Forms: Fix empty form block - show nothing

[enejb]

Fixes #41244

This PR fixes the case where a user added the contact form block but didn't select any form.

Editor

Front end Before: We should show a simple contact form. Notice that the form doesn't have the expected styling.

Front end | After: We show nothing.

Proposed changes:

• Remove the form from the fronted if the user doesn't select the a type of form.

Other information:

• Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?
• Have you checked the E2E test CI results, and verified that your changes do not break them?
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Jetpack product discussion

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No

Testing instructions:

• Load this PR.
• Create a new page and add the form block. Publish the post.
• Notice that on the front end we don't show any type of form.

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[simison]

How's the backwards compatibility for something like this?

[enejb]

How's the backwards compatibility for something like this?

I am not really following what you mean by this.

[simison]

If someone has a form on their page before as a form "placeholder" block, will they continue having the form on their page?

[lezama]

I am not really following what you mean by this.

There could be cases where a site is using the default form, we wouldn’t want it to suddenly stop rendering.

Slack convo here: p1737745728173659-slack-C086RGTJT1D

[enejb]

@simison Take a look at the PR description. :)

After this PR if the user hasn't selected the form they wouldn't see anything.

This PR implements the "expected" behaviour as described in #41244.

Because the form wasn't configured, I expected nothing to show up in the preview or on the site when it published

If we don't want this PR lets close the issue as well. :)

[simison]

@enejb sure! :-) Miguel was correct, and yeah I agree this is a good fix and with this PR block would function as expected going forward. But the reality is that people might have used the placeholder block? Maybe they aren't and this is hypothetical:

• So was hoping if there's a way to retain the old, already placed forms (I can't think of any way but worth asking aloud)
• Is the fix worth it if there are people who lose their forms?

It's not super annoying bug so might not be worth it — at least now, perhaps if we rename the block slug it becomes easier to fix.

[enejb]

So was hoping if there's a way to retain the old, already placed forms.

I think we would try to fix going forward but maybe the best would be to implement something when we switch to the new naming.

I will close this PR (without merging) and the issue. Since we won't be fixing it should make sure that in the future versions this is not the case :)

Will create an issue that makes the default form look better, right now it doesn't look so nice.

[simison]

That works for me; thanks for looking into this!

[lezama]

Maybe we can improve the editor to make it clearer that a form is already selected?

[simison]

I was testing Squarespace forms today and that's how it works there; you install Form block, you get a form. Then you can change it easily to some other format but there's no "placeholder".

[lezama]

probably a good one for @ilonagl to 🤔 😄

[ilonagl]

I’m sorry, just catching up on my pings. Is this still relevant? I see it’s closed, so I just wanted to check in first.

[simison]

I thnk we're good here.