Viewing CSV Leads

One of the most powerful features of the Smart AI Contact Form is its Instant Lead Capture system.

Unlike traditional forms that only send an email after the user completes a long process, our widget captures the user's Name, Email, and Initial Question the exact moment they hit "Send" on their very first message.

This means even if the user closes the browser window halfway through the AI chat, you still have their contact information saved safely on your server.

How the Data is Stored (Zero Database)

True to our "Zero Database" philosophy, you do not need to log into phpMyAdmin or write SQL queries to see your leads.

Every time a user submits their details, the script automatically generates or updates a flat file named leads.csv in the root folder of your installation.

How to Access and Download Your Leads

Because leads.csv is a standard spreadsheet file, accessing it is incredibly simple.

1. Log into your web hosting control panel (cPanel, DirectAdmin, etc.) or connect via FTP (like FileZilla).
2. Navigate to the folder where you installed the script (e.g., public_html/ai-form/).
3. Look for the file named leads.csv. (Note: This file will only appear after the first person uses your form).
4. Right-click the file and select Download.

Viewing the Data

Once downloaded, you can open leads.csv in any standard spreadsheet software, including:

• Microsoft Excel
• Google Sheets
• Apple Numbers

The spreadsheet will be neatly organized into the following columns:

• Timestamp: The exact date and time the lead was captured.
• Name: The user's name.
• Email: The user's email address.
• Initial Message: The very first question or message they sent to the AI.

💡 Pro Tip: Importing to Google Sheets If you prefer to keep your leads in the cloud, open Google Sheets, go to File > Import, select the Upload tab, and drag your leads.csv file in. This makes it incredibly easy to share the leads with your sales team.

🔒 A Note on Security

Because leads.csv contains personal customer data (emails and names), it is important that the public cannot access it simply by typing yourwebsite.com/ai-form/leads.csv into their browser.

The script handles this for you automatically. Included in your installation folder is a .htaccess file. This file contains strict security rules that explicitly block all web browsers from directly accessing .env, .json, and .csv files.

Note: If you are using Nginx instead of Apache, .htaccess files are ignored. You will need to add a rule to your Nginx configuration block to deny access to .csv files.