Yep. As of last week, I dusted off the code and started working on TDOMF Plugin for WordPress.
I’ve been reviewing refactoring the code and trying to fix as many bugs and other wiggles as I can. So far:
- There is now a nice TDOMF Overview page, like the WordPress Dashboard
- Move the various admin pages to it’s own submenu rather than have the various pages scattered all over the place.
- Updated the TDOMF panel on the edit post page. It now uses WordPress’ built in AJAX and is much cleaner.
- Added a logging feature. All actions of the plugin are logged so you can easily see when someone has approved a post, saved options, submitted a post etc. This is especially useful if you turn off moderation for example.
Currently I’m working through the options again. I will be adding two new options.
Auto Trust Submitter option will allow you set how many times a user’s submissions are approved before they automatically become trusted.
Moderation On/Off option will allow you to turn off moderation. Submissions will be automatically published. I really hate this idea as it opens your blog up to bots and spammers, however it is consistently requested. You can already “trust” users and the “Auto Trust Submitter” option would allow you to automatically trust users after their submissions have been approved.
The big change I have planned, but I haven’t started on, is to allow users to customise the form, completely. I’m going to try and base it on WordPress’ existing widget model. Basically, your form will be made of individual “widgets” that you can drag-and-drop, order and configure individually. Also, I hope, other people can write their own widgets for TDOMF. This is the best approach I can think off. Coming up with a “language” to allow people to design their forms is very hard to do right. This method is intuitive to use and for the hardcore, hopefully, easy to extend.
Other little things I’m going to try and do are:
Rejection emails - Currently users can subscribe for notification if their post is approved. This will also notify the user if their post is rejected.
Append messages to email notifications - Allow approvers to append a message to the approved/rejected emails, explaining why their submission was rejected or approved.
Bulk moderation of submitted posts - Easy to reject or approve lots of posts.
Delete plugin settings - Wipe out your plugin settings so you can properly remove the plugin, if you so wish.
I did also consider trying to put a button on the post/page edit screen to allow admins to easily add the form. However the interface to do this is atrocious. The good news is that upcoming versions of WordPress will have a better and neater interface to add buttons, so I’ll hold off till then.
I’ll keep you all informed of any other progress.
About to download and install the program. Demo is exactly what I’ve been looking for during the past day and a half.
Would you consider adding a CAPTCHA? It doesn’t need to be sophisticated. Even a simple “What is 2 + 3? Put your answer in the box.” Anything that shows that a breathing human being is submitting the post.
Not for version 0.7. However once 0.7 is out, the mechanism will be in place to easily add captcha to the form and I will seriousily consider it for 0.8.
Hey Mark. Great news that you are working on the plugin again. Thank you.
I am in the process of building a site which utilizes your plugin and I was about to start trying to figure out a way to integrate the comment-policy plugin (http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/04/02/comment-policy-wordpress-plugin/) with the TDO Mini Form. No short order as I am by no means a programmer.
Care to give it a try?? (he asked with with the most hopeful expression…). Personally I think it would be a great feature addition to your great plugin.
Comment Policy adds a simple check box and copy line which when checked indicates a users agreement with the www sites submission policy. In the process it also stops spam robots. (In my opinion a better alternative to CAPTCHA because it has an added practical/legal purpose.)
I am in contact with the author of the Comment policy plugin so if I can act as some sort of go between or help in any other way I am more than happy to do what I can.
Thanks so much for considering. And thank you for your plugin!
Cheers!
Justin
The default author is Anonymous. When the article post it is credited to Anonymous. What is the code that displays the name of the author who submitted rather than Anonymous?
There is a template tag I added in version 0.6 that displays the submitter.
<?php tdomf_the_submitter(); ?>
You’ll need to modify the theme you are using and where you want to replace the author with the submitter, look for the tag <?php the_author(); ?> and replace it with the tag above.
Hi TechHelp, for some reason your comment got flagged as spam! Anyway, what you suggest is doable. It’s the same as I said to Richard B., I won’t do it for 0.7 but once 0.7 is out the mechanism to add a feature like what you suggest will be easy enough to do, it’s just a variant of CAPTCHA. So for 0.8, it’s a strong possibility.
Spam? Moi? That’s odd. It’s even a new email address. Well thanks for sorting through the muck to find my message. I suppose at least there’s a little humor in it as I am writing about trying to develop a way to stop spam…
Do you have any rough timeline guesstimate? I am trying to launch my site in about 4 weeks and need to get some sort of TDOMF spam control happening by then. I will continue working on integrating a Comment Policy like function on my end but if your 0.7 version is going to make that easier then perhaps I should wait a little.
Any reccomendations?
Now that the issue of Comment Policy has been raised by Justin, I have to agree that it is better solution than a CAPTCHA for the reason noted—the added legal purpose.
Validating to see if the Comment Policy box is checked is not a major issue. The only thing needed is a link to another WP page that displays the service agreement.
Hi Tech Help, “guestimate”? A few weeks. Could be done this week, could be finished in four weeks. I can’t tell. I’m doing this for “fun” and so it’s gotta fit my free time which is short with the new baby.
Congrats on the new addition Dad! My best to the whole family.
Thanks for the update. Whatever you’re able to do to help is much appreciated. I’m not a parent but from what I’ve heard you should get some sleep while you can : )
Hi again. Don’t mean to be a nuisance but I just got an email from the author of the Comment Policy plug in regarding getting it to work with TDOMF and I thought you might like to see it. He said…
“The TDO Mini-forms sounds very interesting. If this plugin provides the necessary “hooks” so that it is possible to programmatically attach custom fields to the form, then I assume that comment-policy will require some minor-only changes in order to work with TDO Mini-forms. Otherwise, someone will have to hardcode the Comment-Policy functions into the TDO mini-forms code.”
Wondering, are these “hooks” the mechanism you referred to that you would be implementing in this revision that would make it easier to modify TDOMF?
Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about programming so if I am totally out in left field… sorry : )
Hi Tech Help,
Thanks. Being a dad is great if not completely and utterly exhausting…
Anyway, it would probably make sense to move this discussion to the forum, I assume by “hooks” he means the actions and filters mechanism from WordPress. This is something I will add in later versions, I just haven’t figured out where and how they should work.
The widget mechanism, I am implementing, will allow you attach custom fields to the form.
I wonder if it will be possible to attach a file. Even if its only one image, and gets associated to the post.
Hi Tricky,
The next version may/may not include file upload. It depends how much I get down and how quickly. However, with the next version the mechanism will be in place to easy enough to add it.
HiYa
I just downloaded 0.10 from your sidebar; the one hosted at WordPress is 0.9.4
cheers
Doh! Will fix. Thanks Ben.
Hey! Great plugin!! Just loved it!! Solved a huge problem for me (well, not yet, but it’s going to!!)
Anyway, enough with the ass-kissing.
I’ve just translated the plugin into brazilian portuguese (feeling kind of woozy….), I’ll send it to you if you like.
The way you’re calling the textdomain function is not working, had to set it manually to ‘wp-content/plugins/tdo-mini-forms’.
Also, if you’d like, I could send you information about parts that have not been translated (like menu titles and form widgets).
I’ve also found a few bugs here and there, but that’s something to expect from such a complex plugin! I can also help to locate some of them here and there.
Again, work of a genius! Keep up this great plugin!
Hi Camilo,
Yes please!
Yes, this was pointed out to me for the previous release. I believe it should work in v0.10.1.
That would be useful. Thank you.
Please do, but I’d recommend using the Bug Reporting Forum I’ve setup for TDO Mini Forms. It’s much easier for me to keep track of it.
Thank you very much!
Hi, thanks!
Great post (I belive), will install it this evening.
2 question:
1. in order to localize it in Russian language: in which file to make changes?
2. Is it possible to modify code to add picture upload and resize?
Thanks!
Hi iya,
I’ve generated a tdomf.po file and you need to generate a Russian .mo file. I’m afraid I don’t know much about it. People have translated the plugin, but have not provided me with copies of the files to include. There is documentation on wordpress.org about translating plugins.
The latest version 0.10.4 has File uploads and you can limit it to images. You can enable it to be added an WordPress attachment, which causes WordPress to create a thumbnail of the image. But beyond that I haven’t added any other special image functionality.
Hi.
I translated it to polish,it works in backend, but not a form widget in front. Should be there a load_plugin_textdomain?