How to Create a WordPress Image Upload Form (A 3 Step Guide)

A picture is worth a thousand words! Find out how to add an image upload form to your WordPress website.

User-submitted images can be a valuable addition to your website. However, accepting and processing these visuals manually requires time and effort.

This is where an image upload form can be a life-saver. When visitors can submit files via an automated form, you get all of the benefits of user-generated content without any of the administrative headaches.  

In this post, we’ll explore some of the reasons you may want to accept images submitted by your users. Then we'll show you how to create a WordPress image upload form in three easy steps. Let’s get started!

Why you might want to create WordPress image upload forms

There are lots of reasons you might enable people to submit image files to your website. For example, if you run a membership site, subscribers will often want to upload profile pictures to their accounts.

You may even want to give users the option to add profile pictures as part of the signup process. You can do this by creating a registration form with an image upload plugin in WordPress:

By enabling members to personalize their profiles with images, you can improve the user experience. This can also create a sense of community, as members can see the people they’re interacting with.

If you accept guest posts, authors can use a file upload form to add images to their submissions. This can help them create more engaging, multimedia content:

Here, an automated image upload form can also save you time, as you don't have to upload the guest poster’s images yourself. It’s also far more secure than sharing your WordPress login details with every single guest author who wants to add media to their post.

Additionally, when people are shopping online, they often look for reviews posted by independent third-parties. Text-only reviews can be helpful, but a picture is worth a thousand words. If you accept reviews for your products, you may want to give reviewers the option to upload their photographic evidence: 

Increasingly, consumers prefer to resolve issues digitally, rather than picking up the phone or visiting a vendor in-person. Therefore, if you have a contact form, you may want to consider giving customers the option to submit photos as part of their complaints or questions:

If you can see what the customer is discussing, you’ll be in a stronger position to resolve their issue. In this way, an image submission form can improve your customer service.

Lastly, allowing users to upload form submissions into a space-saving image carousel is a great way to increase user engagement, create a dynamic website, and make your site look sleek and interesting.

How to create WordPress image upload forms (in 3 steps)

If you want to accept product reviews, allow guest posts, or run a membership site, you’ll almost certainly need an image submission form. Let’s see how easy it is to create this element using the Formidable Forms plugin. 

Step 1: Create a new form

In the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Formidable > Forms. Then click on the Add New button and select Blank Form:

To start, give this form a straightforward name, and enter an optional description. When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on Create. 

Now you can start adding fields to your form. This may vary depending on your desired result. For example, you might build a form where guest authors can submit their text, complete with relevant images. In this scenario, you might start by collecting the author’s name and email address. You can even add a Text field, where your guest writer can submit the body of their blog post.

To complete this step, search for File Upload in Formidable Form’s left-hand menu. Alternatively, you may already see it under Advanced Fields. When you find it, drag and drop it onto your form:

That's it! However, you should note that since File Upload is an Advanced Field, you'll need a premium license in order to access it. Once you’ve added all of the supporting fields, it’s time to move on to the main part of the show!

Step 2: Configure the image upload field

There are a few ways you can configure the File Upload field. To start, click on it and make sure the Field Options tab is selected in the left-hand menu:

You can now choose whether the user can upload multiple files simultaneously. This can be particularly useful for guest posts and product reviews, which often benefit from featuring multiple images.

However, large files can be bad news for your site’s performance, and may even eat into your data storage allowance. For this reason, you may want to resize larger files automatically. If you decide to enable this setting, you’ll be prompted to specify a New file size: 

If you’re concerned that visitors may attempt to upload large, high-resolution images, you may also want to specify a maximum file size. You can set this limit using the Max file size field:

Some files pose a bigger security risk than others. Giving users the freedom to upload any file format to your site can make it more vulnerable to attack. It can also lead to a poor user experience. For example, if a guest author submits images in unsupported formats, you may have to ask them to resubmit their form. 

With this in mind, you might want to specify the file formats you accept. To start, select the Specify allowed types checkbox:

You can now use the accompanying drop-down menu to pick and choose the permitted file formats. This can also be an effective way to transform a generic file upload form into an image-only form. 

Step 3: Publish your form 

When you’re ready to go live, you can embed your form using a shortcode. In the WordPress dashboard, select Formidable and find the form we just created:

Formidable Forms generates the embed shortcode automatically, so simply copy this information. You can then navigate to the post or page where you want to embed your form, and create a new shortcode block.

Paste your Formidable Forms embed code into this block. You can now publish or update this page as normal. Then, visitors will be able to easily upload images to your WordPress website. 

Every time someone completes this form, you can view their submission by navigating to Formidable → Entries in your WordPress dashboard. Then, simply hover over the submission you want to examine, and click on View:

This will open a screen containing all of the information that this person submitted. To view any of their images, simply click on the accompanying links.

Conclusion 

There are lots of scenarios where visitors may want to submit images to your site. However, accepting, processing, and publishing those images manually can be time-consuming. It may even require additional back-and-forth via email. 

Let’s quickly recap how to add an image upload form in WordPress: 

1. Create a new form using Formidable Forms.
2. Configure the image upload field.
3. Publish your form.

If you accept guest posts, product reviews, or membership registrations, an image upload form is a WordPress must-have. This is just one example of how you can use Formidable Forms – check out what other forms you can create!

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