acf_form() validation and feedback
<p>I'm creating a front-end form for submitting new post (I hope most of you are familiar with it) with the following code:</p>

<pre><code>$options = array(
    'post_id' =&gt; 'new_post',
        'new_post' =&gt; array(
        'post_type'      =&gt; 'post',
        'post_status'   =&gt; 'pending'
    ),
    'html_before_fields' =&gt; $html_before_fields,
    'html_after_fields' =&gt; $html_after_fields,
    'uploader' =&gt; 'basic',
    'submit_value' =&gt; __("Create", 'domain'),
    'updated_message' =&gt; __("Your post was submitted successfully! Please wait for it to be approved.", 'domain'),
);

acf_form($options);
</code></pre>

<p>And here is a snippet of my functions.php;</p>

<pre><code>function _action_ssd_acf_submit_post_pre_save( $post_id ) {

    if( empty($_POST['acf']) ) {
        return;
    }

    if ( !isset($_POST['acf_post_submit']) ) { // this is a hidden input field in the form
        return;
    }

    if (  ) { // some more checks here
        wp_mail(); //removed parameters for cleaner code, I send email to the admin
    }  

    if( empty(get_user_meta(get_current_user_id(), 'this_user_can_submit', true)) ) {
        exit;
        return;
    } 


}

add_action( 'acf/pre_save_post', '_action_ssd_acf_submit_post_pre_save' );
</code></pre>

<p>How can I stop the post from saving as it is always saved as Draft?</p>

<p>Also, I can't seem to find a way to change the <code>update_message</code> when there is an error wth the submission. For example, if the user doesn't have the needed <code>user_meta</code>. </p>

<p>So, yeah, my problem is that I am unable to stop the submission of the post (in case of a validation error) and send a front end message feedback after the page has refreshed.</p>