily create a file upload form in WordPress.

If you enjoyed this article, you should also read the complete WPForms review.