Schedule Post with Frontend Form?

• dhacree

• October 27, 2015 at 12:58 am

Hi,

I am using a front-end form to allow visitors to create a custom post type. I would like to give them the option to schedule the post rather than post it right away.

Does anyone know if scheduling posts is possible with the ACF Front-end form?

• John Huebner

• October 30, 2015 at 9:24 am

The documentation for pre_save_post is here. http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/acf-pre_save_post/

You need to create a date selector field. Then in the pre_save_post function you get the value that is submitted. It will be in the array $_POST['acf'], then you can use this value to set the post_date when creating the new post.

• dhacree

• October 31, 2015 at 12:31 am

Hi,

Thanks so much for the response. I apologize I am not very advanced with using php.

This is what my current form looks like:

<?php acf_form_head(); ?>

<?php /* The loop */ ?>
			<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

				<?php 
				
				
		
				acf_form(array(
				
					'post_id'		=> 'new_post',
					'post_title' => true,
					'new_post'		=> array(
						'post_type'		=> 'shareable',
						'post_status'  => 'future' ,

						
					),
					'submit_value'		=> 'Create post'
				

				)); ?>

			<?php endwhile; ?>

I am unclear on how to use the function acf-pre_save_post to set the post date variable.

I have a datepicker field added formatted like Y-m-d. Would the below code work with my form added above <?php acf_form_head(); ?> at the top of my template?

<?php

function my_pre_save_post( $post_id ) {

    // check if this is to be a new post
    if( $post_id != 'new' ) {

        return $post_id
    }
// The date picker field
$postdate = get_field('schedule_post');

    // Create a new post
    $post = array(
        'post_status'  => 'future' ,
        'post_date'  => '$postdate' ,
        'edit_date' => 'true'
    );  

    // insert the post
    $post_id = wp_insert_post( $post ); 

    // return the new ID
    return $post_id;

}

add_filter('acf/pre_save_post' , 'my_pre_save_post', 10, 1 );

?>

• John Huebner

• November 2, 2015 at 5:44 am

The first thing you need to do is move acf_form_head(); to before get_header(); http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/acf_form/

Then in functions.php

 
add_filter('acf/pre_save_post' , 'shareable_pre_save_post', 10, 1 );
function shareable_pre_save_post($post_id) {
  // check if this is to be a new post
  if ($post_id != 'new_shareable') {
    return $post_id;
  }
  // The date picker field
  // change field_563657f49b4d9 to the field key of your date field
  $postdate = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($_POST['acf']['field_563657f49b4d9']));
  
  // Create a new post
  $post = array(
    'post_type' => 'shareable',
    'post_title' => $_POST['acf']['_post_title'],
    'post_status'  => 'future',
    'post_date'  => $postdate
  );  
  
  // insert the post
  $post_id = wp_insert_post( $post ); 
  
  // return the new ID
  return $post_id;
}

Then in your template where you want to show the form

$args = array(
  'post_id'    => 'new_shareable',
  'post_title' => true,
  'field_groups' => array(3498), // change to ID of the field group to show
  'submit_value'    => 'Create post'  
);  
acf_form($args);

• dhacree

• November 4, 2015 at 3:40 am

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out! The above solution worked perfectly.

My only question now is, could I show a different “Submit” button conditional on whether or not a date was selected. For example if a date is selected show “Schedule” button, if not show “Create Post” button?

I’ll see if I can figure this out.

Thanks so much again for the great support.
Daniel

• John Huebner

• November 4, 2015 at 11:47 am

That’s something that I don’t know. It would take some custom javascript and I haven’t done much with javascript for ACF.

• radgh

• October 7, 2016 at 3:49 pm

I struggled to get John’s code to update the post date. It seems that if you are setting the post_status to draft or pending, then you also need another argument: “edit_date”.

$args = array(
	'post_status'   => 'pending',
	'post_date'     => date( 'Y-m-d H:i:s', $date_timestamp ), // Eg: "2016-10-15 00:00:00"
	'post_date_gmt' => date( 'Y-m-d H:i:s', $date_timestamp ), // You want this particularly when the post already exists, or the GMT date will be wrong
	'edit_date'     => true // Must be true, prevents WordPress for "clearing" the post date for drafts and pending posts.
);

In addition, the pre_save_post hook MIGHT pass a post ID. To prevent the possibility of duplicate posts being added (especially if you hook in to this more than once), then you should support an existing ID. It’s easy:

if ( $post_id ) {
	// Update a post that was already inserted
	$args['ID'] = $post_id;
	wp_update_post( $args );
}else{
	// Insert a new post
	$post_id = wp_insert_post( $args );
}

return $post_id;

• Josh White

• November 22, 2022 at 4:37 pm

I cannot manage to get this working whatsoever…. hopefully someone can assist. Perhaps things have changed in the last 8 years and there is a better way to do this?

Here’s my code to display my form:

    <?php acf_form(array(
        'post_id'       => 'new_post',
        'id' => 'new-email',
        'new_post'      => array(
            'post_type'     => 'emails',
            'post_status'   => 'future',
            'field_groups' => array(1091),
            'post_title'    => true
        ),
        'return' => '',
        'submit_value'  => 'Add new email'
    )); ?>

Not sure if I have the field_groups ID correct or not. Not sure how to retrieve that. Is that the “post id” of the field group?

Here’s my functions file code:

add_filter('acf/pre_save_post' , 'emails_pre_save_post', 10, 1 );
function emails_pre_save_post($post_id) {
  // check if this is to be a new post
  if ($post_id != 'new_emails') {
    return $post_id;
  }
  // The date picker field
  // change field_563657f49b4d9 to the field key of your date field
  $postdate = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($_POST['acf']['field_emails_email_scheduled_date']));
  
  // Create a new post
  $post = array(
    'post_type' => 'emails',
    'post_title' => $_POST['acf']['_post_title'],
    'post_status'  => 'future',
    'post_date'  => $postdate,
    'edit_date' => true
  );  
  
  // insert the post
  $post_id = wp_insert_post( $post ); 
  
  // return the new ID
  return $post_id;
}

• John Huebner

• December 4, 2022 at 10:47 am

@infominemindmedia-com you need to match the “$post_id” in both the form and the function. It also must be something other than “new_post” because this is the default that ACF uses and runs its own filter.

So your form args should be

<?php acf_form(array(
        'post_id'       => 'new_emails',
        'id' => 'new-email',
        'new_post'      => array(
            'post_type'     => 'emails',
            'post_status'   => 'future',
            'field_groups' => array(1091),
            'post_title'    => true
        ),
        'return' => '',
        'submit_value'  => 'Add new email'
    )); ?>