Troubleshooting¶
The email arrives with the tag text instead of the value¶
The tag was left unreplaced. Causes, most common first:
The form wasn't on a vehicle detail page¶
Listing data is attached to forms on a VDP only. Submitted from a general contact page, a search results page, or anywhere else, there is no vehicle in context and every listing tag passes through untouched.
Use tagged forms in listing templates, and keep a separate plain form for general enquiries.
The tag was typed rather than copied¶
Category tags are built from the category's slug, which isn't always what you'd guess from its name — a category called Body Style produces [_dms_cars_category_body-style].
Copy tags from the accordions in the Mail tab rather than typing them, and they'll always match.
Fixed in an earlier version
Versions before 1.1.1 advertised the slug-based tag but substituted a name-based one, so any category not named as a single lowercase word never resolved. If you're on an older version and seeing category tags arrive as literal text while [_dms_title] works fine, that's the cause — update, and the tags already in your forms start working with no edits.
The category slug changed¶
Renaming a category can change its slug, which orphans any tag already saved in a notification. Re-copy the tag from the accordion after renaming.
The listing was deleted¶
Tags resolve against the listing at send time. If it was removed between the visitor loading the page and submitting, there's nothing to substitute.
No DMS accordions appear in the Mail tab¶
- Confirm both plugins are active — Contact Form 7 and this extension — and that your DMS license is Starter or higher.
- Confirm you're on the Contact Form 7 screen. The tag grouping only loads on CF7's own admin page.
- Check you have listing types with categories. A type with no categories contributes no tags, so it gets no accordion.
- Check the browser console for JavaScript errors from other admin plugins, which can stop the grouping script running.
If the accordions are missing but the tags themselves are present in CF7's flat mail-tag list, the grouping script didn't run — the tags still work when copied manually.
A type's tags are listed but not grouped under its accordion¶
Grouping is cosmetic — the tags work wherever they appear, so copy them from the plain list as usual.
Versions before 1.1.1 left hyphenated type slugs ungrouped. Updating fixes it.
Old tags from Automotive Listings stopped working¶
They should still work; the legacy formats are supported deliberately. See Legacy tags.
If they broke after an upgrade, check the tag is one of the supported legacy forms and not something specific to the old plugin that was never carried over.
The modal doesn't close after submitting¶
Forms shown in a DMS modal close automatically about two seconds after the mail is sent, giving the visitor time to read the success message.
If it stays open, the success event didn't fire — check the browser console. A validation failure or a mail send error keeps the modal open by design, so confirm the message actually sent.
Tags work in the body but not the subject¶
They shouldn't differ — subject, sender, recipient, additional headers, and body are all processed. If the subject alone fails, check for a typo or a smart-quote character introduced by pasting from a word processor.