In this week's edition of 'codacorolla struggles with php'...

August 10, 2012 10:38 AM

Wordpress question: I have two different types of post categories on the site that I'm designing. Is it possible through plug-ins (or otherwise) to create links from the front page to the posting screen so that either one of the categories is pre-selected for the post?

Just in case I'm not describing it well enough, the front page has two links "Post a story" and "Share a resource" with our two categories being stories and resources. They click on "Post a story" and they're sent to the post authoring screen with the stories category already checked, or the same thing for resources.

Is this possible, and if so, then does a plug-in already exist to do it?

_{also thanks so much to everyone who's helped me incrementally understand wordpress over the last two months or so, the site is actually coming together, and probably wouldn't have without your help!}

posted by codacorolla to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

You want to be looking at custom post types.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/

http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types

http://sixrevisions.com/wordpress/wordpress-custom-post-types-guide/
posted by travis08 at 1:46 PM on August 10, 2012

Response by poster: We'd talked about using custom post-types before, but there's a snag insofar as they don't exactly work with the iPad Wordpress app. Those links definitely help though, if we decide to go that way, especially the last one.
posted by codacorolla at 2:13 PM on August 10, 2012

This depends on how users submit stories and resources. Do they have a login or are you using some kind of solution to enable guest/anonymous submissions? Is this custom coded or are you using a plugin? By default any kind of post submission in Wordpress requires an user account or at the very least that you modify submission permissions.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:44 PM on August 10, 2012

Response by poster: Through author accounts.
posted by codacorolla at 8:08 PM on August 10, 2012

Perhaps GravityForms might work? You could use that to create a post authoring form with pre-selected categories. You'd mentioned custom post types and issues with it not working on the WordPress app, but there could be a workaround with the Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types plugin which will map your form(s) to the custom post type(s). Your authors would just submit their stories and resources through these front-end forms, and bada bing. Also, the Members plugin will give you control over which users (by role) have access to the forms.
posted by colorproof at 3:00 AM on August 12, 2012

I just realized that the Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types route might not be the best solution after all since it doesn't allow the option to auto-publish posts. By default, the custom posts appear as drafts, and if the WordPress app doesn't support CPTs yet, you wouldn't be able to access those drafts anyway. Still, the first option would probably work!
posted by colorproof at 3:11 AM on August 12, 2012