Unpredictable behaviour of the form

Hi @karan1a,

Sorry to hear you have issues with the submission.

Can you tell me if the issue is specific to file size or it happens with smaller videos as well?
I’m asking this because the upload itself needs to happen before the form can be submitted and if the file is large or the connection is slow, or both, then it can take some time for it to finish, and could cause timeout to happen as well.

Can you check with your host what the maximum execution time is set at and if it can be increased further to see if it works with less hiccups after that?

Could you provide us with an export of your form so we could do some tests on our end as well?
You can go to Forminator > Forms, click on gear icon next to your form and export it from there.
Upload the export file to any file sharing service like GDrive or Dropbox and share the download link here.

I am running the site on the WordPress version 5.7 and the Forminator plugin that I am using, as of this day, is compatible up to the WordPress version 5.6.2. Could this be the reason?

Forminator is compatible with latest version of WP, it just needs an update for the WP page, and since we’re working on a new release with number of other fixes and improvements we will change the number there with that release ??

Cheers,
Predrag

Thanks @wpmudev-support1 for your reply.

This issue is prevalent with videos of small sizes as well. When a video of just over 60MB is uploaded, it takes around 5 mins for the form to be submitted. And the upload speed is also good (around 60MBps). So, neither of big file sizes and low internet speed are responsible for this behaviour. Moreover, I can check that the maximum execution time is set at 120 (which according to me is reasonable). I have also shared the screenshot along with the form that I am using in the Drive link below for you to check.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16HWVzKhLA5buHxZhH36JMoc8q6jCUIMt?usp=sharing

I hope it gets solved.

Hello @karan1a ,

Moreover, I can check that the maximum execution time is set at 120 (which according to me is reasonable).

Can you try to increase this value to 300? Usually, that helps if uploading file takes more time.

kind regards,
Kasia

Hi @wpmudev-support2,

Thanks for your reply.
I tried increasing the value of max_execution_time to 300 but no luck. The title of this thread couldn’t be any more apt. I don’t know why the form is behaving the way it is. To reiterate, this is what happens: when the form is filled and the video added for upload (don’t know how much of it is actually uploaded as there is no way to know) and the submit button is clicked, that gear animation alongside the message ‘Sending’ goes on for a while (some 5 minutes) and then shown the message “An error occurred processing the form. Please try again”. While, when I check in the submissions tab of the form in my WordPress dashboard, the submission has been made! But neither the admin nor the submitter receives an email notification and instead the submitter is shown the above message.

This is not good. I have tried many things — even changing the values of the variables shown in the screenshot but I just can’t arrive at a solution. Also, just for clarification, as the maximum size of upload is 128MB, I only upload the videos that are less than that. (The upload speed, as mentioned earlier, hovers around 60MBps so that’s not an issue)

Hi @karan1a,

I have tested your form on my end and even though my connection is not really something I could brag about the upload worked fine and the form submitted without any issues.

Can you try a different approach with uploads and see if that makes any difference:
– Edit your form and open the Video element settings
– For Type select Multiple
– Switch to Settings tab for that element and for “Limit number of files” select “Custom” and set the value to 1
– Scroll further down and select AJAX as upload method

Save the form and see how it behaves now and how long it takes to upload the file, with this method you will also see an upload percentage before you actually submit the form.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,
Predrag

Hi @wpmudev-support1,

Thanks for your reply.

I followed the steps that you mentioned and the only good it did was to show the progress of the upload. The button is locked till the video is completely uploaded so that’s good but it has not bettered my situation. Everything is as it was before I started this thread. I understand that this is taking up both of our time so I hope that it gets solved very soon.

The upload that you made (and worked just fine) must be really low-sized. And even though I test the forms with low sizes, it still takes up a lot of time to upload and to submit the form. For a file of just 40MB, it takes around 1.5 minutes just to upload and another 2 to 3 minutes just to submit the form. In its entirety, it takes a visitor 4 minutes from the time they have entered/added all the details to the moment they are redirected to the success message. That’s a lot.

And forget about the sizes of around 100MB – After nearly 5 minutes of wait, the visitor is shown the message “Error saving form. Upload error.”. When retried, the same message is displayed. The catch? The submission is made! But no one (neither the admin nor the visitor) gets an email notification saying that the form was submitted. Instead, the visitor goes away disappointingly.

Just to shed some light, when a video is added for upload, in the progress, every time, the upload gradually increases to and halts at 90%. Then the percentage progress vanishes (don’t know whether this is normal behaviour but I thought you should know) and the button becomes clickable. Also, occasionally, after the ‘submit’ button is clicked, no “Sending…” message along with the gear animation is displayed. Because of this, there is a high chance that the visitor might reload the page and start over or leave the site completely which translates to a poor visitor experience.

Hello @karan1a

I also couldn’t replicate using your form on a testing site of mine. As this seems to be related more with server resources, could you please send me an email to [email protected] using this template:

Subject: “Attn: Dimitris”

Message: link back to this thread for reference

Keep in mind the subject line, as it ensures that it gets assigned to me.

Thank you,
Dimitris

Hi @wpmudev-support6,

Thanks for your response.

I have sent you an email as suggested by you. Hoping to get this solved soon.