Better Viewer for Fluent Forms

Overview

Better Viewer for Fluent Forms replaces the busy Fluent Forms Entries screen with a focused area for people who simply need to review and process incoming enquiries.

It uses Fluent Forms as the source of truth. Submission responses are never copied to a separate table. The only additional data is a lightweight Fluent Forms submission-meta value that stores the client workflow status.

Features

• Clean top-level Enquiries admin menu with a responsive, readable table.
• Server-side pagination, search, date range filtering, and status filtering.
• Field-specific search, read/unread filters, and quick date periods.
• Native Fluent Forms read/unread tracking with an unread menu counter.
• CSV export of the current filtered results.
• Bulk read/unread and workflow status actions.
• Dashboard counters for total, unread, new, in-progress, and completed enquiries.
• One-click email, phone, and WhatsApp actions detected from submission data.
• Internal notes with author and timestamp.
• Admin email notifications for new enquiries from configured forms.
• Non-destructive duplicate-contact and multi-link spam warnings.
• Four simple workflow statuses: New, In progress, Completed, and Archived.
• A distraction-free submission detail screen with labelled sections.
• Optional inline submission details that expand below a clicked table row.
• All read and unread submissions are listed; only trashed entries are omitted.
• Clickable links for uploaded files and URL values.
• Support for multiple Fluent Forms, displayed as tabs.
• A visual field picker: choose fields, client-facing labels, list visibility, detail visibility, and sections—without writing JSON or PHP configuration.
• Field labels are copied from Fluent Forms automatically and remain editable.
• English base language and included Bulgarian (bg_BG) translation.
• Capability checks, Fluent Forms ACL checks, nonces for every AJAX request, sanitised input, and escaped output.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or newer recommended
• PHP 7.4 or newer
• Fluent Forms installed and activated

Installation

From GitHub

1. Download the latest repository ZIP, or clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Open-WP-Club/better-viewer-fluent-forms.git

2. Place the repository contents in a dedicated directory under wp-content/plugins/, for example:

   wp-content/plugins/better-viewer-fluent-forms/

3. Activate Client Fluent Submissions in Plugins → Installed Plugins.

4. Go to Enquiries → Settings and configure one or more Fluent Forms.

Configure a form

1. Open Enquiries → Settings.
2. Click Add form.
3. Select one of the available Fluent Forms forms. Its fields load automatically.
4. For each available field, set the client-facing label and select whether it should appear in the list and/or the detail view.
5. Assign detail fields to sections, such as Contact, Information, or Message.
6. Optionally enable inline details so clicking a submission expands it inside the list.
7. Save the settings.

The mapping is stored in the WordPress option cfs_forms_config. The screen builds the internal mapping automatically; no custom configuration file is needed.

Permissions

The plugin intentionally does not treat “administrator” as the only access rule. A user must have both the WordPress capability and the corresponding Fluent Forms permission for the selected form.

On activation, administrators receive the two WordPress capabilities. You can assign them to another role or user deliberately; Fluent Forms’ own per-form access restrictions still apply.

Data and statuses

Submissions remain in Fluent Forms. When a client status is changed, the plugin stores only this meta value against that submission:

_cfs_client_status = new | in_progress | completed | archived

Existing submissions without this meta value are treated as New.

Languages

The plugin’s source language is English. Bulgarian is bundled in languages/client-fluent-submissions-bg_BG.mo and loads automatically when the site language is Bulgarian (bg_BG).

Project structure

client-fluent-submissions.php  Plugin bootstrap
includes/
  admin-page.php               Admin pages, settings UI, AJAX endpoints
  config.php                   Configuration validation and persistence
  submissions.php              Fluent Forms models and status handling
assets/
  admin.css                    Admin styling
  admin.js                     Field picker and status interaction
languages/                     Translation files

Development notes

• The integration uses Fluent Forms’ Submission, SubmissionMeta, Form, and FormFieldsParser classes rather than a duplicated submissions table.
• The list uses page-sized queries plus a batch metadata lookup, avoiding an N+1 query pattern.
• Fluent Forms is checked before its classes are used. If it is unavailable, the plugin displays an admin notice instead of causing a fatal error.

Manual test checklist

1. Activate Fluent Forms and this plugin.
2. Configure a form through Enquiries → Settings.
3. Open Enquiries and verify the configured table columns.
4. Test name/email/phone search, status filter, date filters, and pagination.
5. Open a submission and confirm that labels and sections are readable.
6. Enable inline details, click a table row, and verify that the detail opens directly below it.
7. Confirm that row checkboxes, links, and status buttons do not toggle the inline detail.
8. Update each status and confirm that the status persists after refresh.
9. Test with a user that has viewer access only, then a user with manage access.
10. Change the WordPress site language to Bulgarian and verify the translated UI.