[Plugin: MailChimp List Subscribe Form] No Drop Downs, No Control Over Elements

Hey Triple Moons, thanks for writing in!

Drop down menus are a supported field type for the plugin, so you should be able to see that as an option on your sign up form. One thing you’ll want to double-check is that the “update list” button has been clicked in your plugin’s settings since that drop down menu was created.

To do that, go to your WP Admin Dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins > MailChimp > Settings. Then, click the “update list” button at the top. This ensures that your list fields are in sync with what’s available in your plugin’s settings.

After doing that, you should be able to see the drop down menu either in the “Merge Variables Included” area or the “Interest Groups” area, depending on whether your drop down menu is setup currently as one or the other.

If you’re still not seeing the option available, can you then write an email to mailchimptk[at]gmail.com containing the following info:
-mailchimp username
-name of the list you’re using
-link to the site with the active form, if possible
-screenshot of your merge variables and interest groups area in your plugin settings

thanks!

In regards to your second point, I can definitely see the desire for a unique identifier for CSS purposes to be able to control, for example, a particular set of interest group choices. As you’ve mentioned, this is not something that’s currently built-in to the plugin. What I can do on my end is to pass this feedback along to the developers for further consideration in a future release.

In the mean time, your best bet to accomplish your intended scenario (using a single list but creating two forms with different field options) is to use the sign up form embed code that’s provided in your MailChimp account.

Here’s a link that walks through using that:
How can I add my signup form to my website?: https://eepurl.com/gOGN

In using the embed code, you’ll have full control over the HTML code that you use on the different pages on your website, which means that you can effectively create different versions of your sign up form with different available options.

If you have any questions, let me know!

I completed all of the fields in the plugin, but when I add the widget to my sidebar, I get the following message: “There are no options for this widget.”

Could you tell me how to fix this? Thank you.

RE: Dropdown
You can say that it works, but it doesn’t. The only way I can get those fields to display is if I switch them to checkboxes which is not ideal for my situation.

RE: Embed Code
I would think you would already know that MailChimp form code does not work in WordPress widgets. That is why it is so important that you have a properly working plugin or at least, properly output forms so that we can target certain areas that are not to be displayed on a specific form (ie styling elements). Furthermore, the “Add the full form to your website” option is not code to embed a form and you very well should know that. That’s HTML to create a link to the externally hosted form. Telling a visitor to click a link to fill out a form is horrible for usability and 75% of visitors wouldn’t bother. You should never be recommending that method to anyone.

I await your timely response and resolution to these problem…

Hey Amy_Beth,

Sorry for the delay in response. It sounds like you’re seeing the “there are no options for this widget” text inside of the “widgets” area of your WordPress admin. This is actually expected! Here’s a screenshot of how that looks in my setup: https://cl.ly/image/0E3x0s3w1J3Q

The widget area allows you to set where in your layout you want the MailChimp sign up form to appear. In order to access the plugin-specific options to customize the look and feel of your sign up form, you’ll want to go elsewhere in your WP Admin, under Plugins > Installed Plugins > MailChimp > Settings.

From there, you should be able to access your sign up form’s settings.

If you have any questions, let us know!

Hey TripeMoons,

Sorry for the delay, I must have missed a notification that you replied to this thread. I’m reviewing your comment now and will respond to it later today!

Re: Dropdown

So that I can take a closer look, can you send me an email to [email protected] with the following?
-Screenshot of your “Merge Variables Included” and “Interest Groups” areas in your plugin settings.
-MailChimp username
-MailChimp list name

If you could include “Attn: TK” in the subject line, that would be perfect!

Re: Embed Code

I went ahead and tested a few interactions out and it does look like the Javascript-enabled versions of the embed code do not work in the WordPress standard HTML/Text widget. However, versions of the embed code that do not use Javascript, do appear to work there.

These versions of the embed code should work in the widget:
-Super Slim Form
-Classic Form with “disabled Javascript” (JS can be disabled on this version of the form by using the “options” button in the embed code area and checking “disable javascript”)
-Naked Form

Just looking to clarify in regards to the “add full form to your website” option. While we do provide HTML code that is simply an “a” tag linking to the MailChimp-hosted sign up form, we also provide an embed code that is the actual HTML <form> code that will allow you to integrate the form elements on a webpage itself. I can definitely understand the concern that adding an extra step to the sign up process (clicking a link to bring up the hosted form on another page) could be worrisome, though this alternative of using the embed code options (like super slim, classic form, or naked form), should avoid that becoming a necessity.

I look forward to hearing back!

Unfortunately I don’t have time to troubleshoot the problem for you. The website is being launched today so we used a stripped down version of the MailChimp form, absent of all Javascript.

Hey there,

Sorry to hear that we weren’t able to get this resolved before the live site. ?? If you’d like to troubleshoot the issue further, feel free to send me an email with that info, and I’d be happy to take a closer look. If you do decide to send that email, if you could post in this thread to let me know that’s been sent, that would be great.

If you have any further questions, let me know!