Can Forminator do this?

  • Resolved AWOL

    (@awol)


    3 years, 4 months ago

    I have not yet installed your plugin, but after several failed/too difficult to do attempts with other form plugins I wanted to ask first this time! Here is what I want to do:
    Two different forms will be embedded on posts that have been submitted by users (using another plugin/custom post type), but only one will display depending on who is viewing the post (I have already done this); either the non-author or the author of the post. The form that the non-author fills in starts a very short process that the author must respond to when they go to the post and fill in their different form. This form then needs to notify the non-author of the response, and depending on that response the non-author either takes an action on the site or not. The things I need to know are; (1) is it possible to pass the email address of the non-author from the first form to become the recipient in the second form; (2) is it possible to get the email of the post author as the recipient of the first form; (3) can data from the forms be used in the text of the email that is sent on submission of that form; and (4) after submission of the second form can the two connected form submissions be flagged in some way in the database to indicate either that the process is ongoing or has ended? This could be as simple as just deleting the ones where the response form has ended the process, and leaving the others as published (or however your plugin denotes them in the database/admin).
    I have been able to achieve some of these things but not all of them with other plugins; I don’t necessarily need to know the code (although that would obviously be a help), just that it is possible. (1) and (2) I managed with CF7 but I couldn’t completely achieve (3) or (4) due to lack of help in the support forum. Basically I was trying to give the two forms a reference number in their subject field of the post id that they were embedded in, but everything I tried didn’t work, and without that it was impossible to retrieve the specific data needed to take the next step in the process. I am hoping for better luck here, either in being able to do it in the same way, or an alternative way of achieving the same end result. Thank you in advance for any helpful response.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Support Williams – WPMU DEV Support

    (@wpmudev-support8)

    Hi @awol

    I hope you’re well today and thank you for your question!

    The things I need to know are; (1) is it possible to pass the email address of the non-author from the first form to become the recipient in the second form;

    You can set the form to redirect to defined page upon submission instead of showing a standard “thank you” message. It can be set in “Behaviour” section of form configuration.

    The redirect URL can include parameters which can include values form the form. So what you could do would be

    – set that first form to redirect to another page where the second form is (it has to be on another page); let’s say the redirect address would be “domain.com/second”

    – let’s say that the non-author e-mail on the first form is in the field {email-1}

    – so you’d change that redirect URL on first form to “domain.com/second?recipient={email-1}”

    – on the second form you would add a field (e.g. e-mail type) and set when editing it you’d put “recipient” (which is the query var/URL parameter name as used in redirect URL) in the “Pre-populate” field.

    As a result, when non-author submits the first form, they are redirected to the second page with second form and the e-mail that was submitted gets automatically pre-filled in that second form.

    That field of course (the one that you added to second form and set to be pre-populated) can be used as a recipient in e-mail notifiation of a second form.

    (2) is it possible to get the email of the post author as the recipient of the first form;

    “Automatically” you can only get the ID, title and URL of the post the form is embedded to but not author e-mail. It would require additional custom code.

    (3) can data from the forms be used in the text of the email that is sent on submission of that form;

    Yes, data from the form can be used in this form’s e-mail notifications. When you create an e-mail notification for the form, you can add {all_fields} tag to content and it will be replaced with all the submitted data. You can also use “individual” tags for fields – they are available under the blue(ish) square icon of notification content editor.

    (4) after submission of the second form can the two connected form submissions be flagged in some way in the database to indicate either that the process is ongoing or has ended? This could be as simple as just deleting the ones where the response form has ended the process, and leaving the others as published (or however your plugin denotes them in the database/admin).

    There’s no such feature currently – no “connection” or “relation/grouping” of forms and no option to “mark” submissions in any way automatically. Each submission is a “separate being” and only related to the form it comes from. This would also require custom code and it would be quite a complex one as there’s no “mechanisms” for marking submissions in any way.

    To sum it up, if I correctly understand the goal here, it’s not something that would work “out of the box”. Some things are doable but making it all work together will require a decent amount of custom developed code, dedicated specifically for this scenario.

    Kind regards,
    Adam

    Thread Starter AWOL

    (@awol)

    Hi @wpmudev-support8 Adam, thanks for your reply. The scenario you are painting sounds no better than what I have encountered already, so for now I will keep looking for an alternative. Very impressed with the speed of your reply though, so I will definitely be considering Forminator for other projects.

    Plugin Support Williams – WPMU DEV Support

    (@wpmudev-support8)

    Hi @awol

    I’m sorry I couldn’t deliver ready to use “out of the box” solution for this. I would love to be able to do this but, unfortunately, this scenario is quite specific and current features of the plugin wouldn’t fully support it without a lot of additional custom code.

    But thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it a lot. And let me just tell that Forminator has one of the longest (if not the longest) improvements and planned features list out of all our plugins which means that, basically, there’s a loooooot of good things to come in future ??

    I can’t promise we’ll get there “in a blink of an eye” but I’m sure you’ll find the plugin useful eventually – if not for this particular use then maybe for some other case but all in all I’d say that “over time everything can be made possible”…

    All the best,
    Adam

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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