External form that posts to a forum thread

[Chris_D]

Hey guys,
Recently posted was a plugin called forms hack (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=93970) that relies on a forum template to input the data to the form and then post it in a new thread in a specified forum.

What I'm looking for is a news submissions page. I'm aware that the above hack can be used as this, however I want a page that would sit external from the forums and also wouldn't require the user to be registered on the forums. They'd fill all the details in and then that would generate a new thread in a specified forum that looks like it was created by a specified registered user.

It could contain many other users actually. It could be extended to competition submissions, standard contact if people don't want to e-mail you etc.

I've done a search for this and even tried to do it myself (not a good idea when you barely know HTML, let alone PHP or XML) and haven't found anything. Anyone willing to make this either as a mod to the forms hack or a brand new project?

[silurius]

Hi Chris. I'm anxiously seeking the same thing.

I imagine someone here might suggest using a vB Advance hack or something and using a vB form instead, but I will not be able to run the whole site on vB so I need a basic web form of some kind.

Another neat feature would be to have the ability for an email message to create or add to a thread, although that's not as elegant and harder to control.

[Chris_D]

I have found something but I'm not able to re-distribute the code, unfortunately.

It was custom-made for a friends website, and he's let me use it on mine, but I don't have permission to re-distribute the code. Sorry :(

EDIT:

Just so you know though, the external form I use makes a connection to the forum database, and uses SQL queries to insert the thread/post directly into the database. I don't know if that'll be much help to you, but that's basically how it's done.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

For 3.5 i wouldn't suggest direct inserting into the database. You really should be using the DataManagers.

[Chris_D]

That all goes over my head, to be honest :)

It works though, so I'm happy with it. Is it less secure by inserting into the database?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Less secure i don't know without seeing the code. But a lot more happens then just inserting a row into a table when you make a new thread. Also hack that you install could fail since for example a new field could have been added, which would be handled correctly by the DM and the plugins.