Creating Unpublished Review Resources with FormLister

FormLister is a strong fit for review forms when the goal is not just to send an email, but to create a real content record that can be moderated and published later.

The useful pattern

Define resource defaults such as parent, template, and publication status, then let the form create the review as a new resource.

&contentDefaults=`{"published":0, "template":"23", "parent":"33"}`

Why unpublished is the right default

• reviews can be moderated before they go live
• spam and low-quality content stay out of the public site
• editors can enrich or normalize the content before publication

If the resource still publishes immediately

Then the project likely has another layer changing the final state, such as a hook, an after-save rule, or a default workflow outside the form configuration itself. The fix is to trace the complete creation flow, not only the visible contentDefaults block.

This pattern remains one of the cleanest ways to turn reviews into manageable content instead of disposable form mail.