Question

I have a WordPress Front End Form to Publish/Draft Posts directly from my theme: –

<?php
if( 'POST' == $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] && !empty( $_POST['action'] ) &&  $_POST['action'] == "new_post") {

    // Do some minor form validation to make sure there is content
    $title = $_POST["title"];
    if(!empty($_POST['middle'])) {
    $description = 'a sentence ' . $_POST['middle'] . ' with something in the MIDDLE. a sentence ' . $_POST['end'] . ' with something in the END.';
    }
    $tags = $_POST["tags"];
    $post_cat = $_POST['cat'];

    // ADD THE FORM INPUT TO $new_post ARRAY
    $new_post = array(
    'post_title'    =>  $title,
    'post_content'  =>  $description,
    'post_category' =>  $post_cat,  // Usable for custom taxonomies too
    'tags_input'    =>  $tags,
    'post_status'   =>  'draft',           // Choose: publish, preview, future, draft, etc.
    'post_type' =>  'post',  //'post',page' or use a custom post type if you want to
    );

    //SAVE THE POST
    $pid = wp_insert_post($new_post);

    //REDIRECT TO THE NEW POST ON SAVE
    $link = get_permalink( $pid );
    wp_redirect( '/post-submitted-draft' );

} // END THE IF STATEMENT THAT STARTED THE WHOLE FORM

//POST THE POST YO
do_action('wp_insert_post', 'wp_insert_post');

?>

and I have a simple php form which has the following function: –

<?php
if(!empty($_POST['middle'])) {
   echo "a sentence".$_POST['middle']." with something in the MIDDLE.";
}

if(!empty($_POST['end'])) {
   echo "a sentence".$_POST['end']." with something in the END.";
}
?>

I wanted to include it in the form and I did it using the method below: –

if(!empty($_POST['middle'])) {
$description = 'a sentence ' . $_POST['middle'] . ' with something in the MIDDLE. a sentence ' . $_POST['end'] . ' with something in the END.';

but it will ignore the whole value of $description if the field of ‘middle’ is empty and I want it to ignore just the first sentence if the field of ‘middle’ is empty and display the second sentence which has the field of ‘end’ i.e.

'a sentence ' . $_POST['end'] . ' with something in the END.';

How to make it work like this?

Answer 1

Following a method like below will make the whole thing flow better and make more sense. Basically, setting the description variable to the first sentence and adding the second bit if it exists.

if(!empty($_POST['middle'])) {
   $description = "a sentence".$_POST['middle']." with something in the MIDDLE.";
}

if(!empty($_POST['end'])) {
   $description .= "a sentence".$_POST['end']." with something in the END.";
}

if(isset($description)) {
// do something with description
}

Also, think about escaping the strings depending what you are using it for.