rswingle001
Member
I apologize but I'm relatively new to Wordpress. I have a blog that I would like users to be able to submit their own posts to.
Can I use Gravity to be able to provide a form that would do that?
Specifically, how would the form show up on the blog? Also, where and how does the form processing happen such that when they hit "submit", their post shows up on the page?
Thanks
Yes, you can create a form using Gravity Forms that allows users to submit posts to your sites.
Gravity Forms has fields called Post Fields. When you use Post Fields these create a WordPress post. The Post Title and Post Body fields have field settings that allow you to configure things such as the post status (draft, published, etc.), the post author, etc.
The form would show up on your site wherever you insert it. Forms can be inserted into posts or pages via shortcode, in theme template files via function call or in a sidebar via the form widget.
What happens after they submit the post depends on how you configure the Post Fields. It's either created as a Draft and you then have to review and publish the post, or it is automatically published. That is up to you.
Just remember that only Post Fields create WordPress Posts. The other fields only create Gravity Forms Entries.
rswingle001
Member
Thanks Carl. Good news.
Here's where I'm trying to add the form: http://hiddentreasurecommunity.com/aha-blog-2
A few questions:
1. Can I limit the posts to be in one category so that posts only show up on that page and don't show up elsewhere on my site?
2. I'm not a PHP developer (I can edit but don't know enough to create). Does this require custom code or can I set this all up in the dashboard?
Ron
1) Yes you can pre-define what Category the post will be created in OR you can add a Post Category field to your form and allow the user submitting the post to select which category it goes in.
2) Creating posts doesn't require custom code.
kimdushinski
Member
Hi! Aside from the form field body, could I also add other fields such as address company name on post to be included as draft lets say I would like to create a company information to be outputted in draft post? thanks
It depends on how you are expecting to add them to the post. If you want that data to appear in the post content, yes you can use the Content Template functionality of the Post Body to insert field values of non-Post Fields into your Post Body and configure the layout of the Post Body.
Otherwise if you want that data to be stored as a Custom Field you can either use the Post Custom Field which has a variety of field types it can be displayed as. You can also use the Content Template functionality of the Custom Field to insert values from non-Post Fields into a Custom Field.
comet
Member
Hey guys, this is great information. I'm going to need exactly this. Will this also work for Custom Post Types?
I have created a custom post type with several custom fields.
Can I use Gravity Forms to create a form on the frontend which inputs data in to those custom fields?
Also, can my users modify existing posts using Gravity Forms? Thank you for your help.
@comet Custom Post Types aren't supported as a feature of the form builder user interface. In order to save a post as a Custom Post Type you will have to use an API hook and tell Gravity Forms to save the post as that post type. If you search the forum for custom post type you will find numerous posts on the subject.
Yes you can have several custom fields on your form and the data will be stored as post meta for the post that is created.
Gravity Forms is not designed to be used to modify existing posts, it is only designed to create posts. Once posts are created they are managed in the WordPress dashboard.
IA4W
Member
Hello,
I can't figure out how to make the form post to only one specific category. I suspect it has to do with "Allow field to be populated dynamically" but I don't really know what to put there.
How do I accomplish this?
Thanks!
@IA4W You can make a form post to only one category by selecting the Default Category on the Post Title or Post Body fields. This will set the category for that form. HOWEVER this only appears if you don't have a Post Category field on your form. If you have a Post Category field on your form then it hides this feature.
If you want to predefine a category you can add a Post Category field to your form, edit it and choose Select Categories from the Properties tab and select the Category you want. Then choose the Advanced tab and set the field visibility to Admin Only. This will hide the field but still save the data. Note this only works in Gravity Forms v1.5 which is a development release on the downloads page.
The Post Body field is a textarea. If they want to input HTML they can input HTML. But they can't insert form field values, only the administrator has access to do that using the Content Template functionality.
bradvin
Member
@comet - you can save to a custom post type using this plugin :
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gravity-forms-custom-post-types/
You can also map a dropdown field to a custom taxonomy
Hye, I don't know if I am in the correct page or not, but can anyone here tell me how I can make a posting system close to this criteria: Have my user to post content with image embed in the post body. Can you explain whats the step by step process to build such a form?
Will I be able to add images or other media inside the blog post? As in adding images that will go beside the text of the blog post?
Or is it set up that users can only upload a photo and that will be used as the "featured image"
Yes, you can insert the value of an image field within the Post Body. You would use the Content Template option on the Post Body field to create a Content Template and then insert the appropriate merge tag for the Post Image field to output the image as part of the Post Body.
Currently there is no support for automatically setting the Featured image. However, it can be done via a customization and there are examples in the support forum that show you how to do this. It is a feature we plan on adding in the future.
