Forms Hack

Forms Hack 3.5

Features:

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

• Posted into a new thread in a forum of your choice
• Create a new poll in the new thread with options of your choice
• Posted as a reply in an existing thread of your choice
• PMed to you or someone else
• Emailed to an email address you specify
• Choose to redirect to the post, thread or forum, or a custom thank you message
• Choose to redirect to edit post to upload attachments
• See a preview before they submit

Or any combination or all of the above?

Well, this is the hack for you!

You can use this for:

• Moderator Applications
• Quiz Submit Form which gets PMed to a moderator
• Contact Form that goes to PM, email or thread
• Guests to apply to be members
• Report a Moderator form that goes as a PM to you
• Guests can PM you for whatever reason
• Order form to buy things
• Donation form
• News or Articles submissions that can go straight to a thread

Or anything you like - this hack is totally customizable via the AdminCP.

The beauty of this hack is that once you install this hack, to make a new form all you need to do is copy the main hook, rename it to whatever you want, edit the variables in the hook, and you have a totally new form!!! You do not need to touch the templates again, but can always create new ones and use different templates for different forms.

Format of the form:

• One main input question
• 3 Radio buttons Choice questions
• 3 Normal text input questions
• 1 Drop down menu
• 3 Check boxes
• 1 Long answer question
• 1 VB message editor text box question

This is customizable via the hook.

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:

• Import the XML into products. (admin cp -> Plug-in System -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product)
• Edit the main plug-in - the instructions are all inside the hook itself, in the top half. Follow the instructions carefully!
• To get to the form, go to: /newthread.php?do=form (change "form" to the name of your form if you have few)

Done!

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

Enjoy!

Updates:

Version 2.0: (08/10/2005)

• Ported over for vb3.5

Version 2.1: (08/10/2005)

• bug fix with answers not showing

Version 2.5: (08/13/2005)

• Major update:
• Templates have a few lines changed here and there.
• You can now have more then 2 poll options very easily
• Polls can't be created if your not creating a new thread
• New Thread now uses VB function to add the thread
• New Poll now uses VB function to add the poll
• New Reply now uses VB function to add the reply
• PM now uses VB function to send the PM

Version 2.6: (08/21/2005)

• fixed bug with posts having to be moderated

Version 2.7: (08/23/2005)

• Minor update:
• Fixed some issues with signatures, URL parsing, and subscriptions
• Option to name the post titles
• Made template XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Version 3.0: (11/29/2005)

• Major update:
• Added drop down menu
• Made the long answer show up in a the vb message box
• Re-wrote some instructions
• Pressing back should save work
• Both templates and plug-in were edited
• Some more minor things

Version 3.1: (12/07/2005)

• Brought back the standard text box (longanswer)

Version 3.2: (12/09/2005)

• [ADDED] Option to make polls public.

Version 3.3: (12/19/2005)

• [FIXED] Guests can now post using the forms to make a thread or post. They cannot send a PM though.
• [ADDED] Paypal link so you can make a donation for this hack.

Version 3.4: (04/05/2006)

• [FIXED] Removed extra line from template.
• [ADDED] WYSIWYG editor now works besides the regular editor.
• [ADDED] Preview.
• [CHANGED] Subscriptions now take from user default setting.

Version 3.5: (05/31/2006)

• [ADDED] Check boxes.

Abe1 with rights from Dr Erwin Loh

This hack is created for your use free of charge. No payment is requested. However, if you would like to donate money for the work I put in to this hack, a donation would show your appreciation.

[BioVader]

Ok I want to start over again... Same type of thing though. This time the user will open up the "Membership Application" and they will fill out the form.

The default forum title when they open the form is "Membership Application". What I would like to have happen is when they hit the submit form button, I would like the forum title to change to "Membership Application: <question2> <question1>"

So if they answered question1 with Submarine and question2 with Yellow, the new subject line when submitted would read,

Membership Application: Yellow Submarine (doable?)

[Abe1]

Originally Posted by mrgrimes

Can this hack be used to create forms that are located outside vBulletin (eg on a page on a different website)? (Sorry if this has been asked before: I thought I'd seen a similar post but I've searched through this thread and can't find anything.)

Sorry, not set up for that.

[mrgrimes]

Just to clarify: this means I can't use take the content of an external form and post it into vBulletin using this hack?

[Abe1]

Originally Posted by mrgrimes

Just to clarify: this means I can't use take the content of an external form and post it into vBulletin using this hack?

This hack gives you a form to add info into vb.

[mrgrimes]

Yes, but can it be tweaked so that the info can be added to vB from a form hosted elsewhere? Currently the form itself has to be located in a thread within vBulletin; I would like to be able to put the form in a news item of an external page but for the results to be posted to a thread within vBulletin.

[Renae]

I really like this, it makes something that I was trying to do very convenient.

HOWEVER, I am not a php genius (I use python a lot) so when you say "DO NOT USE QUOTATION MARKS AS IT WILL CAUSE A PARSE ERROR" that is not very descriptive. I thought that meant DO not use any quotation marks at all, when in reality it means only use them once. I finally saw SULLY02's post which explained this a little better.

[Abe1]

Version 3.4: (04/05/2006)

• [FIXED] Removed extra line from template.
• [ADDED] WYSIWYG editor now works besides the regular editor.
• [ADDED] Preview.
• [CHANGED] Subscriptions now take from user default setting.

It's hard to upgrade if you made lots of template changes. There are many changes to the template do to the preview feature.

[CremeEgg]

I'm going to be using this form for Guild Applications, I have a couple of questions.

New applicants won't be registered on the site so can I remove the section that takes the vB username?

Secondly, the editor doesn't appear for anyone that isn't logged in, any ideas why? When I test the form as a logged in user the editor works fine, as a guest you just get a text input box.

EDIT: One last thing (honest) when I tried to add 8 choices to the drop down menu question, I only got the first 3 appear (I'm a real newbie to all this) did I do something wrong with the variables?

[Abe1]

Originally Posted by CremeEgg

I'm going to be using this form for Guild Applications, I have a couple of questions.

New applicants won't be registered on the site so can I remove the section that takes the vB username?

Secondly, the editor doesn't appear for anyone that isn't logged in, any ideas why? When I test the form as a logged in user the editor works fine, as a guest you just get a text input box.

EDIT: One last thing (honest) when I tried to add 8 choices to the drop down menu question, I only got the first 3 appear (I'm a real newbie to all this) did I do something wrong with the variables?

To remove or add things, you have to edit the templates also.

VB by default doesn't allow unregistered users to use the editor. They just see a plain box.

[CremeEgg]

Originally Posted by Abe1

To remove or add things, you have to edit the templates also.

VB by default doesn't allow unregistered users to use the editor. They just see a plain box.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll have another play about tonight see if I can get it all sussed out.

New to all things vB and have a very demanding WoW Guild that want lots from their site, so steep learning curve.

After applications it's time to tackle some form of DKP system, just wish someone would integrate eqDKP and vB.