Using the Content App

Do you want to accept user-submitted Joomla articles? Are you looking for a way to create Joomla articles automatically when a user submits a form?

You can effortlessly create custom article submission forms to gather specific information from your users. Whether you need to collect blog posts, news articles, or any other type of content, Convert Forms Content App makes the process quick and easy.

This guide will show you how to allow users to submit articles to your Joomla site without writing a single line of code. That way, you can quickly publish them on the front end. This is super easy to set up, and you can allow posts from registered or guest users.

Requirements

To use the Content App, you will need the following:

Convert Forms Pro 4.2+
The Convert Forms - Apps - Content plugin installed and activated.

Supported Actions

The Content app supports the following actions:

Create Article: Use this to create a new Joomla article

We plan to support the following actions in a future release:

Update Article: Update an existing article.
Create Category: Create a new content category

Using the Create Article Action

You’ll need to create a new form or edit an existing one to start. After opening the form builder, go to the Tasks panel and click Create Your First Task. This starts the process of creating a new task.

Upon opening the pop-up dialog, you will see a list of apps. Search for the Content app. Your screen should look like this:

content app

Next, we must choose the proper trigger to fire the task at the right time.

Select New Submission in the Trigger option.
Select Create Article in the Action option.

Your screen should look like this:

content action trigger

In the next screen, you will see all available settings to configure the action. We’ve outlined what each of these does below.

content task setup

Title

The title of the article.

Note the article’s alias is automatically generated based on the article’s title during submission. If the generated alias already exists, it will get an increment trailing number at the end, separated by a dash.

Text

The actual text of the article.

Note: Due to technical reasons, this option is the only option on the screen that does not have a dropdown selection to map it to a form field easily. This does not mean the option does not accept Smart Tags. To map it to a field, you can still use the {field.FIELDNAME} Smart Tag.

Author

The ID of the user account will represent the article's author. Select the Detect Logged-in User option to assign the logged-in user that submits the form as the article’s author. The article will have no author if a non-logged-in user submits the form. To allow only logged-in users to access the form, either publish the form using a Form Menu Type and set the proper access level or use PHP. If you map this option with a Smart Tag, ensure it returns a valid user ID.

Status

The status of the article. This option lists all the supported statuses for your convenience. If you map this option with a Smart Tag, ensure it returns one of the following status codes: Published = 1, Unpublished = 0, Trashed = -1, Archived = 2.

Access Level

Set who will be able to access the article. This option lists all the available access levels for your convenience. If you map this option with a Smart Tag, ensure it returns a proper Access Level ID.

Start Publishing Date

Set a date to publish the article in Y-M-D H:M:S format. Leave it empty to publish the article immediately. If you map this option with a Date Time field, you must set its format to Y-m-d H:i.

Finish Publishing Date

Set a date to unpublish the article in Y-M-D H:M:S format. Leave it empty to never unpublish the article. If you map this option with a Date Time field, you must set its format to Y-m-d H:i.

Intro Image

The relative path of the image is meant to be used in the category, list, and featured views.

Full Article Image

The relative path of the image is meant to be used in the article details page.

Featured

Set whether the article will be featured. If you map this option with a Smart Tag, ensure it returns 0 or 1.

Language

If your site is multilingual, select the article's associated language. Otherwise, select the “All” option (default). If you map this option with a Smart Tag, ensure it returns a valid language code, e.g., en-GB or el-GR. Return an asterisk ‘*’ if you don’t want to associate it with a language.

Note

Add a note to this article. This is displayed only on the backend of the article editing page.

Custom Fields

Specify which custom fields you’d like to pre-populate when creating the article. A specific set of single and multiple-value custom fields are supported. You can also use Smart Tags.

How to populate custom fields

The Content app lets you create Joomla articles while also filling in custom fields. You can populate fields that accept both single and multiple values, giving you more flexibility in managing your content.

How to populate simple fields

When creating a Joomla article, you can now easily populate simple fields. Simple fields are custom fields that accept a single value. The custom field value can either be typed manually, or mapped to a form field entered by your users.

The supported custom fields are listed below:

Text
Textarea
Radio
Calendar
Color
Editor
Integer
List
List of Images
Location
URL
User
User Groups
ACF Articles
ACF Convert Forms
ACF Country
ACF Currency
ACF Download Button
ACF Facebook
ACF Gravatar
ACF HTML5 Audio
ACF IFrame
ACF Module
ACF PHP
ACF Progress Bar
ACF QR Code
ACF Telephone
ACF Timepicker
ACF True/False
ACF Twitter
ACF Video
ACF WhatsApp Click to Call.

Create Custom Field

Let’s get started by creating a custom field under Components > Content > Fields.

Select the “Text” type, and set it’s name to “Movie Name”.

Create Single Value Custom Field

Example #1: Mapping a Text field to a form field

Within our form, let’s add a text field called “Movie Name” in which our visitors will type in the Movie Name.

Create Form Field to populate Single Value Custom Field

To populate the “Movie Name” custom field, head over to your form’s settings > Tasks > click to edit your Content app, under the Custom Fields setting, click on the “Select Custom Field” area, and from the left-hand side select the “Movie Name” custom field.

Select Single Value custom field

After selecting the “Movie Name” custom field, we then need to specify the value of this custom field. In this case, we select the “Movie Name” form field which we just created.

Select form field as the value of the single value custom field

The final configuration looks like this:

Final configuration to populate a single value custom field via a form field value

Now, whenever a visitor types in a movie name, it will automatically appear in the article settings, in the corresponding custom field that’s named “Movie Name”.

Example #2: Mapping a Text field to a fixed value

An alternative way to populate a custom field is by entering a fixed value instead of relying on the user input.

Select form field as the value of the single value custom field

After selecting the “Movie Name” custom field, we then need to specify the value of this custom field. In this case, we set a fixed value by typing the text “Titanic”.

Type single value custom field value manually

How to populate list fields

When you’re creating Joomla articles, you can now easily populate list-type fields. You can either populate list fields by mapping them to a form field or by setting a fixed value.

The supported list fields are listed below:

List
Checkbox
List of Images
User Groups
ACF Articles

Create Custom Field

Let’s create a Checkbox custom field that accepts multiple values under Components > Content > Fields, by selecting the “Checkboxes” type, and name it “Colors”.

Then specify the colors Red, Blue, Green, as seen below.

Create multi value custom field

Example #1: Populating a List field by mapping it to a form field

Within our form, let’s add a Checkbox field called “Colors” in which our visitors will be able to select their desired colors.

Each value must correspond to an option defined in the previously created custom field settings.

Create multi value form field

To populate the “Colors” custom field, head over to your form’s settings > Tasks > click to edit your Content app, under the Custom Fields setting, click on the “Select Custom Field” area, and from the left-hand side select the “Colors” custom field.

Select multi value custom field

After selecting the “Colors” custom field, we then need to specify the value of this custom field. In this case, we select the “Colors” form field.

Select value for multi value custom field

The final configuration looks like this:

Final configuration for populating a multi value custom field

Example #2: How to populate a list field with a fixed value

An alternative way to populate a list field is by entering the custom field value manually.

Select multi value custom field

After selecting the “Colors” custom field, we then need to specify the value of this custom field. In this case, we set a fixed value by typing the text “red, green”.

Note that the fixed value we set must correspond to an option defined in the custom field settings. We can define multiple values by separating each value with a comma, as seen below.

Final configuration set setting a fixed value on the multi value custom field

How to populate advanced fields

You may be wondering why we haven’t mentioned any advanced fields such as ACF - File Upload, ACF - Gallery, ACF - Map, etc…

These custom fields don’t accept a single or multi value(comma separated) but an object as a value which makes it difficult to populate via the existing Custom Fields section.

The complete list of custom fields that are currently unsupported are:

Media
ACF Address
ACF Chained Fields
ACF Countdown
ACF Email
ACF FAQ
ACF File Upload
ACF Gallery
ACF Map
ACF PayPal
ACF SoundCloud
Any advanced 3rd-party custom fields

We are committed to improve the user experience of the Custom Fields section to support such advanced custom fields.

Reading the new article details in the next step

Let’s say that after creating the Joomla article, you would also like to email the administrator, letting them know that a new article has been submitted. To make the email more meaningful, you want to include the ID and the title of the article in the subject like this:

New Article Submission: #ARTICLE_ID - ARTICLE_TITLE

Once the Content app runs successfully and the article is created in the database, it exposes all article properties so they can read the next steps. That way, you can create advanced workflows and scenarios with your forms. For instance, if the Email app runs right after the Content app, you can read the ID and the Title of the article using the {task.prev.response.id} and {task.prev.response.title} Smart Tags respectively in any configuration option in the Email app.

So, in our case, the Email Subject option becomes:

New Article Submission: #{task.prev.response.id} - {task.prev.response.title}

Your screen should look like this:

dynamic email subject

With the same syntax, you read any article property like: alias, fulltext, state, catid, created_by, publish_up.

Troubleshooting

Below is a list of common issues you may encounter using this app. If you don't see your issue listed, open a support ticket with the relevant information related to your issue.

I am getting the error: incorrect datetime value: '10/05/2023’ for column 'publish_up' at row 1

You are using the wrong date format, either in the Start Publishing Date or Finish Publishing Date options. Both options expect the following date format: Y-M-D H:M:S.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I update an existing article?

No. Updating an existing article is not currently supported, but it’s on our plans. You can use the Webhooks app to make this happen as a temporary workaround.

Are there any alternative ways to create a Joomla Article?

If this article submission addon does not fit your needs, you can find other methods below to automatically generate a Joomla article when someone submits your form.