<form method="POST">
    <h3>Editing: count.php</h3>
    <textarea name="content" rows="20" cols="80">&lt;?php
/**
** A base module for [count], Twitter-like character count
**/

/* form_tag handler */

add_action( 'wpcf7_init', 'wpcf7_add_form_tag_count', 10, 0 );

function wpcf7_add_form_tag_count() {
	wpcf7_add_form_tag( 'count',
		'wpcf7_count_form_tag_handler',
		array(
			'name-attr' =&gt; true,
			'zero-controls-container' =&gt; true,
			'not-for-mail' =&gt; true,
		)
	);
}

function wpcf7_count_form_tag_handler( $tag ) {
	if ( empty( $tag-&gt;name ) ) {
		return '';
	}

	$targets = wpcf7_scan_form_tags( array( 'name' =&gt; $tag-&gt;name ) );
	$maxlength = $minlength = null;

	while ( $targets ) {
		$target = array_shift( $targets );

		if ( 'count' != $target-&gt;type ) {
			$maxlength = $target-&gt;get_maxlength_option();
			$minlength = $target-&gt;get_minlength_option();
			break;
		}
	}

	if ( $maxlength and $minlength
	and $maxlength &lt; $minlength ) {
		$maxlength = $minlength = null;
	}

	if ( $tag-&gt;has_option( 'down' ) ) {
		$value = (int) $maxlength;
		$class = 'wpcf7-character-count down';
	} else {
		$value = '0';
		$class = 'wpcf7-character-count up';
	}

	$atts = array();

	$atts['id'] = $tag-&gt;get_id_option();
	$atts['class'] = $tag-&gt;get_class_option( $class );
	$atts['data-target-name'] = $tag-&gt;name;
	$atts['data-starting-value'] = $value;
	$atts['data-current-value'] = $value;
	$atts['data-maximum-value'] = $maxlength;
	$atts['data-minimum-value'] = $minlength;

	$html = sprintf(
		'&lt;span %1$s&gt;%2$s&lt;/span&gt;',
		wpcf7_format_atts( $atts ),
		$value
	);

	return $html;
}
</textarea><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Save">
</form>