Photo Challenges

PRO - Requires MediaVerse Pro. This feature is not in the free plugin.

Run themed photo competitions - your community submits their best shots, votes for their favorites, and the top three photographers win point prizes.

What You Can Do (as a User)

• Browse active challenges and see the current theme
• Enter your best photo for any active challenge
• Vote for your favorite entries during the voting window. You can vote for several entries, but not your own
• Track your standing and see the final rankings with winner badges
• Earn points for participating, even if you do not place in the top three

How It Works (for Users)

1. Go to /media/challenges/ on your site
2. Click the Active tab to see the current challenge theme (e.g., “Golden Hour Photography”)
3. Under Submit Your Entry, pick one of your photos or upload a new one, then click Submit Entry
4. Your entry appears in the challenge gallery alongside other participants
5. When the entry window closes, the challenge moves to the Voting tab
6. Click Vote on entries you like. You cannot vote for your own entry. An entry you voted for shows Voted
7. When voting closes, open the Results tab to see the ranked results
8. Winner badges (1st, 2nd, 3rd) appear on the top entries and points are awarded automatically to your account

For Site Owners

1. Go to MediaVerse > Settings > Competitions, tick Competitions, then enable Photo Challenges
2. Go to MediaVerse > Competitions > Photo Challenges and click Create Challenge
3. Set a title, theme, entry start date, entry end date, and voting end date
4. Set point prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and a participation point amount for all entrants
5. Save - the challenge opens when the start date arrives
6. To run challenges on autopilot without manual creation, enable Autopilot in the settings (see below)

Lifecycle

A challenge moves through four stages (a challenge can also be cancelled). Transitions are handled by a recurring Action Scheduler job that runs about every 5 minutes, so a stage changes shortly after its deadline.

Stage	Description
Scheduled	Challenge is published but the start date has not arrived
Active	Entry window is open - users can submit photos
Voting	Entry window closed - community can vote on submissions
Finalized	Voting closed - winners determined, points awarded. Shown to members as Results

Creating a Challenge

Go to MediaVerse > Competitions > Photo Challenges and click Create Challenge. You can start from a preset.

Field	Description
Title	The challenge name shown to members
Theme / Prompt	The topic (e.g., “Golden Hour Photography”)
Description	Optional text shown with the challenge
Entry Period Start	Date and time when photo submissions open
Entry Period End	Date and time when submissions close
Voting End	Date and time when voting closes
Max Entries per User	How many photos one member may submit
Point Rewards: 1st, 2nd, 3rd	Points awarded to the top three entries (defaults 200, 100, 50)
Point Rewards: Participation	Points awarded to everyone who entered (default 10)

The dates must be in order: start, then entry end, then voting end. Times use your site’s timezone. The challenge cover image follows the leading entry automatically.

Autopilot

Autopilot creates a new themed challenge every week so you do not need to create them manually.

Setting	Key	Description
Enable Autopilot	mvs_autopilot_enabled	Create a new challenge each week using themes from Challenge Themes
Day of Week	mvs_autopilot_day	Day of the week a new challenge is created (monday through sunday)
Time	mvs_autopilot_hour	Hour of day (0-23, site timezone) the challenge is created
Entry Period (Days)	mvs_autopilot_entry_days	How many days members have to enter. Default 7
Voting Period (Days)	mvs_autopilot_voting_days	How many days voting lasts after entries close. Default 3
Max Entries per User	mvs_autopilot_max_entries	Entries each member may submit. Default 1
Points rewards	mvs_autopilot_xp_1st, _2nd, _3rd, _participation	Points for each place and for everyone who entered. Defaults 200, 100, 50, 10

When autopilot runs, the new challenge opens straight away. It picks an enabled theme that has not been used yet, mixing categories so the same category does not repeat back to back. Once every theme has been used, the list resets and starts over. If every theme is disabled, no challenge is created.

Challenge Themes

MediaVerse Pro ships with 52 pre-built challenge themes. Go to MediaVerse > Competitions > Challenge Themes to browse, add, enable or disable themes.

Themes are grouped into the categories Color, Concept, Creative, Life, Nature, People, Seasonal and Urban. You can add custom themes in any category and delete the custom ones.

Settings Reference

Setting	Key	Default
Enable Photo Challenges	mvs_challenges_enabled	Off
Enable Autopilot	mvs_autopilot_enabled	Off
Day of Week	mvs_autopilot_day	monday
Time	mvs_autopilot_hour	9

REST API

Base URL: /wp-json/mvs-pro/v1/challenges

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/challenges	List challenges (optional status, page, per_page)
POST	/challenges	Create a new challenge. Requires the manage_mvs_settings capability.
GET	/challenges/{id}	Get challenge details including stage, entry count, and dates
PUT/PATCH	/challenges/{id}	Update a challenge. Requires manage_mvs_settings.
POST	/challenges/{id}/cancel	Cancel a challenge. Requires manage_mvs_settings.
GET	/challenges/{id}/entries	List submitted entries with vote counts
POST	/challenges/{id}/entries	Submit a photo entry. Requires authentication.
POST	/challenges/{id}/entries/{entry_id}/vote	Vote for an entry. Requires authentication.
DELETE	/challenges/{id}/entries/{entry_id}/vote	Take a vote back (API only; the website has no button for this)
GET	/challenges/{id}/results	Ranked results

POST /challenges/{id}/entries

{
  "media_id": 456
}

Returns 400 if the media is not yours, is not public and approved, the challenge is not accepting entries, or you have reached the maximum entries per user. Returns 409 if that media was already submitted.

POST /challenges/{id}/entries/{entry_id}/vote

No body is needed. Returns 403 if the challenge is not in Voting stage or the entry is your own. Returns an error if you already voted for that entry.

Frontend Behavior

The /media/challenges/ page displays challenges in three tabs: Active, Voting, and Results.

• Active tab - Shows the entry submission form when the member is logged in and has not yet reached the entry limit
• Voting tab - Shows all entries as a grid with vote buttons; an entry you voted for shows a Voted badge
• Results tab - Shows entries ranked by votes with winner badges for positions 1, 2, and 3

The entry form lets members select from their existing uploaded media or upload a new photo directly.

Who Can See Entries (Logged-Out Experience)

• Only public, approved photos can enter. An entry is visible in the challenge gallery to everyone, including logged-out visitors. So a private photo cannot be picked as an entry. When a member uploads a new photo from the entry form, that new photo is made public, because challenges are a public competition. The entry form tells the member this before they submit. If an entry is later hidden, it shows as missing.
• Challenge emails. On BuddyNext sites, challenge emails are sent to members.
• Challenges show when voting opened, not just when it ends. Each challenge displays both a Voting opened and a Voting ends timestamp, so visitors can see the full voting window instead of only a deadline with no visible start.
• Logged-out visitors get a call to action, not a blank area. On the Active tab, a visitor who is not logged in sees Create an account (linking to registration) followed by “to enter challenges.” in place of the entry form. On the Voting tab, each entry shows Log in to vote (linking to login) instead of a vote button. Neither area is left empty.

Scheduled Actions

Action Hook	Condition
mvs_activate_scheduled_challenges	Every 5 minutes - sets Scheduled challenges to Active when start date is past
mvs_close_challenge_entries	Every 5 minutes - sets Active challenges to Voting when entry deadline is past
mvs_finalize_expired_challenges	Every 5 minutes - sets Voting challenges to Finalized, tallies votes, awards points