Plugin - Joomla! Articles (Create Joomla! articles when submitting a form)

The plugin can be downloaded by logging into our website using the account that holds the subscription and heading to Downloads >> My Downloads area.

With RSForm!Pro - Create Articles Plugin, you can create a Joomla! article when submitting a form.
 

Downloading and Installing the plugin
Download

You can download the plugin by logging with your purchase user, then head to Downloads > Paid Downloads > RSForm!Pro > Modules & Plugins > "Create Articles x.x".


Install

In the backend of your Joomla! installation go to Extensions > Manage > Install, and upload and install the plugin. Next thing would be to check if the plugin is published, and to do so, navigate to Extensions > Plugins, search for the "System - RSForm! Pro Create Articles" plugin and ensure it is published.


Configuration options:
  • Create Article - this will enable the article creation during the submission.
  • Create Article When Payment is Complete - If this option is enabled, the article will be created only after the payment has been confirmed by using the 'Confirm Payment' button while editing the submission. Confirming a payment is used when for some reason the gateway did not confirm it or when using Wire Transfer methods were payment is confirmed manually by you.
  • Trigger Content Plugins on Article Save - an example on this functionality would be the automatic indexing of the article for the Joomla! smart search.
  • Show Warning Messages in Frontend - with this enabled a warning message can be displayed within the frontend if the mapped fields are not completed accordingly.
 

Map Article Global Fields

This section handles main article configuration like author, title, category, as follows:

  • Author (Created By) ID
  • Created By Alias
  • Created Date (SQL format - Y-m-d H:i:s)
  • Category ID

You can use a script as the following (including the //<code> //</code> tags) within the "Items" section of your selectable field in order to list all the categories:

    //<code>
      $results = array();
      if ($categories = JCategories::getInstance('Content')->get('root'))
      {
         if ($children = $categories->getChildren(true))
         {
           foreach ($children as $category)
           {
             if ($category->level > 1)
             {
               $title = str_repeat('-', $category->level) . $category->title;
             }
             else
             {
               $title = $category->title;
             }

             $results[] = $category->id . '|' . $title;
           }
         }
      }
      return $results;
    //</code>
  • Article Title
  • Article Alias
  • Meta Keywords
  • Meta Description
  • Status (0 - unpublished, 1 - published)
  • Start Publishing (SQL format - Y-m-d H:i:s)
  • Finish Publishing (SQL format - Y-m-d H:i:s)
  • Language (* - all, 'en-GB' - for English)
  • Access Level (1 - Public, 2 - Registered, etc.)
  • Featured (0 - No, 1 - Yes)
  • Tags (separated by comma) - The tags will be added if there is a user logged in and has permissions to create tags, if not they will be ignored.
  • Browser Page Title
  • Read More Text
 

Minimum mapping requirements to create an article are:
Category ID & Article Title.


Map Article Image Fields

This section handles article image configuration where you can include details on your article picture:

  • Intro Image URL (Relative)
  • Image Float (right, left, none, empty - global)
  • Alt Text
  • Caption
  • Full Article Image URL (Relative)
  • Image Float (right, left, none, empty - global)
  • Alt Text
  • Caption

For the Intro and Full Article Images please specify the path to the image eg.
{File Upload:path} or components/com_rsform/images/uploads/{File Upload:filename}

 

Map Article URLs Fields

Adding helpful URLs with your article and control their behaviour:

  • Link A
  • Link A Text
  • URL Target Window (0 - parent, 1 - new window, 2 - popup, 3 - modal)
  • Link B
  • Link B Text
  • URL Target Window
  • Link C
  • Link C Text
  • URL Target Window
 

Map Metadata Fields

This section handles article metadata configuration as follows:

  • Robots (index, follow; noindex, follow; index, nofollow; noindex, nofollow)
  • Author
  • Content Rights
  • External Reference
 

Map Joomla! Custom Fields

This section handles the Joomla! Custom Fields that you have set under Content > Fields area. The custom field needs to have the following permission Allowed: 'Edit Custom Field Value' for the User Group to which the submitter is assigned.

 

Article Content:

This section handles the Article content. The actual article is built by adding HTML code along with your desired field placeholders within the editor section.

Note that this section also supports global placeholders. Global placeholders are used like this:

{global:placeholder_name}

 
Global Placeholders
Placeholder name Description Logged in user required?
username If the user is registered to your Joomla website, his username will appear when using this placeholder Yes
userid If the user is registered to your Joomla website, his user id will appear when using this placeholder Yes
useremail If the user is registered to your Joomla website, his email will appear when using this placeholder Yes
fullname If the user is registered to your Joomla website, his fullname will appear when using this placeholder Yes
userip The IP of the user that submitted the form No
date_added The date the user submitted the form No
sitename The name of your site, as defined in your Joomla configuration No
siteurl The URL of your site No
submissionid / submission_id The id of the submission No
mailfrom The Global Configuration From Email address. No
fromname The Global Configuration From Name. No

RSForm!Pro allows you to control whether or not to display certain placeholder information(including the according description) by using an "IF" statement.

Example:

{if {name_of_field:value}}The submitted message is {name_of_field:value}.{/if}

The string found within the {if} syntax will not show if the field has no value.

The {if} clause also accept the following operators:

<= , >=, <>, <, >, !=, =,==,===, <-, ->

Assuming that you have a checkbox and you need to compare its value with a specific string, you will use:

{if {Checkbox:value}<-Item1}This text will be displayed if the Item1 value is selected, regardless of any other selections{/if}

If you want to display a text if the checkbox has only at least one of your desired values, you will use the following syntax:


{if {Checkbox:value}->Item1,Item2}This text will be displayed if one of the following values is selected: Item1 or Item2, or if both are selected. It will not display if another additional value is selected{/if}

If you want to see if the user entered a specific value into a field you can use the following syntax:

{if {field_name:value}=Your desired value} this text gets displayed only if the placeholder has the "Your desired value" value {/if}

Notice the blank space between "if" and the field placeholder.

 
10 Jun 2024
Version 3.0.7
  • Fixed - In some cases mapping an empty value to 'Created Date', 'Start Publishing' or 'Finish Publishing' would incorrectly insert the current date.
07 May 2024
Version 3.0.6
  • Updated - 'Browser Page Title' and 'Read More Text' can be mapped.
04 Mar 2024
Version 3.0.5
  • Added - Joomla! 5 native compatibility - no longer needs the 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility' plugin.
03 Apr 2023
Version 3.0.4
  • Fixed - Creating a 'Featured' article would throw an error on newer versions of Joomla! 4
28 Jun 2022
Version 3.0.3
  • Updated - PHP 8.1 compatibility improvements.
23 Sep 2021
Version 3.0.2
  • Fixed - Date fields were not taking into account the configured timezone.
05 Jul 2021
Version 3.0.1
  • Fixed - Workflow code was no longer valid in latest Joomla! 4.0.0 RC3 build.
09 Jun 2021
Version 3.0.0
  • Updated - Joomla! 4.0 and RSForm! Pro 3.0 compatibility.
20 Jan 2021
Version 1.0.11
  • Fixed - 'File Uploads' with 'Multiple' set to 'Yes' were not mapped correctly to Joomla! Fields.
06 Jan 2021
Version 1.0.10
  • Added - Option to configure 'Created Date'.
07 Sep 2020
Version 1.0.9
  • Updated - The name of the Joomla! Field is now shown along with the label.
29 Jun 2020
Version 1.0.8
  • Added - Option to configure 'Created By Alias'.
04 Jun 2020
Version 1.0.7
  • Added - Option to configure article tags.
11 May 2020
Version 1.0.6
  • Added - Option to create article when the payment is completed (accepted).
27 Apr 2020
Version 1.0.5
  • Added - Option to trigger Content Plugins on article save.
06 Apr 2020
Version 1.0.4
  • Fixed - Setting a featured article when loading a form in com_content would throw an error.
01 Oct 2019
Version 1.0.3
  • Added - Custom Joomla! Fields can now be mapped.
20 Sep 2019
Version 1.0.2
  • Updated - Code improvements.
  • Fixed - Duplicating a form would not copy over the article mapping settings.
24 May 2019
Version 1.0.1
  • Updated - {if} scripting is now available in the article text.
21 Mar 2019
Initial Release

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