05-Apr-2026 - Contact Us form fix and email improvements #221

build 578 - commit b5bb633

Contact Us form fixed for all users

Reported by Peter Jordan while testing the Winchester Walking Weekend instance. The Contact Us form was showing an error for visitors who were not logged in, and silently failing for logged-in members who were not administrators. Peter had configured everything correctly in admin - the platform had stopped serving the email configuration to non-admin users due to a security change that was too restrictive.

This has now been fixed, and the code has been restructured so this particular problem cannot recur. The same issue previously affected walk leaders trying to save walks in March (#179), and the underlying cause was the same both times. The new approach makes each configuration key's access level explicit and enforced at build time, rather than relying on a list that could quietly grow.

Subject line now shown in the email body

When someone submits a Contact Us enquiry - for example, "Enquiry about walk: Thursday Car Ramble, An exploration around Belmont on Thursday, 16 April 2026" - that subject previously only appeared in the email's subject line. Once you opened the email, the subject was not repeated in the body. Both the committee's copy and the sender's copy now include the subject in the message body so the context is always visible.

Clickable page link in enquiry emails

Enquiry emails now include a clickable link back to the page the visitor was on when they submitted the form. If someone contacts the walks co-ordinator from a specific walk's detail page, the email will contain a direct link to that walk - not just the walks listing page. This works for any page on the site, whether it is a walk, a social event, or a general content page.

Simpler contact links for page authors

Previously, when embedding a Contact Us link in a CMS page (for example, Contact the Chairman), authors had to include a redirect parameter to tell the system which page to return to after the form closed. This is no longer needed - the system automatically knows which page the visitor is on. Existing links that include the redirect parameter will continue to work exactly as before.

Follow-up: social event contact unification (#222)

The contact flow currently works fully for walks but only partially for social events. A follow-up issue has been created to give social events the same treatment, including separate contact configuration for walk enquiries and social event enquiries in System Settings.