AroksDS Submission Alerts for Contact Form 7 to Telegram

Description

Email is not a reliable operational channel for lead intake. Even when Contact Form 7 reports “mail sent”, real-world delivery can fail: messages may land in spam, be blocked by SMTP/DMARC rules, get throttled, or simply never reach the inbox in time. The result is the worst-case scenario: a lead is submitted, but nobody sees it.

AroksDS Submission Alerts for Contact Form 7 to Telegram creates a second, independent delivery path: every successful form submission can generate an instant Telegram notification in a shared team space (group, private chat, or a forum topic). This gives you a practical “backup channel” so leads are not lost when email delivery is unreliable.

Why this plugin is useful

• Backup channel to email: reduce lost leads caused by spam filtering or mail delivery issues.
• Shared visibility for managers: send to a single Telegram group used by everyone who handles leads.
• Faster response time (SLA): instant notifications help you respond while the user is still “hot”.
• Less human error: no need to manually check mailboxes or WordPress admin panels.
• Simple triage: route different forms to different chats/topics (sales vs support vs hiring).
• Operational continuity: even if your SMTP provider or mail settings break, Telegram alerts can still arrive.
• Privacy control: choose what fields are included (Allowed/Excluded fields) and keep templates minimal.
• Troubleshooting: built-in test tool + lightweight logs for quick diagnosis.

Key features

• Success-only trigger: sends only on Contact Form 7 wpcf7_mail_sent (this WordPress.org edition intentionally avoids any “before send” triggers).
• Global defaults + per-form rules: Form ID → Chat ID → optional Message Thread ID → Template → Allowed/Excluded fields.
• Template placeholders: {field-name}, {form_id}, {form_title}, {page_url}, {date}, {time}, {all_fields}.
• Parse modes: Plain, HTML, MarkdownV2 (placeholder values are escaped for safety).
• Logs: stores last 100 entries (errors always; successes only when Debug Logs are enabled).
• Tools: send a test message from wp-admin.
• No tracking / telemetry: no external calls except Telegram Bot API.

What this plugin does NOT do (to avoid misunderstandings)

• It sends text messages only via Telegram Bot API sendMessage (no attachments/files).
• It is not a CRM and does not store submissions as leads in WordPress.
• It does not replace email delivery — it adds a duplicate channel for operational safety.

External services

This plugin connects to the Telegram Bot API to send messages.

• Service: Telegram Bot API (sendMessage)
  https://core.telegram.org/bots/api
• Terms of use:
  https://telegram.org/tos
• Privacy policy:
  https://telegram.org/privacy

When: On successful Contact Form 7 submissions (wpcf7_mail_sent) and when you click “Send test message” in wp-admin.
Data sent: chat_id, message text (built from your template and filtered form fields), optional parse_mode, optional message_thread_id, disable_web_page_preview.
Privacy controls: limit what is sent by configuring Allowed/Excluded fields and by editing the message template.

Note: Telegram is a third-party service. Site owners are responsible for the data they send to Telegram. Avoid sending sensitive personal data unless necessary.

Privacy

This plugin may send form submission content (which can include personal data) to Telegram.

Suggested text for your privacy policy:
* We use a plugin that forwards Contact Form 7 submissions to Telegram (a third-party service) via the Telegram Bot API.
* Data sent may include the message text built from form fields and metadata (e.g., page URL, date/time), depending on our configuration.
* We limit the data shared by selecting allowed/excluded fields and by editing the message template.
* Telegram processes data according to its own Terms and Privacy Policy:
https://telegram.org/tos
https://telegram.org/privacy