Choose between a saved and programmatic form
Saved and programmatic POM forms use the same frontend submission system, but they have different owners. Choose ownership before defining fields or notifications.
Use a saved form when
Choose Forms in WordPress when site editors must control:
- layout and field copy;
- email routes;
- webhook actions;
- Create Post behavior;
- confirmation messages;
- storage and retention choices.
The saved form is site configuration and can change without deploying integration code.
Use a programmatic form when
Use pom_render_programmatic_form() when a plugin or child theme owns a fixed workflow and its schema must change with that code. The integration supplies the layout and normalized configuration.
Programmatic forms deliberately disable webhook and Create Post actions. They can use supported email routes, validation, conditional fields, uploads, storage policy, and signed rebuild descriptors.
Decision example
A general contact form belongs under Forms because an editor may change recipients and copy. A product-specific enquiry created by an integration can be programmatic because the integration resolves the product and recipient server-side.
Compatibility rules
- Check
function_exists( 'pom_render_programmatic_form' ). - Start with
pom_forms_get_default_config(). - Keep field names stable.
- Never accept a visitor-defined layout, recipient, or rebuild callback.
- Register a validated rebuilder when full-page caching can outlive the stored payload.
- Provide a fallback when POM Forms is unavailable.