So you’re looking for a way to create user-submitted posts in Gravity Forms? In this article, we’re going to show you two different ways to turn user-submitted form entries into posts on your website.
First, we’ll look at the Gravity Forms Advanced Posts Creation Add-On and how you can use it to automatically generate posts from form entries. Next, we’ll show you how to use Gravity Forms Posts fields to achieve a similar result.
Finally, we’ll look at how you can use GravityView to display form entries on the front end of your website and build powerful applications.
Gravity Forms Advanced Post Creation Add-On
The new Gravity Forms Advanced Post Creation Add-On allows you to turn user-submitted form entries into posts on your website. The add-on makes this simple by adding a new “Post Creation” feed option to Gravity Forms.
When configuring a new Post Creation feed, you can map fields from your form to specific areas of a post. Note, don’t use Gravity Forms Post Fields for this, use standard text and file upload fields instead. We cover Post Fields further down in this article.
For example, take a look at the above form. It’s got three fields:
- Post Title (Single Line Text)
- Post Content (Paragraph)
- Featured Image (File Upload)
By configuring a Post Creation feed we can turn user-submitted content into a post for our website.
Creating a Post Creation Feed
To create a new Post Creation Feed, log in to your WordPress website, hover over Forms in the admin panel and click on Forms. Next, bring up the Form Settings by hovering over your form and clicking on Settings. To add a new Post Creation Feed click Add New.
Now you can start configuring the different post creation options.
Configuring the Post Settings
Under Post Settings there is a range of options allowing you to customize different aspects of new posts when they are created.
Let’s go through each one in more detail.
Type
Here you can choose whether to create a WordPress page or post when a user submits your form. Type also supports custom post types added by your theme or third-party plugins.
Status
This option allows you to set the default status of new posts created from user submissions. Here are the different status options:
- Published
When the user submits the form, Gravity Forms will automatically create a new post and publish it on your website.
- Scheduled
Gravity Forms will create the post as “scheduled” for publishing on a future date. Note that setting the Date/Time of a post ahead of the current time in WordPress will force the post to be “scheduled”.
- Draft
When the user submits your form, Gravity Forms will create the post and save it as a “Draft”. To publish it, you will need to edit the post and manually click “Publish”.
- Pending
When the user submits your form, Gravity Forms will create a new post as “Pending”. This requires another user with thepublish_postscapability to publish it.
- Private
If you select “Private”, user-submitted posts will only be visible to users with the Administrator role.
- Trash
Posts with the status “Trash” will show up in the trashed posts folder.
Format
WordPress introduced post formats in version 3.1. Themes can use post formats to customize the way posts are displayed. The different post formats are Video, Link, Audio, Gallery, Image, Aside, Status, and Chat. You might not see all of these as options because the Post Formats available depend on which ones your theme supports.
Date
Here you can specify a date and time for when you want the post to be published. If you want the post to be published immediately after submission you can set the date to the entry date. Alternatively, you can set a custom date (this can be specific such as “22/09/2021” or relative such as “next week”).
Author
Here you can set the author of the post. You can either choose the logged-in user or select a specific user on your site.
Allowing Comments and Pingbacks
The Advanced Post Creation Add-On also gives you the ability to allow comments and/or trackbacks and pingbacks on your posts.
Post Content Options
Next, scroll down to configure the Post Content. Here you can set the post title, body content, and featured image. In the Title and Content fields, you can use merge tags to dynamically display the information submitted by the user in their entry.
You can also select file upload fields for upload to the WordPress Media Library.
Finally, the Taxonomies section allows you to set the post category and tags. You can either choose to map these to fields in your form, or you can specify a custom value.
When you’re finished setting up your Post Creation feed, scroll down and click Save Settings.
Testing Out the Advanced Post Creation Add-On
When you’ve configured the Post Creation feed, test it out by adding some information and submitting your form.
Now, head over to your WordPress Posts page. You should see a new post created using the information in your submission.
Okay, now let’s have a look at creating user-submitting posts in Gravity Forms using Post Fields.
Create Posts in Gravity Forms Using Post Fields
While the Advanced Post Creation Add-On is the best way to create user-submitted posts in Gravity Forms, there’s another way to do it using “Post Fields”.
All you need to do is add the desired Post Fields to your Form and Gravity Forms will use these to create a fresh new post based on what the user submitted in those fields. You can find Post Fields underneath the Post Fields tab on the right of the form editor.
As you can see, there are seven different Post Fields. Let’s take a look at each one in more detail:
Title
The Title field allows the user to specify a title for the post. Here you can also set the Author, Post Status, Category, and Post Format.
The Post Title field also gives you the ability to set a “Content Template”. Enabling this allows you to use merge tags to populate the post title with dynamic content. For example, let’s say you wanted to add the author name to the post title. You could do that like so.
Body
The Post Body field allows the user to submit content that will be displayed in the body of the post. Like the Title field, the Post Body field also allows you to manage the Category, Author, Post Status, and Format. Note, changing one of these options in the body will update it in the title as well.
The Post Body also gives you the ability to add a Content Template. This allows you to use merge tags to display images and other user-submitted content in the body of the post.
Excerpt
The Post Excerpt field allows the user submitting the form to write their own excerpt content. Like the Title and Body fields, here you can also specify the Post Status, Category, and Author.
Category
Adding a Category field to your form allows the user to specify the post category when submitting new posts. In the field settings, you can choose which categories should be visible and you can also specify the Field Type by choosing either Drop Down, Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, or Multi Select.
Tags
The Post Tags field allows the user the specify tags for their post. Tags are a good way to organize content based on keywords or subtopics. In the Field Settings, you can also specify the Field Type by choosing either Singe line text, Drop Down, Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, or Multi Select. If you decide to use “Single line text”, the tags need to be comma-separated.
Post Image
The Post Image field allows the user to upload images as part of their post. These can be included in the post body by using the Content Template functionality.
You can also add image metadata fields by checking the box next to the metadata you want to include. For example, if you check “Alternative Text” then a text box will show up underneath the Post Image field allowing the user to specify alternative text for that image.
You can also choose a Post Image field to use as the featured image by checking the box that says “Set as Featured Image” in the Field Settings.
Custom Content
The Custom Post Content field allows the user to submit content that will be stored in a Custom Field and attached to the post. You can also change the Field Type by selecting from a variety of Standard and Advanced fields.
Post Format
You can specify the post format in the settings of the Post Title and Body fields.
Depending on your theme, you may see different Post Formats appearing in the dropdown menu.
Okay, so far we’ve covered two different ways to create user-submitted posts in Gravity Forms. Now let’s see how we can display user-submitted content using GravityView.
Bonus: Display User-Submitted Content Using GravityView
While Gravity Forms offers ways to turn user-submitted content into posts or pages, it gives you limited control over the layout of that content. Furthermore, each submission is saved as a separate page or post, with no way to combine multiple submissions into one single page or post.
GravityView is an add-on for Gravity Forms that allows you to display entries on the front end. There are a variety of layouts to choose from giving you full control over your user-submitted content – display entries in a table, on a map, in a list, or construct your own layout using HTML and CSS.
The Maps layout allows you to display Gravity Forms entries as markers on an interactive Google Map. Using the Maps layout, you can build store locators, business directories, and more.
The GravityView DataTables layout allows you to filter and sort entries from the front end and export your data with the click of a button.
Gravity Forms Front End Posting: Final Thoughts
In this article, we showed you how to turn your Gravity Forms submissions into WordPress posts or pages.
The Gravity Forms Advanced Post Creation Add-On allows you to configure post Creation feeds to display your Gravity Forms data on a new post or page. The add-on gives you the ability to set the post status, author, category, and more.
Another way to create posts from Gravity Forms submissions is by creating a form containing Gravity Forms Post Fields. When you receive a submission, Gravity Forms will check your form for Post Fields and automatically create a new post based on the submitted information.
To learn more about displaying Gravity Forms data, check out our ultimate guide to displaying Gravity Forms entries.
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