9 Ways To Enhance and Extend Gravity Forms Using GravityView

Fun fact: The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars. That’s almost as many stars as there are ways to build web apps using GravityView! 

All jokes aside… GravityView is a flexible plugin and you can use it for a range of different purposes. 

We’re often blown away by the creative ways in which our customers use GravityView! 

In this post, we’re going to blow your mind by showing you 9 ways you can enhance and extend Gravity Forms using GravityView. 

Are you ready? Let’s dive in!

Sounds Great but What Is GravityView?

If you’re a Gravity Forms user you’ll know that Gravity Forms is an excellent tool for gathering all sorts of data, but displaying that data requires you to use post fields or write custom code. 

Coding that yourself could take a lot of time, and finding someone to develop it for you requires a lot of money. And what if Gravity Forms releases an update, your code breaks, and everything stops working?

What if you could harness your Gravity Forms data for use in powerful CRUD applications without having to hire a developer or tinker with PHP?

That’s where GravityView comes in.

GravityView enhances Gravity Forms by allowing you to automatically display the data you collect using an intuitive drag and drop interface. 

1. Organize Events and Projects

If you’re part of an educational institution, nonprofit or volunteer-based organization, you know how important it is to organize your upcoming events and initiatives. 

GravityView allows you to:

• Display event information collected via Gravity Forms (e.g. date, time, location, required attire, transportation details, etc).
• Approve events before they show up on the front end.
• Configure a search bar so users can easily filter the events.

Here’s an example: New Mexico State University uses GravityView to power a database of boards and committees. They have a page with a Gravity Form where users can request to establish a university board and submit yearly reports. This information is then displayed on the front end using the GravityView table layout.

Our Gravity Forms Calendar add-on allows you to take things one step further by displaying the dates and times of events on an interactive calendar.

#2. Create a Marketplace or Classifieds Website

Using GravityView you can build an online marketplace or a classifieds website where users can list items for sale and search for items they’re interested in buying.

If you install the Gravity Forms PayPal or Stripe add-ons, you can process payments through your website. This allows you to sell products directly, or charge people to post listings on your marketplace!

Canadian-based publication, Literary Heist, uses GravityView to display information about artists and their work. 

There are so many different possibilities when it comes to creating classifieds websites or community “trading posts” so let your imagination run wild with this one!

#3. Create a Directory

Directories help users to find businesses, individuals, or organizations within a specific area or niche. Think of a directory like an online version of the yellow pages! 

GravityView allows you to build customizable directories on top of Gravity Forms using a powerful drag and drop builder.

Here are some examples:

• A community membership directory
• A business directory
• A directory of medical specialists
• Community health or resource directories.
• An academic advisor directory

You could also take inspiration from SE Ontario, who used GravityView to create a gift guide displaying socially conscious gift options. 

Mill at Lafayette uses GravityView to display a list of businesses operating at their co-working space in Rhode Island.

So far we’ve covered 3 ways to extend Gravity Forms using GravityView. Here’s the next one 👇

#4. Display Locations on a Google Map

The GravityView Maps premium layout allows you to display entries as markers on a Google Map.

This allows you to build local/national directories, store locators, and other geolocation applications!

Customize the map to your liking thanks to GravityView’s extensive settings and style options. You can also add info boxes to display more information about a specific listing or links to “learn more”.

Bet Hannon Business Websites, a full-service WordPress agency, uses GravityView to build map-based directories for nonprofit organizations. One such organization is Messy Church USA. As you can see, they use the Maps layout to display church locations within the US.

Adding a map is also a great way to extend an existing directory. This is especially true for local directories featuring businesses that don’t have an online presence.

#5. Display Profiles

After collecting personal information using Gravity Forms, GravityView makes it easy to create, display and update people profiles on your website. 

For example, St. Mark’s Catholic school uses GravityView to display staff profiles of all their teachers.

Here are some other ways to display profiles using GravityView:

• Display people profiles for a member directory.
• Display team member profiles on your organization’s “about” page.
• Create a page highlighting your business partners.
• Display profiles of your funders and/or volunteers.

Displaying staff profiles is a popular use case for GravityView. In fact, GravityView includes built-in templates specially for this purpose.

#6. Create a Database

GravityView’s Table and DataTables layouts make it easy to build front-end databases that are easily searchable.

Dragonfly, a video production agency in the UK uses GravityView to power their internal database of talent.

GravityView’s powerful search features and customizable layout options make it the ideal tool for constructing stable front-end systems that are “future-proof”.

#7. Create a List of Attendees

People want to see who’s coming to your event! You can use Gravity Forms to sell tickets to your event, then use GravityView to easily display attendee profiles (including their profile photos). 

“Who’s going to be there?” is a common question before attending anything, from parties to conferences.

If you host conferences, it can help to show that you have good numbers attending and that your representatives come from diverse backgrounds. 

If people see that your guest list contains high-profile attendees, they will be more likely to sign-up.

#8. Connecting People

GravityView enables you to connect people in meaningful ways.

For example, if you’re part of an educational institution, you could use GravityView to connect researchers with grad students to collaborate on research projects.

GravityView’s front-end editing capabilities would allow researchers to update projects that they create and delete old ones – all without seeing the backend of the site!

You could also use GravityView to connect employers with job seekers by building a job board. Building a job board is the perfect way for your business to find suitable talent!

And last but not least, the final way to extend Gravity Forms is…

#9. Display Donations and Acknowledge Your Donors

Are you part of a nonprofit organization? Using Gravity Forms and GravityView you can collect, process, and display donations on the front end of your website!

Acknowledging your donors publicly is important for a couple of reasons:

• People like to be recognized for the good that they do, it can encourage them to do more!
• Other people like to see that others are donating. It helps to reassure them that they are contributing to a worthy cause.

For example, Wild Earth uses GravityView to display a list of donor names that updates automatically as they receive new donations. You can elect how that information is displayed and what information should be shown.

Enhance and Extend Gravity Forms Today

Gravity Forms is a powerful plugin for gathering data but displaying that data requires using post fields or writing custom code.

GravityView allows you to harness your Gravity Forms data for use in powerful web applications without having to hire a developer! GravityView is a flexible plugin that’s well-suited for a range of use-cases. In this post, we showed you 9 ways to extend Gravity Forms with GravityView. So what are you waiting for? Get GravityView today!