weird extra fields appear which breaks styling

  • Resolved lukedouglas

    (@lukedouglas)


    2 months ago

    I created a form in WPForms Pro but it is showing two fields that are NOT on the form within the form ‘Contact RRW’ in the Forms Overview. In the link above, if you inspect, you will see two DIV for #wpforms-500-field_6-container and #wpforms-500-field_7-container. Neither of these fields displays in the form creation on WPForms.

    I added CSS to hide both of those fields but it didn’t work. It’s strange but there is a function calling a style for field 6 that includes “style.appendChild( document.createTextNode( ‘#wpforms-500-field_6-container { position: absolute !important; overflow: hidden !important; display: inline !important;” which is causing the issue with field not being hidden. Yet no similar style function for field 7.

    I uninstalled the WPForms Pro and installed the WPForms lite (free), recreated the form but it is still showing those two fields.

    What’s truly weird is that if you refresh the page several times, the location of these two fields #6 and #7 jump around in order while the other fields #1, #2, #4, #5, and #3 stay in the exact same order.

    I did some research on how to remove all database entries for WPForms but all results referred strictly to entries.

    If anyone knows how this is happening and what I can do to fix it, I would be very appreciative.

    Thanks.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Thread Starter lukedouglas

    (@lukedouglas)

    2 months ago

    I found a workaround for the styling BUT the two fields still show up in the code.

    Plugin Support Ralden Souza

    (@rsouzaam)

    2 months ago

    Hi @lukedouglas,

    Thank you for reaching out with such a detailed description of the issue! I understand how frustrating it is to see “ghost” fields appearing on your live form that aren’t visible in the builder, especially when they disrupt your site’s layout.

    I’ve taken a look at the link you shared, and currently, the form appears to be displaying correctly on my end. You can see the result in this screenshot.

    Why These Fields are Appearing

    The behavior you described, extra fields appearing in the page source that aren’t in the builder, is likely related to our Modern Anti-Spam Protection.

    This feature uses a “Honeypot” technique. It injects hidden fields into your form that only bots can see. If a bot fills them out, the entry is rejected as spam.

    Under normal circumstances, these fields are invisible to human users via CSS and JavaScript. However, if your site is using aggressive JavaScript optimization/caching or if there is a CSS conflict with your theme, these hidden fields can become visible or “jump around” as the site scripts load.

    How to Resolve the Issue

    You can resolve this using one of the two options below:

    1. Use an Alternative Spam Protection (Quick Fix): If you’d like an immediate solution, you can disable the modern protection and switch to a different anti-spam method that doesn’t use honeypot fields, such as Cloudflare Turnstile or Google reCAPTCHA.

    • Go to Settings » Spam Protection and Security in your form builder.
    • Toggle Enable modern anti-spam protection to OFF.
    • Set up an alternative from our guide here.

    2. Test for a Plugin/Theme Conflict Since the fields “jump around” and the CSS you added was overridden, there is likely a conflict with another plugin (usually a caching or optimization plugin) or your theme. You can follow our conflict testing guide to find the culprit.

    Please let me know if you have any other questions or if disabling that setting clears things up for you!

    Thread Starter lukedouglas

    (@lukedouglas)

    2 months ago

    As long as I can work around them, I’ll do it without reducing the effectiveness of security plugins. If I get to a point, I can’t style around it, I’ll try your suggestions which I have saved.

    Plugin Support Ralden Souza

    (@rsouzaam)

    2 months ago

    Hi @lukedouglas, 

    Thank you for letting us know! We appreciate you sharing your strategy for balancing security effectiveness with your form’s design.

    It looks like you’ve marked this post as resolved. If you’d like more help with using WPForms Lite, please feel free to reach out.

    Thanks!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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