Since last month, we've worked on improving our MB Frontend Submission to make it a better solution for submitting posts on the front end. Today, we're happy to release a big updates for the plugin which powers Ajax submission, dashboard and Google reCaptcha. Let's see how the features work and how to implement them below.
User Posts Dashboard
A common question we receive from MB Frontend Submission's users is how to let users view and edit their submitted posts. While that part is doable, it requires quite a lot of technical coding and setup. Understanding the problem, we have improved the way to let users manage their submitted posts.
So, basically, all you need to do now is just create a normal WordPress page, and insert the following shortcode into the page content:
[mb_frontend_dashboard edit_page="124"]
Where 124 is the ID of the page, where you already have to let users submit posts. And when users visit this page, they'll see a dashboard like this:
On this dashboard, users can:
- View list of their submitted posts with the corresponding statuses
- Edit or delete submitted posts
- Or submit a new post
There's no settings or coding required from users!
And the plugin is smart enough to detect the correct settings from the submission form to correct posts. So you can have multiple submission forms and multiple dashboards on a same website.
Ajax Submission
Another request we received is Ajax submission. It probably is a long-waited feature! While the normal submission is fine, Ajax provides a better experience for users as they don't have to reload the page after submission.
To add Ajax to the submission form, simply add ajax="true" to the shortcode. So your shortcode will look like this:
[mb_frontend_form id="post-info" ajax="true"]
Google reCaptcha
To prevent spams from bot submissions, we already implemented a security check for the front-end forms. However, that might be not enough since it can be bypassed by bots.
In this version, we have added support for Google reCaptcha v3 to improve the spam protection. We choose version 3 of reCaptcha because it's hidden, and normal users won't even notice a change. It provides better experience for users than the version 2. In version 2, you see a checkbox and have to solve a question like select pictures of buses. People waste a lot of time on that, and sometimes they fail the validation!
To add Google reCaptcha to the submission form, please go to reCaptcha page, sign in with your Google account and register a site:
After that, you'll get a secret key and a site key:
And all you need to do is just put these keys into the shortcode like this:
[mb_frontend_form id="post-info" recaptcha_key="your-recapcha-site-key" recaptcha_secret="your-recaptcha-secret-key"]
And from now on, when users submit a post from the front end, the plugin will check it with Google reCaptcha, to make sure it's a valid submission. No spams anymore!
Custom redirection
Another improvement we made in this version is custom redirection. Previously, you have to do it with coding. Now you can do that simply by setting a redirect attribute in the submission form, just like this:
[mb_frontend_form id="post-info" redirect="https://domain.com/dashboard"]
After users submit posts successfully, they'll be redirected to the new location of your website. This feature works with both normal submissions and Ajax submissions!
Move to Trash or Delete Permanently
You can now select to delete posts permanently or temporarily (move to Trash) with a new parameter force_delete. By default, it has the value true, which means all posts are permanently deleted. If you don't want that, simply set it to false like this:
[mb_frontend_form id="post-info" post_id="123" allow_delete="true" force_delete="false"]
Conclusion
This is a big update for MB Frontend Submission extension. And it took us quite a long time to finish them all. We're improving it in the next upcoming weeks with more features and easy of use. If you have any idea or suggestion, don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you very much!
Update: UI for the Frontend Submission Form 
How to Create a Contact Form Using Meta Box 
Introducing MB Frontend Submission Extension
This is great news! Does this require and update to the core metabox plugin?
Thank you!
Hi Jason, we'll update the AIO plugin today. The MB Core plugin (Core Bundle) doesn't include MB Frontend Submission extension.
Hi Anh,
It would be useful to add Google reCaptcha v3 to MB User Profile for registrations/logins too.
Is this on the roadmap?
Thanks
Yes, it's on the roadmap. We'll update it soon.
Hi David, we've just added support for Google reCaptcha. Please update!
I'm using oxygen builder and metabox o try and create a front end to post that the user can edit their own post
I have added the shortcode [mb_frontend_dashboard edit_page="51"] on a page but I get this error - Something is not right with the shortcode on page ID:
it is the correct ID
what am I doing wrong
Please follow the error message by checking the ID of the edit page. The edit page is the page that has shortcode to edit the submitted posts.
Hello Anh Tran, is MB dashboard actually compatible with Oxygen at the moment ? Because no matter what I try it will not show any posts table for user to edit published posts. Same error message "Something is not right with the shortcode on page ID:".
Could you please state a clear answer as to if we must wait for an update for compatibility, or if there is a work-around, or if there is simply nothing that can be done to show the dashboard ?
It feels like a lot of Oxygen users have been asking for a solution in the past months but none is given. If there is a solution, please go into detail and let us know exactly HOW to implement the dashboard (not giving partial bits of code that we have no idea where to input). Asking us to "follow the error message by checking the ID of the edit page" is pretty obvious, we for sure have done it before posting here.
Please really address this issue, since Frontend forms work I do not understand why dashboard wouldn't. Thanks.
Hi,
Please update the new version of MB Frontend Submission 3.1.5 or MB AIO 1.15.2 to use the frontend dashboard shortcode in the Oxygen builder.
Hello MBTeam,
Thank you very much for these value-added options!
Is that possible to include the payment attributes?
After reading, studying and trying for hours: The given information doesnt`work: "Something is not right with the shortcode on page ID: 322". The site doesn`t output any (editable) information of the submitted frontend submission. Second: which sense makes it to manually setup for each new user a new site for editing, with post_id for his/her posts? thats not the idea of a dynamic website concept.
How would you email a copy of whatever they wrote to themselves and no actually make a post?
Use case. People taking notes during a live class and emailing themselves a copy of all the notes they took.
I don't know if there is a security problem or no.
But by default, everyone can send a post, even without being logged in.
Is it safe to leave it like that?
The form can be manipulated to add hack content, or post-id to erase special content?
You can always add an extra check to require users to login to see and submit the form.
"You can always add an extra check to require users to login to see and submit the form."
I'll use it like that, without requiring user for being logged in. I was just wondering if it was enough secure by default in this mode.
thanks!
The idea of the plugin is allowing users (even guests) to submit posts. So it must work for non-logged in users.
To prevent spam, we have extra security like nonce (default by WordPress) and Google reCaptcha. So it's not an issue.
To "hack" like set the post ID to edit the content, it requires the "edit_post" capability, e.g. users must be logged in and have proper capability. So, it's not a problem either.