Use Formidable Pro for Testimonials

June 21, 2011 ·
Knowledge Base → Examples → Use Formidable Pro for Testimonials

Contents

Here is an example of using Formidable Pro to display testimonials on your sites.

You can either download and install template files, or follow the instructions below.
Download Now

To Install template:

  1. Download ZIP file. Note: This is only compatible up to v1.06.05
  2. In your WordPress admin, go to “Plugins” -> “Add New” and click the “Upload” link at the top of the page.
  3. Click the “Browse” button and select the zip file you just downloaded.
  4. Go the the “Plugins” page, find “Formidable Testimonial Template” and click “Activate.”
  5. A form and the two custom displays described below will be automatically generated when the plugin is activated. The plugin is no longer needed once these templates are created. Now all that is needed is to insert the two custom displays somewhere on your site and add testimonials to your form.

Create the form

My Formidable Pro testimonials form has three fields: name (text field), photo (file upload), and testimonial (paragraph). Inserting a few testimonials might be nice to do now too.

Create the listings page

  1. Go to “Pages” -> “Add New” and create your testimonials page
  2. Go to “New Custom Display” or “Custom Display” -> “Setup new Custom Display Settings”.
  3. Name the display settings whatever you would like, and give it a description for reference if you would like.
  4. Select Show: “All entries” unless you would like each testimonial to have a single page with more detail (ie. videos).
  5. Select your testimonials form from the “Use Data from Form” drop-down.
  6. I usually opt to insert the content After page content to save an extra step of manually adding the shortcode.
  7. Select the page you created for your testimonials.
  8. Add your HTML. This is the HTML I’m using for my testimonials page: 
    <div class="[evenodd] single_testimonial">
[if photo]<img src="[photo]" class="left">[/if photo] "[testimonial]" 
<span class="right">- <i>[name]</i></span>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
  9. Save your display settings, and take a look at your testimonials page

Create the Random testimonial widget

  1. Follow steps 2 and 3 above.
  2. Select Show: “Single Entry”
  3. Use Data from Form: Testimonials. Leave the “Select Entry” drop-down on “The First one depending on the order specified below”.
  4. Set the Order drop-down to Random.
  5. Select “Don’t automatically insert. I’ll use the shortcode.” option.
  6. My HTML for the testimonial widget in the footer of this page is: 
    <p>"[statement]"   — [name]</p>

    I’ve added the p (paragraph) tags because the WordPress filtering doesn’t happen automatically when the shortcode is used.

  7. Save your display settings
  8. Copy the shortcode for your display settings. eg [display-frm-data id=2]
  9. Go to “Appearance” -> “Widgets”
  10. Drag a “Text” widget into your sidebar. (More widgets will be coming to Formidable Pro)
  11. Insert your shortcode into the text widget and save.
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