This morning I pushed out v0.47 of WordPress Google Form. This update fixes a problem in which various combinations of options would result in jQuery syntax errors which in turn resulted in Javascript errors. In some cases, the plugin would not properly complete, particularly when using checkboxes and/or custom confirmation pages.
You will see the update on your WordPress Dashboard or you can find it in the WordPress plugin repository.
After 19 beta releases, the first one being back on November 14, 2012, this afternoon I released v0.46 of WordPress Google Form. This update represents a significant change in how the plugin works. The plugin now defines a Custom Post Type for defining forms which is much easier to use than the old shortcode. The shortcode was getting very complicated with all of the options.
The Custom Post Type functionality is supported by a new shortcode, wpgform, which is much easier to work with as it only has one argument, the Post Id of the form. The original gform shortcode will continue to work however it will not received new features (e.g. columns) and at sometime in the future, I will likely deprecate it.
During the development process of v0.46, Google made a significant change to Google Forms. The change required re-work of a number of features, support for multi-page forms being the most important and hardest to figure out. Things changed on Google’s side several times as they rolled out the update to Google Forms. The most recent change restored the ability to control the language of certain parts of the form immediately after I had spent several days working out a jQuery solution to allow text replacement on certain form elements.
There has been quite a bit of testing of this update over the past few months and I want to thank the people who tested the early releases and reported problems. In particular I want to thank several people who trusted me with access to their server in order to chase down and debug some very odd problems. In the end , I think I was able to resolve all of them.
The only known issue at this point is with respect to IE7 support. I cannot get the validation support to work with IE7 which means the CAPTCHA doesn’t work properly either. If someone can figure it out I am happy to incorporate a fix but I have exhausted by ability to chase down an odd problem with an ancient browser.
The number of new features and fixes is pretty long, I recommend reading the v0.46 release notes here.
You can find the update in the WordPress plugin repository or as an update on your WordPress Dashboard. If you have any problems, I have retooled my Help and Support form to mimic the fields on the Custom Post Type screen. Don’t hesitate to use it if you run into something which isn’t working.
I am getting close to a formal release. This beta update adds support for using the public facing Custom Post Type posts directly. This means when you define a Google Form using the Custom Post Type interface and publish it, the permalink can be used to view the form. It can also be used as a menu item or link.
It is no longer necessary to add a short code to a separate page or post although it will still work. I am strongly encouraging users to move away from the original gform shortcode with a bazillion options to using the Custom Post Type. Going forward, new features will only be added to the Custom Post Type (e.g. columns only work with the Custom Post Type).
I have just uploaded WordPress Google Form v0.46-beta-17 which addresses one bug and adds new capability to the CAPTCHA functionality.
I finally found a solution to passing the query arguments correctly so the page navigation for the Form Submission Log now works properly.
At this point I think I am close to done with this release. Scope creep can be a killer and it has been a long time since I’ve formally released an update. With the number of questions I am getting about new Google Forms and all of the fixes being in this beta, it is time to get it out!
The next question to resolve is do I bump the version number to 1.0 with all of the changes I’ve made or continue as it is and release v0.46 – thoughts?
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )I have just uploaded WordPress Google Form v0.46-beta-16 which addresses one bug and adds the ability to oveeride the default Google text in several more areas:
The bug fixed had to do with saving the Options tab losing the Override setting on the Advanced Options tab. It only happened if the Options tab was saved after the Advanced Options but now that it is fixed, save order is no longer an issue.
I also added some more default CSS to account for some of the CSS changes Google has made lately.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )This afternoon I uploaded WordPress Google Form v0.46-beta-15 which addresses a CAPTCHA problem. CAPTCHA requires Validation and unless Validation was specifically enabled for the form, the Validation code wasn’t loaded and hence CAPTCHA wasn’t running.
I also added some new default CSS to account for some of the CSS changes Google has made lately. Google has actually made quite a few CSS changes so I need to make sure it is all covered.
This morning Google also made some changes to Check Boxes and Radio Buttons adding more text which is subject to the language problem. The quick fix is to hide the new text using Custom CSS:
div.ss-printable-hint { display: none; }
Download the latest beta and please provide feedback on any issues you run into.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )This afternoon I uploaded WordPress Google Form v0.46-beta-14 which addresses a problem with certain parts of Google Forms (usually the buttons, required text, and disclaimer text) being displayed in a foreign language. I wrote up some details on why this happens in a previous post.
If you are having this issue, please download the beta and provide me some feedback. I think I am going to move a few items from the Options tab to the Advanced Options tab before I release it.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )This afternoon I uploaded WordPress Google Form v0.46-beta-13. Yes, this is the 13th beta release of WordPress Google Form v0.46. Why so many? Mostly because made a significant change to Google Forms at about the same time I was introducing a major change to WordPress Google Forms.
This release adds a new feature – the ability to log form submissions. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The next update will include some settings to control the log (on, off, entries per page, etc.) but in this beta release, it is on and shows 10 entries per page. There is a known bug in the pagination of the log file. The URL to move between pages is wrong and I haven’t been able to determine how to add the CPT and page information which the URL requires to be valid.
Most importantly, this beta release addresses a major bug with multi-page Google Forms AND Google Forms with checkboxes that are created with the new version of Google Forms. This functionality needs testing so please put it through its paces.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )I have posted wpGForm v0.46-beta-12 this morning. This update removes some debug code, updates the ReadMe file to reflect usage of the Custom Post Type and new wpgform shortcode, and adds the URL (permalink) of the page from which the form was submitted to the confirmation email (when used).
Now that the issues with the new version of Google Forms appear to be worked out, I am close to releasing this update. All I have left to do is to update my Help and Support Form to support the new usage model (CPT) and I think I am ready.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )This afternoon I posted an update to wp-SwimTeam. This update addresses a number of bugs that have been reported recently.
You can find the update in the WordPress Plugin Repository or as an update via your Dashboard. You can also download it here.
Google Forms Beta (8581 downloads )