I am building a Joomla 3 site with the latest RSForm Pro version. I am assuming RSForm uses Joomla's Mail Settings to send form submissions. My client needs all submissions to be sent over TLS email but in testing the form I find that it is sending submissions to the admin email even though I have the wrong settings in the Mail Settings for Joomla. I have Mail Settings set to SMTP, TLS, SMTP port 25, with no user authentication and Host set to localhost. This should not work as it is an invalid SMTP with TLS setup.

I look at the header of the email the form sends and it seems to be sent via SMTP but I also see it is using PHPMailer;

Received: by 10.60.135.99 with SMTP id xxxxxxxx;
X-Received: by 10.182.47.202 with SMTP id xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
smtp.mailfrom=test_form@domain.com (fake email address used as From on form mail setting)
X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.2.9

How is the form sending admin emails for submissions without the correct SMTP settings? If Joomla had the correct SMTP settings with TLS would the form be using those or still be using PHPMailer?
Ray

RSForm!Pro simply uses the Joomla! email sending function (sendMail()). The rest is performed by Joomla!. If you have specified From information within the actual email form configuration, then this will override your from information specified in your Global Joomla! configuration. You can simply add the same From details or use the global placeholders:

{global:mailfrom} and {global:fromname}

Hi Alexp,
so by default RSForm!Pro will use sendMail if the "From" in a form is set to something other than Global. By setting it to Global does that force RSForm!Pro to use the SMTP with TLS settings Joomla is set to use for its Mail Settings? Or will RSForm!Pro use the Joomla Global email over sendMail, which is not secure?

I think you are misunderstanding how RSForm! Pro (or other extensions that use the Joomla! framework) works. The Joomla! framework has a nifty function that lets you send emails:
docs.joomla.org/Sending_email_from_extensions

And that's what RSForm! Pro is using. So whatever settings you have in your Joomla! Global Configuration in the Mail area, that's what RSForm! Pro will be using. That means if you set SMTP, it will use SMTP. If you set Sendmail, it will use Sendmail and so forth.

If you doubt this, try to create a new Joomla! user - a new email will be sent automatically by Joomla!. You can then compare and notice that Joomla! too uses PHPMailer.

OK so in-order to force RSForm!Pro to use secure email you need to set it to use the Global for the From in the Admin email;
{global:mailfrom} and {global:fromname}
otherwise RSForm!Pro defaults to using sendMail php function.

If I set the From in the admin email to;

{global:mailfrom}

RSForm!Pro will use the SMTP with TLS email setting as they are set in the Joomla Mail Settings in Joomla's Global Configuration settings?

Example Below

RSForm! Pro NEVER defaults to anything, I have no idea how you understood that from the above conversation. It defaults to whatever you are using. It can't change "SMTP" to "Sendmail" on its own as that's not something the Joomla! framework allows (nor is it good practice).

{global:mailfrom} and {global:fromname} are just placeholders for the From email address (as it will be sent in the mail header) and the From name (as it will be sent in the mail header). These are the actual contents of the email, not how the email is delivered. So there's absolutely no connection between the "Mailer" and these placeholders.

In my OP I noted that even though Joomla had the wrong settings for the Global From(Mail set to SMTP with incorrect data) the RSForm!Pro form was still able to send emails. I take it then Joomla's default email sending protocol is sendMail if the current Global mail config does not work, is that what has me confused?

I read your link on how extensions use email in Joomla, it makes no reference to SMTP, SendMail or PHPMailer. There is a link to setSender which may contain details on how the email is configured but that goes to a 404 page.

You said;
This is my main concern and you have answered it, I will test the form again after I can set a SMTP email account with TLS in the Global Configuration settings of Joomla, as the site is still on a dev server I can not test this with the future domain of the site.

Thank you for your time and replies