Create Posts using Formidable Pro

Custom Post Type Support

Formidable Pro can be used to create custom post types in addition to creating posts. I like using the Custom Post Type UI plugin to create the custom post type, and then it will show up on the “Create Posts” tab.

Once you select a post type from the “Post Type” dropdown and click update, the category fields will switch over to the new post type you selected.

How to set the featured image

This is shown in the video below if you would like to watch a demonstration on how to do this. Note: WordPress allows one and one one featured image for a post, so it will not work correctly to allow multiple uploads into the field you set up for the featured image.

1. Add a file upload field to your form.
2. Go to the Settings -> Create Post tab.
3. Click the “Add” button on the custom fields row.
4. Select the upload field from the drop-down and Insert “_thumbnail_id” as the custom field name.

How to set a default category

1. Add a checkbox, radio, or dropdown field to your form.
2. Go to the Settings -> Create Post tab.
3. Click the “Add” button on the “Taxonomies/Categories” row.
4. Select the taxonomy to link the field to and select added field from the second drop-down.
5. Click Update
6. Return to the “Build” page and select the default category. You can also check the “Admin only” box if you do not want users to change the category.

How to add hierarchal categories

Use these instructions to allow users to select a parent category, then display a list of all child categories under that parent category.

Form Builder Page

1. Add a “Data From Entries” field type into your form (this will be your “parent categories: field)
2. in the field options for this field, set it to “Import Data from” “-Use a Category/Taxonomy-”
   Note:if you don’t want users to see this, also set it as an admin only field.
3. set the “display as” option to “dropdown”
4. Add a second Data From Entries field into your form (this will be the child category checkboxes)
5. in the field options for this field, set it to “Import Data from” “-Use a Category/Taxonomy-”
6. set the “display as” option to “checkboxes” so users can select more than one.
7. Add conditional logic to this field to display this field when ‘parent category field’ is ‘equal to’ ‘anything’

Create Posts Settings Page

1. Click “add” under the “Taxonomies/Categories” section and select your Parent category field. Then select the taxonomy you would like to use (usually this will be “Category”)
2. Check the “exclude” option and select all level 2 categories to hide all child categories
3. Click “add” again under the “Taxonomies/Categories” section and select your child category field. Then select the same taxonomy you selected above.
4. Check the “exclude” option and select all level 1 categories to hide all parent categories

Set a default author

If you would like to allow non-user posts and assign them to a specific user, follow these steps:

1. Go to your user list in the admin and find the user you would like to assign posts to. Click the link to edit that user, and locate the user ID in the URL.
2. If there is not a user ID field type in your form, add one.
3. Open the “Field options” for your user ID field, and insert the user ID into the “dynamic default value” box.
4. Click the “Update” button.

How to combine multiple fields into the post content

This is shown in the video below, but sometimes it’s nice to not have to watch a video and just get the basics. In order to allow editing posts from Formidable, only one post is allowed to be set as the “Post Content.” When a WordPress post is created, all fields set to a post field are only saved in the regular WordPress database. This means you can also safely edit posts from the regular WordPress interface.

1. Set up your form. You must set a field for the “Post title” but the rest are optional.
2. After you have your form created, go to “Formidable” -> “Custom Displays”
3. Choose a title for your reference, select your form from the “Use entries from form” dropdown.
4. Important: Select “Both (dynamic)” as the “Display format”
5. The “content” box will only be seen if you insert the custom display on a page. The “dynamic content” box will be used to automatically replace the content in your single post. This is where you will insert the fields from your form to combine them.
6. If your automatic content doesn’t show up, you may need to increase the “Insert Position.” Increase it one number at a time, up to about 5 or so.