{"id":1896569,"date":"2019-10-18T13:19:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theeventscalendar.com\/knowledgebase\/auto-publish-events-submitted-by-logged-in-users-2\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:46:36","slug":"customize-event-submissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theeventscalendar.com\/knowledgebase\/customize-event-submissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Customizing Community Events Submissions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Community Events<\/a> add-on gives visitors a frontend form for submitting events to your calendar. Once you have that form running, there are several points in the submission lifecycle where a little code can make things work more like you want them to: getting users to the form, handling what happens when they submit, and following up after an admin approves the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article collects five customizations covering that full lifecycle. Each one is independent \u2014 skip to whichever you need. Most are PHP snippets that go in your theme’s functions.php<\/code> or the Code Snippets<\/a> plugin; see Using Custom Code Snippets<\/a> for the general how-to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding a Submit Event Button<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you want visitors to easily find the Community Events submission form from your main calendar page, you can add a button or link using the built-in settings \u2014 no code required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. In your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Events \u2192 Settings \u2192 Display \u2192 Additional Content Settings<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. In the Add HTML before calendar<\/strong> field, insert the following HTML:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    <div class=\"eventSubmitButton\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/yourwebsite.com\/events\/community\/add\/\" class=\"tribe-common-c-btn\">Submit Event<\/a>\n<\/div><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Replace https:\/\/yourwebsite.com\/events\/community\/add\/<\/code> with the actual URL of your Community Events submission form.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Scroll down and click Save Changes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \"Submit<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      This displays a “Submit Event” button above your main calendar view. You can style the button further with custom CSS if needed. Community Events must be installed and active for the destination link to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Auto-Categorizing Submissions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      You may want to automatically assign a specific category \u2014 say, “Community Event” \u2014 to every event submitted through the form, without letting users choose it themselves. By default, the plugin doesn’t have a setting for this, but a small filter handles it cleanly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      <?php\n\nadd_filter( 'tec_events_community_alter_submission_mapping', function( $submission ) {\n    \/\/ IDs of categories you want to always add\n    $required_category_ids = [ 4 ];\n\n    $existing = [];\n    if ( isset( $submission['tax_input']['tribe_events_cat'] ) ) {\n        $existing = (array) $submission['tax_input']['tribe_events_cat'];\n    }\n\n    $merged = array_values( array_unique( array_map( 'intval', array_merge( $existing, $required_category_ids ) ) ) );\n\n    $submission['tax_input']['tribe_events_cat'] = $merged;\n\n    return $submission;\n} );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Replace the 4<\/code> with the ID of your desired category<\/strong>. You can find the category ID by hovering over or editing the category in your WordPress dashboard \u2014 the ID appears in the URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      \"Finding<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      You may also want to hide certain categories from the submission form<\/a> so users can’t pick them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Auto-Publishing for Logged-In Users<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      Under Events \u2192 Settings \u2192 Community<\/strong>, you can set a default status for submitted events (Draft, Pending Review, or Published). But sometimes you want more nuance \u2014 for instance, auto-publishing events from trusted logged-in users while still holding anonymous submissions for review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      This snippet auto-publishes any event submitted by a registered, logged-in user. Anything submitted by an anonymous user falls back to whatever your default status is set to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      <?php\n\/**\n * Community Events (CE): If user is logged in, set post status to Published, else fallback to CE settings' default.\n *\n * Irrelevant if default post status in CE settings is Published or Anonymous Submissions are not allowed.\n *\/\nfunction set_community_events_publication_status( $option, $default, $optionName ) {\n    if (\n        ! class_exists( 'Tribe__Events__Community__Main' )\n        || 'defaultStatus' !== $optionName\n        || ! is_user_logged_in()\n    ) {\n        return $option;\n    }\n\n    return 'publish';\n}\n\nadd_filter( 'tribe_get_single_option', 'set_community_events_publication_status', 10, 3 );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      This snippet has no effect if your default post status is already Published, or if anonymous submissions are disabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Redirecting After Submission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      After a user submits an event, they’re taken to a default success page. You may want to redirect them somewhere more specific instead \u2014 a thank-you page, a pending-review explanation, or your calendar’s main view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      [EDITOR: INSERT SNIPPET \u2014 The original article at \/redirect-to-a-different-url-after-event-submission\/ contains a “The Snippet” section with lead-in prose but the actual PHP code is not present in the rendered page. Based on the “For Developers” references at the bottom of the source article, the missing snippet likely hooks into tribe_community_event_save_updated<\/code>, checks tribe_is_event()<\/code>, and issues a redirect (possibly via window.location.href<\/code> or wp_safe_redirect<\/code>). Please retrieve the original code from the source article’s revision history or associated Gist and insert it here.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      In the snippet, replace \/sample-page\/<\/code> with the URL of the page you want users to be redirected to after submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      For Developers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
      Functions and references used by this customization:<\/p>\n\n\n\n