Thanks for all that extra detail. I think I might see the issue. Is the URL at https://vendzo.com/become-a-volunteer/ a volunteer opportunity created within the plugin, or is it a standard WordPress page? The system will only track volunteer RSVPs if the form is output through a volunteer opportunity. The system tries to connect every form submission with the volunteer opportunity where the form was submitted. If the submitter isn’t on a volunteer opportunity at all, then the system will fail to store the RSVP.
I also want to confirm you created a Gravity Forms feed that ties the form to the volunteer system. You can do that within the form’s settings by going to Settings >> Volunteer Mgmt >> Add New.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “On #2, is there a list somewhere of those field values?”, but I think you might be referring to the Gravity Forms feed I was just talking about. Let me know if I misunderstood.
Finally, you’re right that that the plugin won’t automatically store data related to each volunteer’s skill sets and availability. That would require a developer to custom code a solution there. It’s certainly possible though.
I’m hoping we’re getting close to narrowing this down. Thanks for the back and forth.
Thanks for reaching out @simco and I’m sorry to hear volunteers aren’t being created.
Let’s try a few things to see if we can figure out what’s going on:
Where to find volunteers: To make sure we’re on the same page, volunteers created through the form show up as new WordPress users with a “Volunteer” role, and their RSVPs appear on the individual volunteer opportunity edit screens. Could you check under Users in your WordPress admin to see if any new users with the “Volunteer” role have been created when you submit the form? Also, make sure when you test the form that you use an email address that’s not already associated with an existing user.
Try deactivating and reactivating the plugin: The plugin creates a custom database table when it’s activated. If that table didn’t get created properly, form submissions would appear to work, but nothing would get saved. Deactivating and reactivating should retrigger the table creation. Your existing volunteer opportunities won’t be affected.
Check for PHP errors: If you feel comfortable, turn on WP_DEBUG temporarily (or check your site’s error log) and try submitting the form again. If there’s a database error or something else going wrong behind the scenes, it should show up there. This is a more technical step, so you can ignore it if you don’t want to edit your site’s files.
If you’re using Gravity Forms: Make sure the feed is configured correctly in the Gravity Forms settings for your form. The field mapping for first name, last name, phone and email all need to be pointed at the right form fields. You can also check the individual Gravity Forms entry and look at the “Notes” section to see if the plugin logged a success or error message.
Let me know what you find and we’ll go from there. Thanks a ton.
Thanks for reaching out @enhadmin and explaining what you’re looking for so clearly. Unfortunately, the plugin doesn’t include a built-in calendar view. It’s certainly possible to build one since the volunteer opportunities are a unique post type, but that would require a coding background.
I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you. Good luck searching for the right fit and don’t hesitate to reach out if any other questions come up.
Perfect, that’s helpful to know. It sounds like the plugin might modify the REST API responses, but it depends on how WordPress handles those requests.
Hi again Troy. I wanted to let you know that today we released an update to our volunteer management plugin that fixes the pagination issue you brought up.
Please give it a shot and let us know how it works for you.
Thanks for outlining your question so clearly. Our Volunteer Management plugin doesn’t actually provide styling for the colors of the links or the submit button. Those colors are being inherited from your theme. Themes handle these types of customizations differently, so it’s hard to provide you with directions on how to change the colors. I’d suggest either reaching out to the company that created your theme, or contacting your developer to help you make those changes.
Let us know if any other questions come up. Have a great day!
Thanks for the quick response Troy. We spent some time digging into the code and see exactly what’s going on. It turns out WordPress handles pagination one way when it’s output on internal pages, blog posts and other types of content, while handling it using a different approach on static homepages. So the pagination works correctly for internal pages, but doesn’t when volunteer opportunities are shown on a static homepage.
First of all, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We really appreciate when users reach out about bugs. That allows us to record them and prioritize fixing them with our other work.
As far as next steps, you have a few options:
You can list the volunteer opportunities on an internal page, and link to that page from the homepage with a button or text link.
You can avoid pagination entirely by changing the number of volunteer opportunities that display per page. For example, right now your website is displaying 20 volunteer opportunities. You could change your Reading settings to adjust the number of opportunities shown per page to something like 50. That way, pagination would only show up if you end up exceeding that number. You can see the setting I’m referring to in the screenshot below.
In the meantime, our team will record and prioritize fixing that bug, so the pagination works correctly no matter where the opportunities are shown. I can’t provide a timeline for a fix though since this will need to fit in among the other projects we have going on.
Let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to help you iron out one of the approaches I mentioned above.
Thanks for being patient with me Troy. I just got back from parental leave today, and David was able to fill me in on the situation.
I’d love to get a few more details from you so I can help troubleshoot the issue. Would you mind answering these questions:
Are you actively using the plugin on the website to list volunteer opportunities? It looks like you switched to a different approach, but I wanted to be sure.
When you were listing the volunteer opportunities using our plugin, were you doing that on the homepage of the site, or one of the internal pages?
If you were displaying the opportunities on the site’s homepage, would you mind trying to show them on an internal page? We did a little testing, and we’re curious if the location where the opportunities are shown might be part of the problem.
Once I get more details I should be able to recommend some next steps. Thanks again for your patience while I was out!
Thanks for clarifying. We don’t have any documentation specifically focused on coding extended functionality for the plugin. Custom coding is also outside the scope of the support we can provide here.
That said, the best place to start would likely be WordPress’s official Plugin Handbook. If you have a background in coding, this is a great place to learn how to build plugins for WordPress.
If you’re not familiar with code, then I’d suggest looking for a freelancer or company who could help you build what you need. WordPress is incredibly popular, so there are tons of developers willing and able to help.
Let us know if you have any other questions. Have a good one!
