The latest articles on DEV Community by Pavel Silinskii (@pavel_s_86c69fa87). https://dev.to/pavel_s_86c69fa87 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4130005%2Fc1815d1a-eef8-4ed3-be4d-f552b0e2546e.png https://dev.to/pavel_s_86c69fa87 en Pavel Silinskii Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:28:34 +0000 https://dev.to/pavel_s_86c69fa87/i-built-a-free-wordpress-contact-form-plugin-with-rest-api-heres-what-i-learned-3f67 https://dev.to/pavel_s_86c69fa87/i-built-a-free-wordpress-contact-form-plugin-with-rest-api-heres-what-i-learned-3f67 <p>I just published my first WordPress plugin to the official directory. <br> Here's what I built and what I learned along the way.</p> <h2> What the plugin does </h2> <p>Pavel Silinskii Contact Forms is a contact form builder with:</p> <ul> <li>Drag-and-drop form editor</li> <li>7 field types (text, email, phone, textarea, select, checkbox, radio)</li> <li>All submissions stored in the WordPress database</li> <li>Email notifications on every submission</li> <li>REST API with 4 endpoints</li> <li>CSV export of submissions</li> <li>Honeypot spam protection</li> </ul> <h2> What I learned from the review process </h2> <p>WordPress.org has a volunteer review team that checks every plugin <br> before approval. They caught two issues in my submission:</p> <ol> <li><p>My namespace was <code>ACF\</code> which conflicted with Advanced Custom Fields <br> (6M+ installs). Always use unique prefixes.</p></li> <li><p>Plugin name was too generic — "Contact Forms" alone isn't distinctive <br> enough. Author name must be at the beginning.</p></li> </ol> <p>Both issues were fixed and the plugin was approved.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <p>Plugin: <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/pavel-silinskii-contact-forms/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://wordpress.org/plugins/pavel-silinskii-contact-forms/</a><br> GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/pavelsilinskiiwork/advanced-contact-forms" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/pavelsilinskiiwork/advanced-contact-forms</a></p> <p>Would love feedback from the community.</p> php plugin webdev wordpress