Shortcodes and the signup form block

Hive Mail adds four shortcodes and one block. The signup form has a shortcode and a block. The other three shortcodes draw the Unsubscribe, Email preferences and Subscription confirmed pages inside your theme.

The signup form shortcode #

[hivemail_form id="3"]

Attribute	Required	Meaning
id	Yes	The number of the signup form. It is shown in the shortcode on Audience > Forms and in the form's Put it on a page card

id is the only attribute. Any other attribute is ignored. The form's own look and wording are set in the form editor, not in the shortcode (see Signup forms: create and edit).

To get the ready-made shortcode: open the form in Audience > Forms, find the card Put it on a page, click Copy next to Shortcode. Paste it into a Shortcode block, or into the shortcode element of a page builder.

What visitors see depends on the form:

• A form that is on and has a list is drawn as plain HTML that also works without JavaScript.
• A form that is off, has no list, or no longer exists shows nothing to visitors. People who manage Hive Mail see a one-line note instead: "This signup form is turned off, so visitors do not see it.", "This signup form has no list to add people to. Choose one in Hive Mail → Forms." or "This signup form no longer exists." (also shown when id is missing).
• The same form can appear more than once on a page and on many pages.
• The form's stylesheet and script load only on a page that carries a form. The form sets no cookie.

Tip: A cached page is fine. The form's time token is signed per form and does not depend on the visitor. A page cached for more than a day asks the visitor to reload.

The signup form block #

Item	Value
Block name	hivemail/form
Title in the inserter	Hive Mail signup form
Category	Widgets (keywords: newsletter, subscribe, signup, email)
Attribute	formId (integer, default 0)
Alignment	Wide and full
Rendering	On the server, so the page shows what the editor shows

To add it:

1. In the block editor click + and search for Hive Mail signup form.
2. In the block's placeholder, open the drop-down Signup form and choose the form. A form that is off carries "(off)".
3. Update the page.

The block's side panel has the same Signup form drop-down. In the editor the block shows a picture of the form; nothing can be sent from there. A block with no form chosen draws nothing on the page.

Saved block markup looks like this. You can put it in a block template or a pattern:

Place a form from PHP #

<?php
// In a template file:
echo do_shortcode( '[hivemail_form id="3"]' );

// Or with the id in a variable:
$form_id = 3;
echo do_shortcode( sprintf( '[hivemail_form id="%d"]', $form_id ) );

The output is already filtered for safe HTML. You do not need to escape it again.

The three public page shortcodes #

Hive Mail makes three published WordPress pages when it is activated: Unsubscribe, Email preferences and Subscription confirmed. Each holds one of these shortcodes:

Shortcode	Shows	Attributes
[hivemail_unsubscribe]	The unsubscribe card (reason list, the Unsubscribe button, then the "unsubscribed" message)	none
[hivemail_preferences]	The preferences card: name, the public lists, Save preferences	none
[hivemail_confirmation]	The double opt-in card with the Confirm my subscription button	none

They take no attributes. They show something useful only when the page is opened from an email link, because the link carries one person's signed key in ?t=. A page opened without a valid key shows "This link does not work" (with HTTP status 400). Opening the page never changes anything; the person has to press the button.

Hive Mail answers a page that holds one of these shortcodes before the theme draws it. It sends no-cache headers, marks the page noindex and defines DONOTCACHEPAGE, so most cache plugins skip it. If yours does not, exclude the three pages by address.

To use a page of your own, go to Settings > Compliance > Your own pages > Use a different page, choose the page, put the shortcode on it and save. See Unsubscribe and email preference pages and Settings: Compliance.

Warning: Do not delete the shortcode from one of the three public pages: the page would show nothing. Settings > Compliance > Your own pages marks such a page No shortcode and offers Reset to default content. In templates call do_shortcode(), not plugin classes, which can change.

Next: Put a signup form on a page, Spam protection and CAPTCHA.