User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End

🏆 The #1 Plugin for user-generated content

User Submitted Posts (USP) provides a front-end form that enables visitors to submit posts and upload images. Just add the following shortcode to any Post, Page, or Widget:

[user-submitted-posts]

That’s all there is to it! Your site now can accept user generated content. Everything is super easy to customize via Plugin Settings page.

🚀 Enable visitors to submit posts from the front end of your site

✨ Form Fields

The submission form may include any/all of the following fields:

• Name
• Email
• URL
• Post Title
• Post Tags
• Post Category
• Post Content
• Custom Field 1
• Custom Field 2
• Custom Checkbox
• Challenge Question
• Google reCAPTCHA (v2 or v3 Invisible)
• Cloudflare Turnstile (Invisible)
• Post Images
• Agree to Terms

🚀 The first and best plugin for user-submitted content

✨ Core Features

• Simple to set up and display the form anywhere on your site
• Display the form on multiple posts and pages, or even site-wide
• Redirect users to any URL or stay on current page after submitting posts
• Set post status as draft, pending, publish, or publish after x number of posts
• Option to receive email notifications for submitted posts
• Customize email notifications with various post data
• Include email links to edit and delete posts
• Display a basic login/register/password form

🚀 Enable your visitors to share their own posts and images

✨ Form Features

• Display form anywhere via shortcode or template tag
• Display only the fields that you want on the form
• Set each displayed form field to be required or optional
• Automatic client-side form validation provided by Parsley
• Stops spam via input validation, your choice of captcha, and hidden field
• Choose Google reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile, or Challenge Question
• Choose Google reCAPTCHA v2 (“I am not a bot”) or v3 (Invisible)
• Optionally require users to be logged in to use the form

🚀 Dial in the perfect form for your visitors

✨ More Features

• Lightweight, fast, and secure
• Translated into 20+ languages
• Option to submit posts as WP Posts or Pages
• Provides option to enable a custom form and styles
• Customize success, error, and file upload messages
• Includes shortcode to display a list of submitted posts
• Includes shortcodes to control access and restrict content
• Includes template tags to display submitted post content

🚀 Simple to use, lightweight, and flexible

✨ Image Uploads

• Enable visitors to upload any number of images
• Specify minimum and maximum number of allowed images
• Specify minimum and maximum width and height for images
• Automatically set submitted images as Featured Images
• Automatically display submitted images on the front end
• Includes template tags to display submitted images
• Includes shortcodes to display submitted images
• Form displays thumbnail previews of images

🚀 The easiest way to enable user content

✨ Pro Version

Pro version includes many powerful features, with unlimited custom forms, unlimited form fields, multimedia file uploads, and much more. Pro features include:

• Unlimited forms
• Unlimited form fields
• Unlimited file uploads
• All field types, including textarea, checkboxes, radio, select, file(s), plus input types like text, password, url, search, email, month, time, color, date, range, number, and more
• Build post-submission forms, user-registration forms, and contact forms
• Build COMBO forms (e.g., forms that submit posts AND register users)
• Supports unlimited Custom Post Types
• Supports custom Taxonomy fields
• Supports Custom Post Status
• Supports Post Formats
• Custom error messages
• Custom redirects
• Advanced security features
• Advanced shortcode to display submitted posts on the front end
• Plus everything the free version can do and more!

🚀 Visit Plugin Planet to learn more and get USP Pro »

✨ Translations

User Submitted Posts supports translation into any language. Current translations include the following languages:

Arabic                - usp-ar
Bengali               - usp-bn_BD
Chinese (Simplified)  - usp-zh_CN
Chinese (Traditional) - usp-zh_TW
Czech                 - usp-cs_CZ
Dutch                 - usp-nl_NL
French (France)       - usp-fr_FR
German                - usp-de_DE
Greek                 - usp-el
Hebrew                - usp-he_IL
Hindi                 - usp-hi_IN
Irish                 - usp-ga
Italian               - usp-it_IT
Japanese              - usp-ja
Korean                - usp-ko_KR
Norwegian             - usp-no
Panjabi               - usp-pa_IN
Persian               - usp-fa_IR
Polish                - usp-pl_PL
Portuguese (Brazil)   - usp-pt_BR
Portuguese (Portugal) - usp-pt_PT
Romanian              - usp-ro_RO
Russian               - usp-ru_RU
Serbian               - usp-sr_RS
Slovenian             - usp-sl_SI
Spanish (Spain)       - usp-es_ES
Swedish               - usp-sv_SE
Turkish               - usp-tr_TR
Urdu                  - usp-ur

Note: Most of the default translations are made via Google Translate. So they are automated and may be a little rough. Feel free to make your own translation as desired. Need a translation into your language? Let me know!

✨ Privacy

User Data: This plugin enables users to submit post content. It collects data only from users who voluntarily submit content via the USP form. The only involuntary data that is collected is the IP address of the person submitting the form. The plugin provides an option to disable IP collection completely.

Cookies: This plugin uses simple cookies to enable dynamic form functionality. No cookies are used for any other purpose.

Services: This plugin provides an option to enable Google reCaptcha, which is provided by Google as a third-party service. For details on privacy and more, please refer to official documentation for Google reCaptcha. This plugin also provides an option to enable Cloudflare Turnstile, which is provided by Cloudflare as a third-party service. For details on privacy and more, please refer to official documentation for Cloudflare Turnstile. No other outside services or locations are accessed/used by this plugin.

✨ Developer

User Submitted Posts is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author.

✨ Support Development

I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books:

• The Tao of WordPress
• Digging into WordPress
• .htaccess made easy
• WordPress Themes In Depth
• Wizard’s SQL Recipes for WordPress

And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins:

• BBQ Pro – Blazing fast WordPress firewall
• Blackhole Pro – Automatically block bad bots
• Banhammer Pro – Monitor traffic and ban the bad guys
• GA Google Analytics Pro – Connect WordPress to Google Analytics
• Head Meta Pro – Ultimate Meta Tags for WordPress
• REST Pro Tools – Awesome tools for managing the WP REST API
• Simple Ajax Chat Pro – Unlimited chat rooms
• USP Pro – Unlimited front-end forms

Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thanks! 🙂

How to install the plugin

1. Upload the plugin to your blog and activate
2. Configure your options via the plugin settings
3. Display the form via shortcode or template tag

More info on installing WP plugins

Display the form

To display the form on any WP Post, Page, or widget, add the shortcode:

[user-submitted-posts]

Or, to display the form anywhere in your theme, add the template tag:

<?php if (function_exists('user_submitted_posts')) user_submitted_posts(); ?>

Important: When copy/pasting the shortcode, use the plain-text editor or block. Using the Visual/RTE Editor may introduce unwanted artifacts when copy/pasting from a web page. Specifically, if you copy the above shortcode and paste it directly into a visual editor or block, the shortcode may be wrapped in code tags. And when the shortcode is wrapped in code tags, the form will display very poorly on the front end.

Customize the form

There are three main ways to customize the form:

• Visit the plugin settings to show/hide fields, configure options, etc.
• Enable the custom form template (check out “Custom Submission Form” below)
• Developers can use action and filter hooks

Custom Submission Form

Out of the box, User Submitted Posts provides a highly configurable submission form. Visit the plugin settings to control which fields are displayed, configure options, and so forth.

There are cases however, where advanced form configuration may be required. In order to allow for this, USP makes it possible to create a custom submission form. Here are the steps:

First, copy these two plugin files:

/user-submitted-posts/resources/usp.css
/user-submitted-posts/views/submission-form.php

Then, paste those two files into a directory named /usp/ in your theme:

/wp-content/themes/your-theme/usp/usp.css
/wp-content/themes/your-theme/usp/submission-form.php

Lastly, visit the plugin settings and set the “Form style” option to “Custom Form + CSS”.

You can now customize the two files as desired. The files will not be overwritten when the plugin is updated. For help with making basic changes to the custom form, check out the USP FAQs at Perishable Press.

Alternately, you can set the option “Form style” to “HTML5 Form + Disable CSS” to use the default USP form along with your own CSS. FYI: here is a list of USP CSS selectors.

Or, to go further with unlimited custom forms, check out USP Pro. USP Pro provides a form builder within the WP Admin Area, where you can add any fields, labels, text, and so forth.

Display submitted posts

User-submitted posts are handled by WordPress as regular WP Posts. So they are displayed along with your other posts according to your theme design.

Display custom fields

To display submitted custom fields, visit the plugin settings and configure the “Auto-Display” options.

Also, here is a Helper Plugin to display Custom Fields. It is designed for use with the Pro version, but also works great with the free version.

For more flexibility, you can use a variety of WP Template Tags (e.g., get_post_meta()) to display custom fields.

Display submitted images

To display submitted images, visit the plugin settings and configure the “Auto-Display” options.

Display a Featured Image

To display a Featured Image (aka Post Thumbnail) for each submitted post, visit the plugin settings > Image Uploads > Featured Image.

Shortcodes

User Submitted Posts provides a set of useful shortcodes. Check out the “Display the Form” panel in the plugin settings for examples and quick information.

[user-submitted-posts]                        : displays the form on any Post or Page
[usp-login-form]                              : displays a login/register/password form
[usp_display_posts]                           : displays list of all submitted posts
[usp_gallery]                                 : displays a gallery of all submitted images for the current post
[usp-reset-button url="https://example.com/"] : displays a button to reset the form
[usp_access cap="read" deny=""][/usp_access]  : limits access to specific user capability
[usp_visitor deny=""][/usp_visitor]           : limits access to visitors (not logged in) only
[usp_member deny=""][/usp_member]             : limits access to logged-in users

Here is more information about these shortcodes:

[user-submitted-posts]

Displays the post-submit form. This shortcode does not accept any attributes.

[usp-login-form]

Displays the login/register/password form. This shortcode does not accept any attributes.

To add Google reCaptcha to the form, you can use a free reCaptcha plugin, for example:

• reCaptcha by BestWebSoft
• Advanced Google reCAPTCHA

[usp_display_posts]

Displays a list of all submitted posts. This shortcode accepts two optional attributes, “userid” and “numposts”. Examples:

[usp_display_posts]                           : default displays all submitted posts by all authors
[usp_display_posts userid="current"]          : displays all submitted posts by current logged-in user
[usp_display_posts userid="1"]                : displays all submitted posts by registered user with ID = 1
[usp_display_posts userid="Pat Smith"]        : displays all submitted posts by author name "Pat Smith"
[usp_display_posts userid="all"]              : displays all submitted posts by all users/authors
[usp_display_posts userid="all" numposts="5"] : limit to 5 posts from all users
[usp_display_posts post_type="page"]          : display only submitted pages

The shortcode attributes can be used to customize the post list as desired. Note that the Pro version of USP provides many more options for the display-posts shortcode.

[usp_gallery]

Note: This shortcode works only when added to a submitted post. It does nothing when added anywhere else.

Displays a gallery of all submitted images for the current post. Customize via the following attributes:

size    = image size as thumbnail, medium, large or full -> default = thumbnail
format  = whether to make the image a linked image       -> default = image (can use image or image_link)
target  = whether to open linked image in new tab        -> default = blank (can use blank or self)
class   = optional custom class name(s)                  -> default = none
number  = the number of images to display for each post  -> default = 100
post_id = an optional post ID to use                     -> default = false (uses global/current post)

Check out the source code inline notes for more info

[usp-reset-button]

Displays a button to reset the form. Accepts the following attributes:

class  = classes for the parent element (optional, default: none)
value  = link text (optional, default: "Reset form")
url    = the URL where your form is displayed (required, default: none)
custom = any attributes or custom code for the link element (optional, default: none)

Note that the url attribute accepts %%current%% for the current URL (useful when the form is displayed in the sidebar).

[usp_access]

Limits access to specific user capability. Example:

[usp_access cap="read"]
    Content for users that have "read" access
[/usp_access]

The cap attribute specifies the required capability or capabilities (comma-separated). This shortcode also accepts an optional deny attribute. The deny attribute displays a message to users who are denied access. Tip: to include markup in the deny message, you can use {tag} to display <tag>. Check out the “Display the Form” panel in the plugin settings for examples and more info.

[usp_visitor]

Limits access to visitors (not logged in) only. Example:

[usp_visitor]
    Content for for users who are not logged in
[/usp_visitor]

This shortcode accepts an optional deny attribute. The deny attribute displays a message to users who are denied access. Tip: to include markup in the deny message, you can use {tag} to display <tag>. Check out the “Display the Form” panel in the plugin settings for examples and more info.

[usp_member]

Limits access to logged-in users. Example:

[usp_member]
    Content for for users who are logged in
[/usp_member]

This shortcode accepts an optional deny attribute. The deny attribute displays a message to users who are denied access. Tip: to include markup in the deny message, you can use {tag} to display <tag>. Check out the “Display the Form” panel in the plugin settings for examples and more info.

Template tags

User Submitted Posts provides a set of useful template tags:

/*
    Display the Post-Submission Form
    Usage: <?php if (function_exists('user_submitted_posts')) user_submitted_posts(); ?>
*/

user_submitted_posts()


/*
    Display the Login/Register/Password Form
    Usage: <?php if (function_exists('usp_login_form')) usp_login_form(); ?>
*/

usp_login_form()


/*
    Display a configurable list of submitted posts
    Usage: <?php if (function_exists('usp_display_posts')) echo usp_display_posts(array('userid' => 'all', 'numposts' => -1)); ?>
*/

usp_display_posts()


/* 
    Check if post is a submitted post
    Returns true or false
    Usage: <?php if (usp_is_public_submission()) return true; ?>
*/

usp_is_public_submission()


/* 
    Get all image URLs
    Returns an array of image URLs that are attached to the current submitted post
    Usage: <?php $images = usp_get_post_images(); foreach ($images as $image) echo $image; ?>
*/

usp_get_post_images()


/* 
    Display all images
    Outputs a set of <img> tags for images attached to the current submitted post
    Usage: <?php usp_post_attachments($size, $beforeUrl, $afterUrl, $numberImages, $postId); ?>
    Parameters:
        $size         = image size: thumbnail, medium, large or full -> default = full
        $beforeUrl    = text/markup displayed before each image URL  -> default = <img src="
        $afterUrl     = text/markup displayed after each image URL   -> default = " />
        $numberImages = number of images to display for each post    -> default = false (display all)
        $postId       = an optional post ID to use                   -> default = uses global post
*/

usp_post_attachments()


/* 
    Display submitted author name and URL
    This tag displays one of the following:
        - The author's submitted name as a link (if both 'User Name' and 'User URL' fields are included in the form)
        - The author's submitted name as plain text (if 'User Name' is included in the form, but 'User URL' is not included)
        - The author's registered username as a link to the author's post archive (if 'User Name' is not included in the form)

    Usage: <?php usp_author_link(); ?>
*/

usp_author_link()


/*
    Get an array of image URLs, wrapped in optional HTML
    Syntax: <?php if (function_exists('usp_get_images')) $images = usp_get_images($size, $format, $target, $class, $number, $post_id); ?>
    Usage:  <?php if (function_exists('usp_get_images')) $images = usp_get_images(); foreach ($images as $image) echo $image; ?>
    Parameters:
            $size    = image size as thumbnail, medium, large or full -> default = thumbnail
            $format  = whether to make the image a linked image       -> default = image (can use image or image_link)
            $target  = whether to open linked image in new tab        -> default = blank (can use blank or self)
            $class   = optional custom class name(s)                  -> default = none
            $number  = the number of images to display for each post  -> default = 100
            $post_id = an optional post ID to use                     -> default = false (uses global/current post)

    Check out the source code inline notes for more info
*/

usp_get_images()

These template tags should work out of the box when included in your theme template file(s). Keep in mind that for some of the tags to work, there must be some existing submitted posts and/or images available.

The source code for these tags is located in /library/template-tags.php and shortcode-login.php.

Content Restriction

USP provides three “Access Control” shortcodes to control access and restrict content. Here are some examples to give you an idea of how it works.

Display form and/or content only to users with a specific capability:

[usp_access cap="read" deny="Message for users without read capability"]
    [user-submitted-posts] // Put the USP form or any other content here.
[/usp_access]

Display form and/or any content to logged-in users:

[usp_member deny="Message for users who are not logged in"]
    [user-submitted-posts] // Put the USP form or any other content here.
[/usp_member]

Display form and/or any content to visitors only:

[usp_visitor deny="Message for users who are logged in"]
    [user-submitted-posts] // Put the USP form or any other content here.
[/usp_visitor]

You can add and use Access Control shortcodes on any WP Post or Page. Tip: you can find this information (and more) in the plugin settings > Display the Form > Access Control.

Upgrades

Visit the WordPress Plugins screen, locate the plugin, and click “Update” 🙂

Restore Default Options

To restore default plugin options, either uninstall/reinstall the plugin, or visit the plugin settings > Restore Default Options.

Uninstalling

This plugin cleans up after itself. All plugin settings will be removed from the WordPress database when the plugin is deleted via the WP Plugins screen.

Note: This plugin never deletes any posts. When the plugin is uninstalled/deleted or options reset to default, only the plugin settings are removed. All submitted posts and related meta data must be removed manually.

Pro Version

USP Pro includes many more awesome features and settings, with unlimited custom forms, unlimited custom fields, multimedia file uploads, and much more.

• Learn more and get USP Pro »
• Watch the Quick Start video »
• Read what users are saying »

Like the plugin?

If you like USP, please take a moment to give a 5-star rating. It helps to keep development and support going strong. Thank you!