FORM to THREAD/ FORUM/ POLL/ PM/ EMAIL - CUSTOMIZABLE FORMS - Mod Apps, Orders, News.

FORM to THREAD/ FORUM/ POLL/ PM/ EMAIL - Totally CUSTOMIZABLE FORMS
Version 1.6 for vBulletin 3.x.x by Dr Erwin Loh

Features:

Ever wanted an online form that a user can fill out, which when submitted gets:

1. Posted into a new thread in a forum of your choice
2. Create a new poll in the new thread with options of your choice
3. Posted as a reply in an existing thread of your choice
4. PMed to you or someone else
5. Emailed to an email address you specify
6. Choose to redirect to the post, thread or forum, or a custom thank you message
7. Choose to redirect to editpost to upload attachments

Or any combination or all of the above?

Well, this is the hack for you!

You can use this for:

1) Moderator Applications
2) Quiz Submit Form which gets PMed to a moderator
3) Contact Form that goes to PM, email or thread
4) Guests to apply to be members
5) Report a Moderator form that goes as a PM to you
6) Guests can PM you for whatever reason
7) Order form to buy things
8) Donation form
9) News or Articles submissions that can go straight to a thread


Or anything you like - this hack is totally customizable via the PHP file.
Basically, this hack involves modifying 1 PHP file form.php (you add questions, options etc. in the PHP file itself), uploading it, and then adding 2 templates.

The beauty of this hack is that once you have added the 2 templates, to make a new form, all you need to do is copy the form.php and rename it to form2.php, edit the variables in the PHP file, and you have a totally new form!!! You do not need to touch the templates again.

Format of the form:

1. One main input question
2. 2 Radio buttons Choice questions
3. 3 Normal text input questions
4. 1 Long answer question

This is customizable via the PHP file.

Also:
- You can set the usergroups you want access to this form.
- Depending on your forum permissions, if the new thread is in a public forum, members can reply to it. This hack allows a form to submit the new thread or post wherever you want it to go.
- Force the user to answer all questions.


INSTALLATION


Easy - takes only a few minutes:

1. Add the 2 templates.

2. Edit form.php - the instructions are all inside the PHP file itself, in the top half. Follow the instructions carefully!

3. Upload form.php

Just link to form1.php eg. http://www.yourforum.com/forums/form.php

Done!

Use this hack to make as many forms as you like!

Enjoy!


Updates:

Version 1.1 - Option to force user to answer all questions.
Version 1.2 - Thread count and lastposter information now updated if form is sent to existing thread.
Version 1.3 - ADDED CREATE POLL OPTION!
Version 1.4 - Fixed bug with Form-to-thread code
Version 1.5 - Major update:
- fixed bug where thread count not updated when form to forum
- fixed default posting to allow smilies and sigs when reply to thread
- added templates to cache (saves 2 queries)
- added option to change thank you message
- added options to redirect to post, thread or forum when submit
Version 1.6 - Choose to redirect to editpost to upload attachments

Screenshot is an example of a form - the form title and questions are customizable:

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by Jolten

Thank's for replying Erwin.

I added the following to the top of the form.php file

// ####################### SET PHP ENVIRONMENT ###########################
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

define('NO_REGISTER_GLOBALS', 1);
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'flagcomm'); // change this depending on your filename

$catid=$_POST['catid'];
$cad=$_POST['cad'];
$linkUrl="http://www.domain.com/page.php?id=".$catid."&cad=".$cad."&type=a";


// ################### PRE-CACHE TEMPLATES AND DATA ######################

// get special phrase groups
$phrasegroups = array(

);

But I can't seem to pull the link into the form answers. $linkurl works fine in the answers but the two variables are empty.

I've also added hidden inputs to the form template for both these variables.

No, you have to add the variables to this array:

PHP Code:

globalize($_POST, array(
'normalanswer1' => STR,
'radioanswer1' => STR,
'longanswer1' => STR,
'action' => STR
)); 


Otherwise vB won't let it through for security reasons.

[Jolten]

ahh thanks. I'll play with it some more.

[Lee Wilde]

Hello Erwin and all users of this hack. This hack is proving to be invaluable for us, we are most appreciative.

Just a little extra thing I'm trying to do, which is causing a minor annoyance....

I've slightly hacked forumdisplay.php to display a preview of the thread. It works, as you can see from the screenshot....but how can I get rid of the unnecessary "begin template" text....I can't even figure out where its coming from.

Thank you, any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Jolten]

Turn off the option to show templates in the source code. It's in the vBulletin options area.

[life is boost]

this is a great hack, we use this as aclassifieds form for our site. the only thing i was wondering is if we can get the forum to post the IP of the user like on a normal post. when someone uses the form, it will not save their IP information.

[DarrinM]

Hi All

Been following this thread, great hack Erwin, can think of many ways to use it however I am wondering if the following can be acheived.

When viewing someone's profile I wonder if it would be possible to then open a form and have some of the fields automatically populated - Form originators name (i.e. the person viewing the profile), the username or even custom field(s) taken from the person who's profile is being viewed. I then want to send the form contents via email to a third party static email address (which is obviously covered already)

Thanks in advance

DarrinM

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by DarrinM

Hi All

Been following this thread, great hack Erwin, can think of many ways to use it however I am wondering if the following can be acheived.

When viewing someone's profile I wonder if it would be possible to then open a form and have some of the fields automatically populated - Form originators name (i.e. the person viewing the profile), the username or even custom field(s) taken from the person who's profile is being viewed. I then want to send the form contents via email to a third party static email address (which is obviously covered already)

Thanks in advance

DarrinM

Of course you can do all that using $bbuserinfo[field10] or whatever it is and putting it in the form template.

[kall]

Originally Posted by Erwin

Of course you can do all that using $bbuserinfo[field10] or whatever it is and putting it in the form template.

How about...

The user submitting the form can choose which people the output is PMed to?

[Cheertobi]

Hi,

I am sorry, I have not been through all of the thread right now! Just one quick question, is it also possible to post calender events via form.php?!

Regards,

Tobi

[Leeper]

I just want to make sure that I'm on the right train of thought here before I jump in with this major addition. I believe that with this and some custom work I can come up with a much better solution than what we have now.
Currently we have a very cumbersome process for person to join our club. To register as a guest on the forum is very straight forward process as it is the one built by vB. To join the club however is a bit more of a pain. Member uses join form and once completed and they submit, an email is generated to the admin team and the new user is sent to paypal. The problem is that there is nothing explaining that they still need to register on the forums. Once payment is received the member is moved into the member area but again, this is a very separate process that I’d like to integrate.
Can I create a "Join Form" with all of the variables that I need and a payment function that then leads the user into the registration area? The new join form would post the information into an admin forum.

Sorry if I’m posting this in the wrong area and I’m probably over complicating this but I’m a novice trying to find a better way.