Hi @steckscout
I hope you’re well today!
Forminator does indeed integrated (quietly) with Akismet to filter out potential spam from submissions and while such submissions are still stored in the database they will be marked in “is_spam” field in “wp_frmt_form_entry” table.
Not entire submission data set is stored in this table though. You are right about the data being “fragmented” but that shouldn’t be an issue because it’s handled by the plugin code as long as the submission is there and is not expired (according to submission retention settings on “Forminator -> Settings -> Submissions” page) and not marked as spam.
If I understand correctly: you have already tried to set “is_spam” value to 0 (which would mean “it’s not spam”) and that did not cause these submissions to show on site, right?
Is there any server-side cache involved, especially object cache? If you don’t know, could you ask your host to make sure about it? It’s often the issue – the direct change in the DB doesn’t affect data on site for some time due to either site or its DB data being cached – so it would be good to rule that out first and if it’s not the case we would “dig deeper” then.
Kind regards,
Adam
@wpmudev-support8
Yes, my site absolutely has server-side caching, which I went ahead and cleared. I do not know if there should be some delay between when the cache is cleared and when the entries become visible again.
As for the fragmentation of the database, is there any documentation on how those entries are assimilated to provide response data? I’d like to understand that better. Thank you!
@wpmudev-support8
Hello! At this point I think it’s safe to say that the issue with the entries not appearing hasn’t been resolved despite the change. The submissions still do not appear.
Hi @steckscout,
At this point I think it’s safe to say that the issue with the entries not appearing hasn’t been resolved despite the change.
Sorry to hear about the ongoing issue. I tried to replicate the issue with Akismet and Forminator enabled but wasn’t able to notice such an issue with submission missing unless I enter a spam submission manually.
Also If the is_spam was changed from 1 to 0, it did immediately show up on my system when tested. Unfortunately, there aren’t any docs on how the entires are fragmented in the database. You can check the wp_frmt_form_entry_meta table based on the “entry_id” in wp_frmt_form_entry table.
Maybe you could compare all the spam submissions and see if they are anything in common with these entries?
Are there any steps to replicate the issue or it occurs at random times? Were you able to confirm the issue occurs with all plugins disabled except Forminator and Akismet?
If you are aware of any steps to the issue then please do list that out so that we could have a better idea regarding this.
Please do let us know how it goes. Looking forward to your response.
Kind Regards,
Nithin
Hello! For the vast majority of the submissions there is no factor that really predicts what’s going on, except for in one case, the primary reason I’m having this conversation, every single submission to a particular form is being marked as spam. As I’m going through the database I’m particularly confused because on a form that has 225 submissions not a single one shows except a test response that has long since been deleted, and is not counted in the 225. This prompted me to explore the database more, and it’s looking like a vast majority of the stuff listed in that database are either things that are absolutely spam, or test submissions deleted long ago. I’m not sure why this is the case but so much information just simply is not there.
Nevermind! Please disregard all confusion with the database, this has been solved. Changing the value of is_spam now does in fact instantly have an impact on whether or not a response appears. My next question is how do I stop this from happening in the future? These spam filters are quite helpful for contact forms, but are much less helpful for something like an event registration form. Is there any way to disable the Askimet integration with a particular form or stop it in some other manner? Thanks!
Hi @steckscout
I hope you’re well today!
I’m glad to hear that the DB issue is solved. As for Akismet integration, it’s “fixed” for now but you can override it by adding a line of code to the site:
add_filter( 'forminator_akismet_is_spam', '__return_false', 10, 4 );
If you add it to your current theme’s “functions.php” file it will force Akismet integration to not mark submissions as spam, regardless of the detection results.
We also have this on a development list so I believe it should in future be added as just a simple “on/off” switch in the plugin.
Best regards,
Adam
I see! I’ll go ahead and add this to functions.php, but I was wondering if it was possible to turn it on and off for specific forms?
Hello @steckscout ,
I’m sorry for the late answer.
Please check our docs, we have added the required information about the Akismet https://premium.wpmudev.org/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/forminator/#akismet
kind regards,
Kasia
