Front-end user registration

• friendofdog

• June 6, 2017 at 7:22 pm

Trying to create a front-end form for user registration. I saw this post and decided that it would be a good template.

My question is specific to this set of code:

// set ACF pre-save stuff
add_filter('acf/pre_save_post' , 'acf_create_new_user' );

function acf_create_new_user( $post_id ) {

    error_log( $post_id );

    if ( $post_id != 'new' ) {
        return $post_id;
    }

    //prepare basic user info
    $password = wp_generate_password( 10, true, false );
    $username = $_POST['fields']['field_59364c779d819'];
    $email = $_POST['fields']['field_59364c779d819'];

    //register user
    $user_id = wp_create_user( $username, $password, $email );

    //update other user info
    wp_update_user( array(
        'ID'            => $user_id,
        'first_name'    => $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'],
        'last_name'     => $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6'],
        'display_name'  => $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'] . ' ' . $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6']
    ) );

    return $user_id;

}

Basically, it doesn’t work for me. I’ve put it in the page template and in functions.php (as suggested in documentation), doesn’t work in either spot.

The documentation for acf_form mentions that I might need to use acf_form_head(). I’m not sure if this is necessary, as there’s nothing here that creates a post. But I went for it anyway, putting acf_create_new_user() right above acf_form_head() at the end of functions.php – it breaks the form right after submission. Error log suggests that WP doesn’t know what the $_POST fields refer to.

For reference, this is my ACF form (included in page template, right before content loads):

// front-end form
if ( is_user_logged_in() == true ) : 

    global $current_user;
    $user_id = 'user_' . $current_user->ID;

else : $user_id = 'new';

endif;

$args = array(
    'post_id'               => $user_id,
    'field_groups'          => array( 475 ),
);

acf_form( $args );

• John Huebner

• June 7, 2017 at 10:52 am

calling acf_form_head() is required before get_header() or before any output is created in header.php. Nothing will be created if you don’t because this function, or functions called by this function is where the apply_filters('acf/pre_save_post'... is called. Basically, nothing will be saved if this acf_form_head() is not called.

The only error I see in your filter is

    //register user
    $user_id = wp_create_user( $username, $password, $email );

    //update other user info
    wp_update_user( array(
        'ID'            => $user_id,
        'first_name'    => $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'],
        'last_name'     => $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6'],
        'display_name'  => $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'] . ' ' . $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6']
    ) );

   // if you don't want the above fields also saved as custom fields for the user
  unset(
    $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'],
    $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6'],
    $_POST['fields']['field_593642087f8f5'],
    $_POST['fields']['field_593642267f8f6']
  )
    
    // for ACF, you need to return
    return 'user_'.$user_id;

• friendofdog

• June 8, 2017 at 8:17 pm

Thanks! Got it working, mostly.

calling acf_form_head() is required before get_header() or before any output is created in header.php

Noted. I’ve moved this bit to the page template, called it in at right place.

// if you don’t want the above fields also saved as custom fields for the user

Regarding unset(), good call. I wish I had done this sooner, now I have hundreds of instances of orphaned post data I have to delete…

I’ve simplified the code (and also complicated it a bit). It’s solved most issues, created others.

<?php

// set ACF pre-save stuff
add_filter('acf/pre_save_post' , 'acf_create_new_user' );

function acf_create_new_user( $post_id ) {

    error_log( 'post id: ' . $post_id);

    // // exit if user already logged in, front-end form sent his ID
    // if ( $post_id != 'new' ) {

    //     error_log( 'post not new: ' . $post_id);
    //     // wp_redirect( home_url() );
    //     return $post_id;

    // }

    $field_group = acf_get_fields_by_id('302');

    //prepare basic user info
    foreach ( $field_group as $key => $value ) {

        $$value['name'] = $_POST['acf'][$value['key']];

    }

    $password           = wp_generate_password( 10, true, false );
    $username           = $candidate_email;
    $display_name       = $candidate_given_name_romaji . ' ' . $candidate_family_name_romaji;

    // check if user exists, exit if so
    if ( email_exists( $candidate_email ) ) {

        error_log( 'email exists: ' . $candidate_email );
        wp_redirect( home_url() . '/sign-up/?email_exists&user_email=' . $candidate_email );
        return $candidate_email;

    }

    // register user
    $user_id = wp_create_user( $username, $password, $candidate_email );
    error_log( 'guy just created: ' . $user_id );

    // update other user info
    wp_update_user( array(

        'ID'            => $user_id,
        'first_name'    => $candidate_given_name_romaji,
        'last_name'     => $candidate_family_name_romaji,
        'display_name'  => $display_name

    ) );

    // update other user meta, prevent creation of post data
    foreach ( $field_group as $key => $value ) {

        update_user_meta( $user_id, $value['name'], $_POST['acf'][$value['key']] );
        unset( $_POST['acf'][$value['key']] );

    }

    // redirect to login page after finish
    wp_redirect( home_url() . '/sign-in/?new_user=true&user_email=' . $candidate_email );
    return 'user_' . $user_id;

}

?>

(1) // exit if user already logged in bit has been commented out because it just grabs the ID of the page, not the post data. I can’t remember if this was working before.

(2) wp_redirect() bits are not working. I know I can add redirects to acf_form() but they’re conditional: a successful registration will go to one place and an unsuccessful one will go elsewhere.

Please note, the way I use acf_form() code has changed. I ran into some issues with calling in an entire field group and had to call in the fields one-by-one. It looks like this:

<?php

// ensures that user is not logged in
if ( is_user_logged_in() == true ) : 
    global $current_user;
    $user_id = 'user_' . $current_user->ID;
else : $user_id = 'new';
endif;

acf_form( array(
    'post_id' => $user_id,
    'form' => false,
) );

?>

Then further down the page I have a bunch of these:

<?php
acf_form( array(
    'fields' => array('some_acf_field'),
    'form' => false,
) );
?>

• John Huebner

• June 9, 2017 at 10:38 am

You should probably keep the exit code if the user is already logged in.

I think you can dynamically alter the return value, but I can’t say exactly how. I think it has to do with setting

$_POST['return'] = $url;

but you’d need to test that to be sure

• friendofdog

• June 10, 2017 at 4:46 pm

I think I got it: if I move the is_user_logged_in() part to the bottom of the form, just before the submit button, it correctly passes the user ID to acf_create_new_user(). I suppose that all those instances of acf_form() reset the post ID?

Do you have any thoughts on my other question, why wp_redirect() isn’t working after form submission? To reiterate, I don’t want to use acf_form( 'return' => 'some-url' ) because the redirects are conditional (e.g. user already exists, user was registered, etc.).

• John Huebner

• June 13, 2017 at 11:27 am

If you want to redirect in another way than using return. First of all you need to make sure you take care of all of the saving of everything in your pre_save_post filter. If there are additional values that ACF needs to update, this will not happen if you do not return from your function. The reason I say this is that you need to exit completely after performing the redirect

wp_redirect( home_url() . '/sign-in/?new_user=true&user_email=' . $candidate_email );
exit;

Would it be possible to generate the return value for acf_form() before calling it and set the ‘return’ value based on whether or not it’s a new user?

• friendofdog

• June 19, 2017 at 12:40 pm

Right, exit! That did the trick.

I can’t generate a value for return in acf_form() prior to calling it, as part of the process is a check to see if the user is already registered (even if he’s not logged in). This might get changed later, and if it is I’d definitely prefer go this route instead of wp_redirect() -> exit.

• Winter Garden

• October 16, 2019 at 6:35 am

Hi Guys,

It’s 2 years on and i’m just picking up on this topic. Trying to create an ACF user registration form and there’s not much on the web. I’m not a PHP guru and don’t see how the form is submitted? Can someone maybe show an up-to-date example or explain how the one above submits.

Cheers

• dmcworks

• May 11, 2022 at 2:37 pm

Is this topic every going to be addressed by the developers? It seems like a very common request / need. MetaBox has this sort of functionality baked into their core.

• John Huebner

• May 11, 2022 at 2:55 pm

@dmcworks I don’t know if it will be addressed of not, I don’t even know if they are aware that it has been requested. This is a user forum and the developers rarely keep up on what’s happening here. Someone would need to contact them.

What I know is that ACF form was never intended to replace the standard WP user registration form. ACF can be use to add fields to that form. ACF does not replace anything in WP, in uses what already exists in WP to make the adding of custom fields in the admin easier.