WordPress Plugin: User Submitted Posts

User Submitted Posts enables your visitors to submit posts and images from anywhere on your site via template tag or shortcode. User-submitted posts optionally include tags, categories, post titles, and more. You can set submitted posts as draft, publish immediately, or after some number of approved posts. Also enables users to upload multiple images when submitting a post. Everything super-easy to customize via Admin Settings page.

Let your visitors submit content

User Submitted Posts makes it easy to display a public post-submission form virtually anywhere on your site. Use the USP shortcode to display the submission form in any post or page, or use the USP template tag to include the form anywhere in your theme design. Visitors may then use the form to submit posts to your site. Depending on your preferences, user-submitted posts may include the following input fields:

• Name
• Email
• URL
• Post Title
• Post Tags
• Post Category
• Post Content
• Custom Field
• Challenge Question
• Google reCAPTCHA
• Post Images

Using the Settings Page, you choose which fields to display, min/max number of images, min/max image size, redirect location, error messages and more. User Submitted Posts makes it easy to setup just about any type of user-submitted functionality for your WordPress-powered site. Here are some examples of how the USP plugin could be used:

• Public Submit a Link form with tags
• Simple Submit News form with post, title & author
• Use as Contact Form that allows image attachments
• Use as an Image Uploader, maybe with tags, title or whatever

Once a user has submitted a post, it’s saved as a “Draft” by default, but may optionally be set to “Publish Immediately” or even to publish if the author has “x” number of approved submissions. The plugin also displays a User Submitted Posts button at the top of the Posts Page that lets you filter all user-submitted posts/drafts with the click of a button.

Features

• Let visitors submit posts from anywhere on your site
• Use template tag or shortcode to display the form anywhere
• Includes customizable captcha and hidden field to stop spam
• Submitted posts may include any/all of the available fields
• Redirect user anywhere after successful post submission
• Includes template tags for displaying submitted content
• New HTML5 submission form with streamlined CSS styles

Image Uploads

• Optionally allow/require visitors to upload any number of images
• Specify minimum and maximum width and height for uploaded images
• Specicy min/max number of allowed image uploads for each post
• Includes jQuery snippet for easy choosing of multiple images

Customization

• Control which fields are displayed in the submission form
• Choose which categories users are allowed to select
• Assign submitted posts to any registered user
• Customizable success, error, and upload messages
• Plus options for the captcha, auto-publish, and redirect-URL
• Choose form style: Classic, HTML5, or plain (disable styles)

Post Management

• Custom Fields saved w/ each post: name, IP, URL, images, et al
• Set submitted posts to any status: Draft, Publish, or Moderate
• One-click post-filtering of submitted posts in the Admin Area
• Includes template tags for easy display of submitted images

Installation & Usage

Overview

1. Install USP just like any other WordPress plugin
2. Go to the “User Submitted Posts” settings and customize your options
3. Display the submission form on your page(s) using template tag or shortcode

Displaying the submission form

To display the form on a post or page, use the shortcode:

[user-submitted-posts]

To display the form anywhere in your theme, use the template tag:

<?php if (function_exists('user_submitted_posts')) user_submitted_posts(); ?>

Customizing the submission form

• To style the submission form, use the included CSS file located at: /resources/usp.css
• To add custom JavaScript, use the included JS file located at: /resources/usp.js

Customizing user-submitted posts

User-submitted posts are just like any other post, with the exception that they each contain a set of custom fields. The custom fields include extra information about the post:

• is_submission – indicates that the post is in fact user-submitted
• user_submit_image – URLs of any submitted images (one field per image)
• user_submit_ip – the IP address of the submitted-post author
• user_submit_name – the name of the submitted-post author
• user_submit_url – the submitted URL

So when user-submitted posts are displayed on your website, say on the home page or single-view, these custom fields are available to you in your theme files. This enables you to customize the user-submitted posts by displaying the submitted name, URL, images, and so forth. Here are two articles for those new to using WordPress custom-fields:

• WordPress Custom Fields, Part I: The Basics
• WordPress Custom Fields, Part II: Tips and Tricks

Template Tags

Additionally, the USP plugin also includes a set of template tags for customizing your user-submitted posts:

usp_is_public_submission()
Returns a boolean value indicating whether the specified post is a public submission
Usage: <?php if (function_exists('usp_is_public_submission')) usp_is_public_submission(); ?>

usp_get_post_images()
Returns an array of URLs for the specified post image
Usage: <?php $images = usp_get_post_images(); foreach ($images as $image) { echo $image; } ?>

usp_post_attachments()
Prints the URLs for all post attachments.
Usage:  <?php if (function_exists('usp_post_attachments')) usp_post_attachments(); ?>
Syntax: <?php if (function_exists('usp_post_attachments')) usp_post_attachments($size, $beforeUrl, $afterUrl, $numberImages, $postId); ?>
Paramters:
    $size         = image size as thumbnail, medium, large or full -> default = full
    $beforeUrl    = text/markup displayed before the image URL     -> default = <img src="
    $afterUrl     = text/markup displayed after the image URL      -> default = " />
    $numberImages = the number of images to display for each post  -> default = false (display all)
    $postId       = an optional post ID to use                     -> default = uses global post

usp_author_link()
For public-submitted posts, this tag displays the author's name as a link (if URL provided) or plain text (if URL not provided)
For normal posts, this tag displays the author's name as a link to their author's post page
Usage: <?php if (function_exists('usp_author_link')) usp_author_link(); ?>

For more tags, check out USP at WordPress.org, and/or the source code of the plugin file located at: /library/template-tags.php

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of the USP plugin:

• USP submission form (default settings/styles)
• USP Settings page (panels toggled closed)
• USP Settings (full view — panels toggled open)
• Button to filter user-submitted posts
• custom fields included with each submitted post

Download & Demo

To download the free version of User Submitted Posts, visit the plugin homepage at the WordPress.org Plugin Directory.

• Check out the USP Demo »
• Get the Pro version »

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Security Specialist. WordPress Buff.