Displaying Content - Vote form in com_content template overriding

Question

I want to display the Content Vote form in a specific position of my joomla article, so I can't use the Content - Vote standard plugin because it's set to be displayed before the article body (I need something more flexible).

So I decided to take the form code from the Content - vote plugin and put them in my template com_content/article override .

Here is the code :

<?php $uri = JUri::getInstance();
$uri->setQuery($uri->getQuery() . '&hitcount=0');?>

<form method="post" action="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($uri->toString()); ?>" class="form-inline">
    <select name="user_rating">
        <option value="1">Vote 1</option>
        <option value="2">Vote 2</option>
        <option value="3">Vote 3</option>
        <option value="4">Vote 4</option>
        <option value="5" selected="selected">Vote 5</option>
    </select>
    <input class="btn btn-primary" type="submit" name="submit_vote" value="Vote Now" />
    <input type="hidden" name="task" value="article.vote" />
    <input type="hidden" name="hitcount" value="0" />
    <input type="hidden" name="url" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($uri->toString()); ?>" />
    <?php echo JHtml::_('form.token') ?>
</form>

The code above is working good but my question, is it a good practice to embed that form directly to com_content override? Or do you have any other solution for a flexible Content - Vote function position for my article? Thanks

Answer 1

I think it would be better to just create another plugin based on Content - Vote. This one will just replace string in article for a form using some pseudo variables like {VOTEFORM}. Then you just add this {VOTEFORM} into a place in article where you want it to be. This will be update-safe cause no Template Overriding is required and default voting plugin will be intact. Of course you should disabled default plugin (Content - Vote) when using this one.