I must be missing something? Best Practice

@ Roland

re: We we get a new submission, it should put a bit of info in the email about what was submitted. At the moment it only says something like – You have new directory submission.

This message is configurable. Go to the Connections : Settings admin page and click the Form tab. Scroll down to the Submission Notice Message.

Currently there is not a supported method to include the data that was submitted. If you want to live on the edge, add this to the message area:

Name: [cn_entry part=name format='%last%, %first% %middle%'/]
Title: [cn_entry part=title/]
Department: [cn_entry part=department/]
Organization: [cn_entry part=organization/]
Contact: [cn_entry part=contact/]

[cn_entry part=addresses]
[cn_address]
  %type% Address:
    Line One: %line_1%
    Line Two: %line_2%
    Line Three: %line_3%
    City: %locality%
    State: %region%
    Zip: %postal-code%
    Latitude: %latitude%
    Longitude: %longitude%
[/cn_address]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=phone_numbers]
[cn_phone]
  %type% Phone:
    Number: %number%
[/cn_phone]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=email]
[cn_email]
  %type%:
    Address: %address%
[/cn_email]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=im]
[cn_im]
  %type%:
    User ID: %id%
[/cn_im]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=social_networks]
[cn_social_network]
  %type%: %url%
[/cn_social_network]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=links]
[cn_link]
  <a href="%url%" title="%title%">%title%</>
[/cn_link]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=dates]
[cn_date]
  %type%: %date%
[/cn_date]
[/cn_entry]

[cn_entry part=bio/]

[cn_entry part=notes/]

Now when you receive the submission notice email, it contain a lot of the details that the user submitted.

re: The input form confuses some people and I get a lot of part submissions (or retries, 2 or sometimes 3 submissions for the same thing)

Not sure how to solve that… the form disappears and they get a message thanking them for their submission. So to get multiple submissions they have go back to the directory and click the submit link again. Only two options I can think of…

1. There is a setting to redirect to a page after the form submission. You could create a page to redirect to thanking them for their submission and change the settings to redirect to that page. Really though, I don’t see how that would be any better than the current removing the for and displaying the thank you message.
2. A more brute force method would be make a user first register to become a user of your site, then setup Form to only take submissions from logged in users. You could further enhance this by using the Link extension so their submission is linked to their user account so they can also maintain their entry. Connections does not do user registrations… they are, many, many other plugins out there that handle that quite well.

re: Logo and Image is confusing, I get a image uploaded but it only displays in part of the theme I am using so I need to save it and then move it over to the right place

I see on your submission form you have the Image showing… since you need the logo what you should do is go to the settings and disable the Image and enable the Logo.

re: I am willing to learn but after 2 years of using it I don’t think it is as easy to set up and use as it should be

Over the course of the last two years I’ve made just about all the settings point and click in the admin. Even the template are getting an interactive point and click settings in the next release… not sure how I can make that easier. Several extension even have no settings at all, just activate.

I do use a lot of plugins most far more complex than Connections. I am constantly looking at what they do to present users with options and it seems I am doing the same things, if not more. So I am always quite lost when I get this feedback.

Please, if you have moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what would make it easier. Thanks!