[wp-hackers] [GSoC 2014] Proposal for a forms/survey plugin

[Shitiz Garg]

Hello! Thanks for the feedback

* Question branching is a must-have feature. (e.g., the user is asked an
> additional question depending on how the answered a previous question).
> That's probably similar to the conditional field logic you mentioned.

Yes, that was mostly the intention of conditional field logic, I'll move it
up to must-haves.


> * Pre-defined forms is a must-have feature (e.g., a base "call for
> speakers" form that can be customized and added on to by each admin)
>
So, these will basically be like form "templates" which auto-fill when new
form is being created?

* Another must-have feature will be automating some actions for certain
> forms. For example, when a potential speaker submits the Call for Speakers
> form, the should automatically have a Speaker post created and set as a
> draft. That way the WordCamp organizers won't have to copy/paste the data
> from their submission into a Speaker post.
>
> Since the plugin should be generic enough to live in the WordPress.org
> plugin repository, features like this that are specific to WordCamp.org
> would probably be implemented as a second plugin, and the base plugin would
> simply provide the necessary custom hooks to allow the second plugin to
> integrate with it.
>
I agree, this can be done fairly easily as a sub-plugin that auto-posts any
form submissions. I had something similar in mind but wasn't sure it'll be
a requirement


> * See the original idea posting and past wp-hackers threads for more
> details on other must-have features
>
One feature that I probably missed was auto-filling forms from previously
stored data. From what I understand, the requirement is to fill, say a
"Call for Speakers" form with the data that the user has already filled in
a previous form?


> * Order/pricing isn't relevant to WordCamps. They're not-for-profit events
> and the only thing attendees purchase is a ticket, which is handled by the
> CampTix plugin

Ah okay, I can save this for a future side-project if this takes off.

* Form fields should be added through a UI rather than shortcodes. We'd
> only want a shortcode for the form itself. See previous threads on
> wp-hackers for a discussion about that.

* Each form will be a post, and the fields and other data will be stored as
> postmeta. Same for responses

I see, that'll probably allow for more robust processing of forms.
Basically, store the form as a post but store the fields, field's meta etc.
as postmeta, same for responses. Actually this solves a lot of processing
problems I had when thinking how to statistical queries, if required down
the road. Responses can be stored as <post_id>, form_<field_name>_response
which I can then query to gather totals etc. Thanks!