I have a client that needs a front-facing form that can create a post (custom post type), populate a bunch of custom fields (preferably ACF/ACF Pro), and also send a copy of the submitted information back to the submitter (whose email address goes into one of those ACF fields).

The posts never get published—they're being used essentially as an application for a presenter at a conference. So the posts are created, I have some custom publish statuses to indicate if the submission is pending, accepted, or rejected. The admin can assign various "reviewers" to posts, those reviewers have custom account levels that allow them to login to wp-admin, but once they're in, they can only see or modify (accept or reject) the posts to which they're assigned (basically modified authors with no creation capabilities).

I had what I thought was a solid solution for the front-facing form with a plugin called Anonymous Post Pro, but found out after the fact that notifying the submitter was a critical feature and APP can't do that (yet). So I just bought a plugin called USP Pro (pro version of User Submitted Posts by Jeff Starr from the repository) and, while it seems like a powerful plugin that may be able to do what I need, I'm finding it very confusing to get it set up and working (Anony Post Pro was a little confusing and cumbersome at first, but got me where I needed to go aside from than notifying/copying the submitter).

Anyway. I'm coming to you guys for suggestions on what I might be able to do to continue using APP (ideal), successfully configure and use USP Pro (not sure I have the time or patience), or find another solution altogether that might meet the above needs.

Here are some thoughts:

• Is there something out there that will auto-generate a post password so I can use "password protected" visibility and also send that password to the admin and an email stored in a custom field?

• Is there something out there that will look for new posts under a certain post type, look for an email address in the post meta, then send that post info to that email address?

• Should I have just tried harder to figure out how to do this with something like WPForms or Contact Form 7?

Any input or advice or encouragement or anything really would be greatly appreciated!