User Submitted Posts Plugin

Overview

1. Upload the /user-submitted-posts/ directory to your plugins folder and activate
2. Go to the “User Submitted Posts” Settings Page and customize your options
3. Display the submission form on your page(s) using template tag or shortcode

Important

NOTE that this plugin attaches uploaded images as custom fields to submitted posts. Attached images are not displayed automatically in posts, but rather may be displayed using template tags, either WP’s built-in tags or the USP template tags (explained below). This provides maximum flexibility in terms of customizing the display of uploaded images. UPDATE: as of version 20130720, submitted images may be set as Featured Images for posts (visit the “Options” panel in the plugin settings for more info).

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 – the URL of the submitted image (one custom 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); ?>
Parameters:
    $size         = image size as thumbnail, medium, large or full -> default = full
    $beforeUrl    = text/markup displayed before the image URL     -> default = &lt;img src="
    $afterUrl     = text/markup displayed after the image URL      -> default = " /&gt;
    $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(); ?>

These template tags should work out of the box when included in your theme template file(s). Keep in mind that for some of the tags to work, there must be some existing submitted posts and/or images available.

For more information, check out the template-tag file at: /library/template-tags.php

Donations

I created this plugin with love for the WP community. To show support, consider purchasing one of my books: The Tao of WordPress, Digging into WordPress, or .htaccess made easy.

Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thanks!