Plugin: Tags field for front-end Entry Form

Question

I would like to add tags via a front-end entry form - not like here, but as follows:

• Text field in a front-end entry form where user add tags (separated by commas).
• After pressing the save button, the plugin should:
• check for every tag, whether it exists already (and create the tag if not)
• save the tags together with the rest of the entry form [see also here](including the text field with the user defined tags)

Now, I am looking for a developer (I am willing to pay for it).

Answer 1

While the full answer to this probably requires some planning, and a plugin that handles various aspects of the tag management, here are a few components to consider:

You can submit tags from the front-end and, on the server side, they will behave like Craft handles them in the Control Panel. The syntax for your front-end form field is as follows:

<select multiple name="fields[fieldHandle][]">
  <option value="13">Tag Name One</option>
  <option value="42">Tag Name Two</option>
  <option value="144">Tag Name Three</option>
</select>

For a more friendly UI, there are a handful of javascript libraries that could help on the front-end. I believe the one that Craft uses in the Control Panel is selectize.js and it could be setup to be used on the front-end as well.

To handle the pre-processing of tag behavior before an Entry is saved, your plugin may need to use the entries.onBeforeSaveEntry Event.