WordPress Google Form v0.46 beta 5 available

I’ve updated the beta version of WordPress Google Form v0.46 to beta-5 and made it available for download from this site. This beta update addresses an issue where content is floating to the wrong location. The addition of column support using jQuery Columnizer plugin injects several DIVs to wrap the column content and the DIVs which contain the columns are floated either left (default) or right. I have added some additional jQuery code to clear the floats at the end of the Google Form.

Download the beta release and please let me know if you run into any issues.

Google Forms Beta (7971 downloads )

20 thoughts on “WordPress Google Form v0.46 beta 5 available

  1. Hi Mike

    Well done on the continuous development of this plugin. It’s great.

    I have a feature request for you.

    Can you please include the url and title of the blog post where the form is completed?

    This may not be a major need for a static form at a static page. But when the form is added to a widget it’s great to see at which post the form was completed.

    • How would you envision having this implemented? As part of the email notification? As a field in the spreadsheet?

      • It would be great if it’s send as part of the email. The script I am using sends it to me. But not as part of the form results. So I suppose it’s a form script issue. 😉

        • Adding it to the form to have it appear in the spreadsheet a bit of a challenge which is why I added it the URL and other information to the email notification. In order to have the information added to the Google Spreadsheet, the following would have to happen:

          1. Form would have to be designed with “special fields” that would be designated to receive the URL and Blog Post title. Since Google Forms don’t have any such capability, they would have to be added as text fields at the time the form was designed.
          2. The “special” fields would need be identified by their id (e.g. entry_0) and “mapped” as special fields for WordPress Google Form to process. This would require the person setting up the form to actually look at the HTML code to determine the Id.
          3. WordPress Google Form would then convert the “special” fields from standard Google Form elements to a hidden input with the proper initial value.

          All of this is technically possible although I worry that the second step would be beyond the capability of the typical WordPress user. I’ll take a look and see if there is something else I can add to the email notification but adding it to the form data so it is captured on the Google Spreadsheet is pretty much out of the scope of what I can tackle right now.

          That said, moving from a short code to a Custom Post Type does mean some other things are possible. For example – it would be possible to “scan” the Google Form when the Custom Post Type is captured and from the scan, identify the various fields and their IDs. Once we had the IDs we could do something useful with them. However, this “scan” concept falls apart when the Google Form is multi-page as it would only be possible to scan the first page of the form which makes it much less useful.

          I’ll noodle on it some but I don’t see a viable solution that is easily deployed right now but I am certainly open to suggestions!

  2. hi Mike

    Thanks for your app. It’s working great except the redirect option isn’t taking me to the right page. My code is:

    [gform form=’https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEQ1N0xqeUZYblBHcHpCa1dWSXBiYXc6MQ’ confirm=’http://www.fatlossboss.com/fb_thankyou/’ style=’redirect’ alert=’Thanks! Let’s get you the Free Guide!’ legal=’off’ br=’off’ email=’on’ sendto=’rohan.tpn@gmail.com’ spreadsheet=’https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AsFRxpwJwkC4dEQ1N0xqeUZYblBHcHpCa1dWSXBiYXc&output=html’ validation=’on’ unitethemehack=’off’]

    Do you know what’s wrong with it?

    Cheers
    Rohan

    • I put your short code into my development site and just tested it. It seems to work fine, I ended up seeing the Javascript alert and was redirected to the thank you page on your web site. My guess is we’re dealing with a plugin and/or theme conflict. I’d start trying to narrow it down by disabling all of your plugins except WordPress Google Form and see if it works. If it does, start enabling plugins one by one until it fails. Hopefully that will help narrow it down.

      • Yep, it works. Thanks Michael 🙂

        • It works when you disable everything but WordPress Google Form or you found and fixed the conflict?

          • I found the conflict. I’d disabled the footer so presumably there was some important code in there that the google forms plugin needed :0

          • Yes, the footer is important! WordPress Google Form hooks into the wp_footer action. The main result of the action is the generation of a jQuery script which supports the form. Your theme must have a call to wp_footer() in it which in turn kicks the wp_footer action. If your theme is constructed correctly and calls wp_footer() then you should be ok. I have seen instances where older themes do not call wp_footer() which in addition to being a problem for WordPress Google Form, will be an issue for quite a few other plugins which output their Javascript code or references as part of the footer.

  3. Hi Mike

    Is it going to be very difficult to add the question/captcha before the submit button?

    • No, not at all. In fact I’ve already done the development work and it is in the beta release I am in the process of testing. Things seem pretty solid so I will probably release it soon. I need to update the documentation and screen shots as introducing the Custom Post Type and new short code are pretty significant changes.

      • Thanks. Great stuff.

        BTW: I am getting spam even though I am using the captcha. I have sent you an email showing what it looks like.

        • I am not sure what to do about that – are you getting a lot or a small number compared to before using the CAPTCHA? I still get a few on my Help and Support form but maybe 1-2 per week instead of a few per day like I was seeing for a while. I might be able to turn the math problem into an image but the ability to manipulate the actual Google Form is pretty limited. Is it possible the spam is coming from a direct entry to the Google Form and not through your web site?

          • Hi Mike here’s a few ideas.

            1) I been using the CAPTCHA for a few weeks now with no issues. In the last 36 hours I got ten. And virtually nothing before.

            2) I get an email from the script I run telling on which page the form was summited. It comes from random pages of the website. Please note that I have a form on 95% of my pages.

            3) The spammer could be a very stupid person doing it by hand. But there’s no benefit because the links go nowhere.

            Links like [url=http://fmshtgoblvah.com/]fmshtgoblvah[/url], [link=http://qagcrjgkzyzr.com/]qagcrjgkzyzr[/link], http://qmcscanvpkml.com/

            I have only one get these links in the one “paragraph text” box on my form.

            All spam are the same. Only the random generated links differ.

            I suppose it would be possible to look for [url=http:// AND [link=http:// and not submit it to the form if they exist.

            4) I have a few instances where I have a drop down in the form. For example I ask holidaymakers to tell me how many rooms they need. The spammer is clever enough to select one from the drop down because it’s a required question.

            For example:

            Number Of Rooms Five
            Number of Adults? Eight

            Is it not possible to use a drop down as a sort of CAPTCHA? You give the person completing the form a question and and answer and he needs to select the answer again from the drop down. If correct then submission can proceed.

            5) All spam form submissions look the same. The same pattern. It’s just the random links that differ.

            BTW:

            I get and email with the form results and it’s a pain getting the spam: The other idea is for me to add a filter in gmail and look for [url=http:// AND [link=http:// and send delete it when it get’s it.

            Hope this helps a bit 😉

          • I too have no idea what these spammers gain by submitting garbage to the forms. All I can think of is they’re looking for some sort of SQL injection weakness or something similar. The links you see in #3 above are coded to appear like WordPress short codes – it appears the submitter (human or bot) is trying to see if links will post. It may be automated such that if the link does post, then the process will insert the real links they’re trying to proliferate. I hope the work I’ve done in the past week to support a Custom Post Type will allow me to let people define custom validation on a per form basis. I think it will but writing validation rules won’t be for the feint of heart. I am already using the jQuery Validation plugin and plan to do so for custom validation rules (assuming I can get it to work). Here is a demo of what is possible with these custom rules.

          • The demo is very cool. Clever. Looking forward to it 😉

  4. My comment never published 😉

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