WordPress User Submitted Posts - Use Case - How to Let Your Users Submit Posts Without Accessing the Site Backend

Use Case – How to let your users submit posts without accessing the site backend.

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Introduction

WordPress User Submitted Posts is a plugin that allows logged in users submit posts, review drafts and upload images via a customizable form. Update and moderate their content and provide writing tips.

Use Case Front-End

Front-end, user submits the post:

Back-end, admin moderation:

Use Case Assumptions

In this example use case guide we will consider how to let logged in users submit and manage their posts without accessing the site backend.

We consider that you have already bought the plugin, but not installed it yet.

It follows:

• Installing the plugin
• Creating pages needed for plugin work using shortcodes
• Setting up
  • General settings
  • Form settings
  • Notifications
  • Labels
• End result

Installing the Plugin

The process is the same for all CM plugins and add-ons.

• Download the plugin from your customer dashboard.
• Log in to WordPress and navigate to the WordPress Admin → Plugins settings.
• Click on Add New.
• Activate it and add the license.

Learn more: Getting Started - Plugin Overview

Creating Pages Needed for Plugin Work Using Shortcodes

Everything we need to do to let the logged in users to submit their posts without accessing the site backend, is to configure the settings and prepare two pages for the users - one with the submitting form and another one with the dashboard, where they can view and manage all their posts.

Let's prepare the pages first. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Pages and click the Add New button.

To place the post editor to the page we need to use this shortcode: 

[add_post_form]

Let's create the page called Submit Your Post.

And this shortcode is used for displaying the user's dashboard:

[cm_usersp_posts_list]

Let's create the page called User's Post Dashboard:

Setting up

Now when the pages are prepared it's time to configure the appearance and functionality of the post editor. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM User Submitted Posts → Settings.

There you can see 4 tabs - let's consider all of them step by step.

General Settings

First tab is General Settings. It has a few sections.

reCAPTCHA Settings

reCAPTCHA is a test designed to filter bots, so it is recommended to turn it on and configure - that way you can restrict your site from undesirable content and overloading.

A properly configured reCAPTCHA should result in a test like this:

It is very easy to configure. Learn more about how to do this it in our detailed guide: General Support - reCAPTCHA - What is It and How to Enable

In result you need to get Site key and Secret key - and enter them to the corresponding fields.

Posts Management Settings

In the next section we can allow the users to edit their posts by enabling the respective option - Allow to edit posts. 

When you enable it you need to choose the page with post editor in the dropdown menu Editor Page. In our example we choose the page that we prepared called Submit Your Post.

The third option Deletion moderation - enable it, if you want to moderate when the user wants to delete his post.

Template Override Settings

It's possible to override the theme of the post list generated by the shortcode  [cm_usersp_posts_list] . 

Learn more about it: Changing Post List Theme (Advanced)

Form Settings

Second tab is Form Settings. Here you can find two sections with the following options.

New Post Settings

• Added or edited post status - Choose the status of post when the user adds or edits it. For our example we choose processing status, so the post will be published once it's submitted. The admin still will be able to moderate it.
• New post type - Choose type of post that the user creates. You can choose between:
  • post
  • page
  • attachment
  • project
  • download
  • product
• New post template - You can write here some template for user's post or leave it empty.

Form Settings

• Post featured image - Check it to let the user set featured image for the post.
• Media in editor - Check it to let the user upload media to the post using the button Add Media.
• File extensions - Write the list of allowed file extensions. If there is more than one, they should be separated by comma.
• Text editor - Check it to let the user use Text editor for editing the post. By default they can use only Visual editor.
• Drag&Drop upload - Check it to let the user upload media to the post by dragging and dropping files.
• Post taxonomies - Select post taxonomies which the user will be able to set.
• Exclude categories - Select categories that the user is not allowed to choose.
• Post taxonomies multiple - Check it to let the user select multiple taxonomies.
• Excerpt - Check it to let the user add post excerpt.
• Tags - Check it to let the user add tags.

Notifications

Next tab is Notifications.

Enable Admin panel notification to display the message about posts that are waiting for the moderation. It will be displayed on the page with the list of posts.

You can define Who can see notifications. Let's choose Administrator for our example.

You can also enable Admin email notifications for sending notifications. You need to write the email for sending notifications in the field Additional emails to send admin notification to. If you want to set more than one email, they should be separated by comma.

There are also two fields for customizing the notification email - Admin email notification subject and Admin email notification text. For customizing the email you can use the following tags:

• [post_title] to display the title of new post
• [post_url] to display link to new post
• [post_edit_url] to display link to edit new post
• [post_status] to display current post status

It is also possible to send User email notification by enabling the relevant option. Notifications are sent every time when the post status changes. The same as for admin email notifications you can customize the subject and text of email using the following tags:

• [post_title]  to display the title of new post
• [post_url]  to display link to new post
• [post_status]  to display current post status

Labels

Last tab is Labels. Here you can customize or translate the labels to any language you need. 

You can change lots of labels for the following directions:

• Form Labels
• User Dashboard Labels
• Email Labels
• Error and Success Messages

Save the changes

When all configuration is done don't forget to click the button Save Changes at the bottom of the page!

End Result

As a result the user can submit a post with media without accessing the site backend. And the admin is still able to moderate it.

Use Case Front-End

Front-end, user submits the post:

Back-end, admin moderation:

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