Documentation: Simple plugin AroksDS Submission Alerts for Contact Form 7 to Telegram

Why this plugin?

In practice, email is not 100% predictable: even when Contact Form 7 shows “sent”, the message can land in spam,
be blocked by SMTP/DMARC settings, or arrive late. Result: a lost lead.

This plugin creates an additional, independent notification channel in Telegram so your sales or support team sees submissions instantly —
without refreshing the dashboard and without the risk of missing them.

Key benefits

• Email backup – reduced risk of losing leads to spam or delivery problems.
• Shared team group – one place where everyone sees new submissions.
• Faster response (SLA) – notifications arrive right after a successful submission.
• Clean routing – different forms → different chats or topics (sales / support / recruitment).
• Data control – send only selected fields (Allowed/Excluded) and your own message template.
• Light and predictable – no heavy CRMs and no unnecessary integrations.

Features

• Success-only: triggers via wpcf7_mail_sent (no “before_send_mail” in the WordPress.org edition).
• Global settings + per-form rules: Form ID → Chat ID → (optional) Thread ID → template → fields.
• Templates & placeholders:
  {field-name}, {form_id}, {form_title}, {page_url},
  {date}, {time}, {all_fields}.
• Formatting: Plain / HTML / MarkdownV2 (placeholder values are safely escaped).
• Logs (last 100): errors always; successes only when Debug Logs are enabled.
• Admin test tool: send a test message from wp-admin.
• No telemetry: no tracking and no external calls except the Telegram Bot API.

What this plugin does NOT do (to avoid confusion)

• Sends text (Telegram sendMessage) – no files/attachments.
• Does not replace email – it adds a backup channel.
• Not a CRM and does not build a lead database in WordPress (goal: fast notifications and reliability).

Setup (step by step)

1. Install and activate Contact Form 7.
2. Install and activate this plugin.
3. Go to: WordPress → Settings → AroksDS Submission Alerts for Contact Form 7 to Telegram
4. Set your Bot Token and Default Chat ID.
5. (Optional) set Message Thread ID for Telegram forum topics.
6. Configure your template and Allowed/Excluded fields.
7. Open the Tools tab → send a test.

Privacy and external service

The plugin connects only to the Telegram Bot API. Data sent: chat_id, message text (from your template and selected fields),
optionally parse_mode and message_thread_id. The bot token is never stored in logs.
You can limit data via Allowed/Excluded and by editing your template.