Is there such a plugin?

HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 6 months ago

Hi, I get many articles and e-mails sent in to my site for publication on the site and at current I do all this by hand, it is very time consuming as I have to format e-mails, spell check, make sure they are not offensive etc. and then I have to add them to pages and contact sender to say its been published. However I’m wondering if this could be done with WordPress?

Example:

Reader goes to “send in an article” page on my WordPress site, on that page there will be a form and some buttons to bold words etc and a spellchecker, they then press submit when finished writing an article in the form which goes to my WordPress admin where after I verify it, I can post it onto the site live and it automatically sends the contributor an e-mail with a link to the published piece.

Is there such a plugin available? I would seriously pay good money for such a plugin as it would save me lots of time and increase the flow of content on my site.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 27 total)

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moshu
(@moshu)

17 years, 6 months ago

Except the “email the author”… if you make those article writers to register and increase their level/Role to Contributor = they could write posts but not publish. You (as admin) would have to review and publish them.
As for spellcheck, I guess there are plugins for that to be installed in the Write area.

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 6 months ago

Hi Moshu, I’m really looking for something that doesn’t force people to register or login to an admin interface, my users log on my site at work or university and before I installed WordPress, there would be an e-mail form at the end of articles or pasted into a “have your say” page, and people would on the fly just write in like that. Easy and simple for them. If I forced people to register and login that would put people off.

I’ll create a demo of what I mean and link it in here, maybe a plugin guru could make such a thing work, it would be a great addition to WordPress if so especially for owners of sites like mine which aren’t just blogs, but communities and in my case, a platform for fans of our local football club to have their say, like an online fanzine. Basically a letters page from readers.

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 6 months ago

OK here is a front end demo example I’ve created: http://www.newcastle-online.com/pluginexample.htm

This plugin needs to allow the website owner to paste code into pages and indeed posts so thatm it shows all the forms as shown in the link above.

When the user press post they will be taken to a message that the website owner can edit such as “Thanks for your article submission, we’ll review it in 24 hours and decide whether to add it. If we do and you clicked the notification button you will recieve an e-mail to the address supplied confirming publiscation”

Or something like that.

In admin the website owner should be able to edit every facet of it, be able to spell check it and also be able to post it to any category if he/she so desires. I’m thinking the interface for this should be much like the “write” feature?

Other ideas, when the reader presses post a prompt asking them whether they’d like to be notified just incase they forget, another prompt for e-mail and any other required fields that weren’t filled in.

If the users earn trust, i.e. they’ve written lots and are valued contributors the website owner can in admin, make their posts appear live on the site as soon as they’ve been sent or written.

This will maybe require a dropdown menu allowing the contributor to select which category to post in.

Thoughts? Can this be done?

I think it would add a whole new dimension to WordPress.

You have the commenting system for users, for those who just want to reply to posts, and you have the ability to allow writers to write articles. By allowing people to send in letters, articles and e-mails that can be published independently of articles and comments this just adds to the whole community aspect and for sites like my own which is like a newspaper, radio station and magazine all rolled into one at times it would be great.

Any plugin guru could pull this off I’m sure the WordPress community would use it.

lxg
(@mastermind)

17 years, 6 months ago

HHT,

Your ideas sound interesting, but you will have to admit that’s pretty much the feature moshu mentioned. With the little difference, as you noticed, that a user must register/login. But why do you think people would hesitate to register, while they’re ready to write a whole article for you?

See, what you would need (if you want it properly), is an entire user and content management besides the WordPress structure. This is not only a truckload of work, but also bears potential security risks.

If I were in your place, I’d put some effort into explaining users how to register and how to propose an article. Once they have registered, they write their articles and you will be able to see them as drafts. If you like it, you publish it. If a user proves trustworthy, you can promote him to “Author”. It’s that easy.

Ok, there are some smaller features (like the e-mailing) that aren’t implemented. But this could be done with some plugins.

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 6 months ago

Yeah it can be done that way I know and it will probably be easier from a backend point of view but my users sometimes send in 1,000 e-mails a week to be published, this can range from 800 words to a few lines. My site is all about providing users with a platform to have their say, for free, 24-7 and with less fuss and hassle to them as possible.

I have a forum, the comment on posts and articles feature that comes with WordPress and a letters column which I do by hand. The letters column is very popular because its simple, unobtrusive and flexible for my userbase which usually logon during work hours or at college/university and like to take a break by writing a few lines into the site.

For article writers I always contact them and tell them to just e-mail me from now on instead of using forms on the site and they do, but I want to automate it all.

I’ll have a play with the suggestions posted in reply, see how my users take to it. I’d still love something like I’ve shown in the example though.

Anyway thanks for your feedback fellas.

With WordPress you feel like it can do anything, well I do and I’m a frustrated person because I lack the skills to do plugins and mess about with code too much yet I have hundreds of ideas on how to improve WordPress and what would be good for it based on my own site, my readers and how I run the site.

We have over 30 trusted writers, and thousands of readers who literally all want to talk about what the site is dedicated to, whether it be via a forum, commenting on an article or just writing in. For me WordPress is the best solution I’ve found for this and works a treat, but I’m kind of lloking for a solution that gives everyone the best of all worlds I guess.

Have to say I love WP and the support on here is fantastic.

moshu
(@moshu)

17 years, 6 months ago

HTT,
contact this poster:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/91327

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 6 months ago

That sounds interesting, will do. Hey, thanks for that.

the_dead_one
(@the_dead_one)

17 years, 6 months ago

Hi HTT, no need to contact me, as I’ve just read this thread! 🙂

I have written a plugin that allows *registered* users to submit a draft post via a form and that emails the admins (users at level 10) so they can publish it. They are not trusted writers/contributors yet and also the Write panel isn’t actually right for what I want to use it for: See here. The form is avaliable here but you need to be registered to see it.

It can of course be modified to allow _anyone_ to submit a draft post, you’d need some sort of default user though. Oddly, doing it this way would circumvent some of the small problems I’m having with WordPress and subscriber role.

Now emailing the users back when it does get published… I was planning on adding that. I haven’t done it yet because… well because I haven’t! 🙂 I know exactly how to do it, I just haven’t done it.

I did consider creating a plugin that would allow admins to generate custom forms for their users to submit. However that’s starting too big, so I decided to try and get a form that did exactly what I want first before going down that path. It sounds like such a plugin would be exactly what your looking for and it would allow WordPress to be used in some very interesting ways.

If you want to take a look at the form I created, tell me what extra fields you’d like, what level of users should be notified, etc. I can see about hacking up a customised version of it for you. It’ll also mean I’ll have to get the emailing the submitter back feature in! It has no admin interface so modifying the format of emails and descriptions on the forms would have to be done within the code of the plugin. (Not as frightening as it sounds!)

lellie
(@lellie)

17 years, 6 months ago

ooo that plugin sounds fantasticly helpful for the university paper website I used to run..

the_dead_one
(@the_dead_one)

17 years, 6 months ago

Well the plugin may be a long way away, if I ever start on it. However, I have finished the specific code for my own website, that allows registered users to submit something for draft, the admins to be notified and when it is published, the original submitter will get notified. I can make the code public, as a template, for others (though it is a bit hacked together right now…)

rsuplido
(@rsuplido)

17 years, 5 months ago

Any update on this?

Thanks.

the_dead_one
(@the_dead_one)

17 years, 5 months ago

Er… yes and no. I’ve got *a* plugin that allows “subscribers” to submit posts, edit them and even delete them without touching the WordPress edit form. It’s currently live on http://www.gamecraftersguild.com.

I’ve created a second companion form (as part of the same plugin) that allows users to “upload” files (which become associated with a post) and download. I’m still working on that bit. It’s uploading, posting and downloading okay but I haven’t fully tested it so it isn’t live yet. I’d like to also allow the submitters the ability to edit it.

The code is utterly customised to the website I’m using it on. It’s hacky, messy and not easily read code.

I was hoping to finish this piece of work and it would form a “proof of concept”. Once the code’s gone live I can make it avaliable as a sort of reference for others.

If theres a big demand for this as a real WordPress plugin I will consider creating a real plugin that would allow people to create their own custom post forms where they can allow non-registered and subscribers to “post” on their wordpress blog, either moderated or not.

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 5 months ago

Hi the_dead_one

I had a test of your form on the first site you linked to, great work but not quite what I’m looking for but I’d be more than interested in a form that allows non registered blog users to write an article, press send, it goes to my wordpress admin and I have the option of approvaing or not approving, and sending it to any categories I so choose to, if that can be done. Ideally an option to notify the writer of the article if its been accepted and a link to it would be great too.

I could see such a plugin being a massive hit.

I could create a better demo of what I have in mind if you want?

Cheers

the_dead_one
(@the_dead_one)

17 years, 5 months ago

Hi HTT,

The stuff I wrote essentially does much more then that so it can form the basis of a much simpler plugin. I’ll see if I can get some time next week to package up a simple cut-down plugin to enable non-registered and subscribers to submit posts!

Thread Starter HTT
(@htt)

17 years, 5 months ago

Hi the_dead_one, that sounds great, I look forward to seeing that.

I have a few questions. Will whatever the registered member or non registered member posts/writes get sent to admin so the blog owner can approve/delete etc.?