Hello Seth,

Yes, Easysocial does support Joomla Content plugin as you can see in this file: ../plugins/content/easysocial/easysocial.php. May I know what you are trying to achieve here?

Hello Nick,

Oh..u misunderstood

I want to use Joomla Content plugin in Group Custom Field to build a FORM at the Group custom field so that group members can submit a form tailored for this group there.

Seth

Hi Seth,

I am sorry for the confusion.

Currently EasySocial custom fields ( user / group / event ) do not trigger any content plugins. If you are creating your own 'custom' field for group, you can manually trigger the content plugin and display the content inside the field. By the way, may i know are you going to display a form inside a field? If yes, then I am afraid that is not possible because in group edit page, all the fields a wrapped inside a html FORM tag and if you display another form tag inside your field, that might cause the form submission not working correctly. Please advise.

Hope this help.

IC. This method may not work.

I'm thinking how to bind a form to an easysocial group so that the group member can see and submit the form.

It seems only possible way is to create a hidden menu to the GROUP with external URL and then assign the form to display on this menu item.

But this will be very troublesome as every time I create a group I will need to do this again.

@Seth, if you're only looking to have the form rendered and submitted when displaying the custom field, not during editing or creation, then you may have success. Follow these steps:

1. Select "Custom Fields" for the appropriate Group category and add an HTML custom field where you'd like
   
2. Place any html/css/script code that defines the form in the HTML custom field
   
3. Make sure "Appear During Editing" and "Appear During Group Creation" is set to "No"
   
4. Save your changes.
   

Now when users selects the area that contains the HTML custom field you added, they can fill the form and submit it. I've attached an image below so you can see what I mean.

For Stack, why aren't content plugins triggered when viewing profiles in the same way they're triggered when other Joomla content is displayed?

IMG http://www.screencast.com/t/GkiuF4jBhN8

@Eileen,

Thx so much. You understand exactly what i intend to do :

However, this approach is difficult to operate as not all group owners know coding

My temp solution is to use a url field to direct to a form. Not good in long term, also.

Hope there will be a better solution later.

Many thx to your advice again.

Hi Eileen,

Regarding your question,

why aren't content plugins triggered when viewing profiles in the same way they're triggered when other Joomla content is displayed?

It is because we didn't include content plugin to be triggered in profile view because profile view is not in context of content.

Hope I have explained this well and thanks for sharing.

Thank you Mohd.

I get, but when considering the HTML field this at least becomes a gray area, doesn't it? Of course one can create a custom variable and be done, but the ES ecosystem would benefit by enabling a greater number of customers to create innovative solutions using the HTML field as a place for Joomla plugin tags.

Think about it, what would you use an HTML field for when you have all those other custom field choices, which are awesome, if not to display

a piece of content consisting of text (HTML), possibly with links to other resources (for example, images)

which is the definition of a Joomla Article. From the user perspective, they have content (their profile information), they can choose how it is published (privacy) and others view that content (profile details).

Thanks for considering these points, I appreciate your professional support

Hello Eileen,

Thanks for the explanation. We will bring this to our developers to be discussed. Really appreciate it.

@Seth, don't give up, I really think there's a simple solution for you...today! If my information below doesn't seem to satisfy your objective of enabling forms in group profiles, feel free to give me more of an explanation of your user scenario and maybe a screen shot. As I understand your requirements, you want:

1. Group members can submit a form in an ES group
   
2. The form is created by the Group Creator, or
   
3. The form is created by the site administrator.
   

You can achieve those requirements without, as you describe it, the need to

create a hidden menu to the GROUP with external URL and then assign the form to display on this menu item

How? Well, until ES sends out content events for HTML profile fields, you can do this:

Pick from any available and free form builders such as Wufoo (google search will bring up many). They all make available either a link to the form or embed code. I use Wufoo in my example.

1. Group members can submit a form in an ES group
   
In order to achieve this, add a custom HTML field or website link field. Populate the HTML field with the embed code from the form provider or put the link to the form in the website field.


2. The form is created by the Group Creator, or
   
Adjust the field's visibility settings so the field is visible during profile editing and display.


3. The form is created by the site administrator.
   
Adjust the field's visibility settings so the field is only visible during display.

Now, if you want form results visible to the group as well, add another HTML field. Most free form creators like Wufoo also have ways to show form submissions, and you can place this in yet another field for submission values.

IMG: http://www.screencast.com/t/gnXme3c1t

Hello Eileen,

You can't really just "trigger" a content plugin and pass them information about the profile as it's just going to fail. Most content plugins are expecting article objects and it does not makes sense at all to actually trigger content plugins It's definitely going to throw a fatal error since most plugins wouldn't be able to process the input

@mark, many Joomla form builders support Joomla content plugin. You can even build up a complex application with Fabrik (http://fabrikar.com/) and parse it into an article via content plugin.
So, if you can enable content plugin in Group's custom field, there are unlimited ecommerce opportunities with Easysocial.

@Eileen, highly appreciate your great advice. I will think about it. Most likely I will use Fabrik and copy the generated codes at the front end and parse into a custom field.

Eileen, you are in the same channel with me. Interested to know what you are going to do with this approach

Great thanks to both of you.

Seth

Hi Mark,

For many use cases I agree the answer is "why would you do that? It won't work, or there's a better way". Of course content plugins usually work on some Content from a custom extension. But there can exist content on the HTML form in a user or group profile upon which a content plugin can do its work quite well and beneficially for members and/or the site admins. Remember though, it's not always the case that a content plugin does work on Content --- sometimes it gets triggered IN content but it's purpose is to CREATE content.

For example, in Seth's use case a form plugin would create a form in the Group profile. Note, the form that will be created is not being passed any information about the profile. Rather, it's going to actually CREATE information about the profile of all the Group members. It appears to be a valid and fair use in order to build knowledge about the Group profile, to learn more about and manage the group better. What better way to leverage the capability of an HTML field?

But there still may be applications for plugins that are only concerned with Content. One use case could be admin's entering a value in the HTML field that could be replaced by NoNumber plugin ReReplacer. Imagine some information related to site members which relates to information about the member (either for member's only eyes or for everyone). Admittedly, many things should just never be done this way, really. For example, using ReReplacer to modify CCS on every ES theme when that should be done by creating a template override.

I think raising the trigger for HTML fields on profiles would be beneficial to the ES ecosystem because it will enable site admins to leverage appropriate Joomla plugins in ways similar to what I've described.

Hello Eileen,

Thanks for the explanation. I've discussed with the developers and we still considering to put the trigger in HTML field app on when displaying the field, but not when the user is editing. Perhaps, you can write this request in our Voices page here: http://www.stackideas.com/voices/easyblog and our developers will get back to you.

Thanks for the consideration, Nick. I've put a request in on Voices here.

Hello Eileen,

Thanks for the request in Voices.