The very amazing Yoast authored a great post/tutorial earlier this year on how to use Gravity Forms to submit custom post types. He talked about using Gravity Forms in conjunction with the WP Types plugin to make this relationship work.
Before we go any further, I’d like to back up and explain what both of these plugins do. (Alert: You may step on an affiliate link in this post.)
What is Gravity Forms?
Gravity Forms is a premium WordPress plugin used to create and manage forms on your WordPress site. What makes it stand out from other contact form plugins (and worth paying for) is its add-on services. You can EASILY integrate with Aweber, MailChimp, PayPal, and even register new users in WordPress.
It’s well-documented, supported, and widely used in the WordPress developer community.
What is WP Types?
In short, WP Types is a premium WordPress plugin used to create and manage custom post types, custom fields, and post relationships. Custom post types (CPTs) are not hard to add manually, but this little plugin definitely speeds up the process and reduces the chance of operator error accidents.
The plugin comes bundled with WP Views, which is a display engine used to show off things created with WP Types.
Types and Views are two WordPress plugins that work in perfect harmony, together, enabling rapid development of WordPress sites. - OnTheGoSystems, INC. (plugin creator)
Don’t Mind if… I Do!
These two plugins are a match made in WordPress heaven. If we can continue on the wedding theme a moment, allow me to introduce you to the preacher that united these two plugins in holy matrimony. After that, we’ll dance on into the reception.
Meet the preacher: Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types
Authored by Bradvin, the Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types name explains itself. This plugin provides the bridge that allows form entries to be inserted into a custom post type. In addition to mapping form fields to a custom post type, you can even link a field to a custom taxonomy (think: populate a drop-down box in your form with a list of custom taxonomies).
Let’s Party
You may be thinking “Ok, sounds cool, but what the heck do I do with it?” Good question. Let me give you a simple usage scenario from a recent project I did.
- The client wanted a Testimonials section on the website (I created a custom post type with WP Types).
- Site visitors needed to be able to submit a testimonial through the website (Gravity Forms).
- Form submissions needed to be saved to the Testimonials custom post type (Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types)
- Submitted testimonials needed to automatically be displayed on the Testimonials page (WP Views)
Make sense? There are endless applications here – this couple has a very bright future!
Picking Up Where Yoast Left Off
Going back to the original Yoast article, he walks you through in detail how to create a custom post type with custom fields and follows it up with instructions on creating a form through which people can submit something that fills this post type. Where he leaves off is the final step of creating a browsable interface for the custom post type. That’s where the WP Views plugin really gets to shine on the dance floor.
I’m going to be a buzz-kill and leave off in the same spot for this post. I wanted to introduce these plugins to you and next post I’ll pick up with more details on WP Views and how to show off your custom post types.
Until then, party on Wayne.
Hi Carrie, found your article through my Google Alerts and am happy to see you like to use Types and Views.
I wanted you to know we are Beta testing a forms product ourselves at onTheGoSystem, that is highly integrated with Types and Views, called CRED. Before you make your second post, you should check this out and see if it might change your direction for your next post.
Look here and scroll down to the CRED portion of the User Guides.
http://wp-types.com/documentation/user-guides/
I would like to hear/see your opinion on this product.
Hey Keith,
Thanks for stopping by and for the heads up on CRED. I look forward to checking it out!
Carrie
p.s. Can you tell the powers that be to create some official affiliate graphics? Every one I’ve seen is a hack job.
I am going to give it a spin soon!
I finally purchased WP Types and I”m overwhelmed by all of the downloads included with it, but I’m super excited to try this out!!
Oh and also, a quick question (because I am still trying to wrap my head around custom post types): I have a client who is an author. Would I accomplish creating a “book post template” by creating a custom post type for her books? Or would their be other (better) options?
Karla, you’re on the right track! Create a CPT called Books. Your custom fields would be info that’s unique to each book (but each book probably has) – things like ISBN, number of pages, etc.
From there you can create custom taxonomies (these are post categories) to organize your books – things like genre (taxonomy names would be Horror, Romance, Fiction, etc.) or print type (taxonomy names would be Hardback, Paperback, etc.).
Each book could belong to multiple taxonomies (just like a blog post can fall under multiple categories).
Think you’ve inspired a blog post…
HA! I’m FINALLY getting around to trying this out (ended up not needing to do it on the project I thought I would, but another one has come up) Still overwhelmed by all the options but diving in today. Got any good Types and Views tutorials you recommend??
Just catching your comment. Glad you’re digging in! Check out Jon’s site at surefirewebservices.com – he loves T&V and talks about it some on his blog. The T&V video tuts are actually decent – sometimes they just cover more than you want to know or things that don’t directly apply, BUT it’s still a good overview of how the components work together. Remember: Types is all about creating your CPT’s, custom fields, etc – things you’ll use to INPUT and ORGANIZE data from the admin side. Views is all about displaying that goodness on the front end.
Most Excellent, Garth. Good info; great post! Thanks
I wish I had found this post a couple months ago. I came to the same conclusion for best way to allow frontend posting but it took me forever.
Another cool thing is types and views is bundled with a plugin called “cred” which allows you to do what gravity forms and custom post types do. Connect a form to creating a post.
There’s several plugins that do what types/views do ie pods, ecpt, but I’ve found types/views to be the best, it’s worth the $150 to not know html, css and php and be able to extend wordpress so much.
Great post.
ahhh just read the first guys post… well I second cred
Hey Lowell,
Glad to hear your take. I did try Cred after reading Keith’s comment, but was a little disappointed with it. I think in future iterations it will be fantastic (there seems to be a lot of growth and support behind that product family). GF for now, hopefully Cred in the future!
Carrie
Carrie,
Thanks for the detail on GF and CPT. I am like you regarding CRED. I actually purchased GF because the tutorials on CRED are so detached from a real world moment that I found myself spending hours trying to understand how to make CRED do what I could do in GF in minutes. A CRED user registration add-on would take that product much farther.
That being said, GF is behind the curve in having their product post to a Custom Type. It also needs a front-end editor for user posts.
So, with some polish and a few more intuitive aspects built in, CRED could be a powerful resource.
Hey John,
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, I wish GF would incorporate the functionality (and build on it) of the Gravity Forms + CPT plugin. Hoping to see improvements with both GF and CRED this coming year!
Cheers,
Carrie
I have created a Custom Post Type (with Types).
I have installed the GF+CPT plugin.
I have created a GF with the appropriate Title liked to the CPT.
My question is: Now what? How do I get the GF to post to the various fields of the CPT? Do I just add GF input fields with the same names as the CPT fields?
Thanks.
Found the answer:
Create an initial Custom Post Type entry–make sure you fill in all the fields with something.
Then, and only then, will the drop-down accompanying the GF custom fields access the fields in the CPT.
Yes! Glad you got that figured. Drove me batty until I finally found the answer in the plugin support forum. Feel free to post a link and let me see what you’re working on.
Yes, that part works fine. But if you want to let your users update their own submissions from the front end, there is a world programming that has to happen with either templates or several hooks. The Gravity forms product is incomplete.
I am testing Formidable Pro (see http://formidablepro.com/payment/go.php?r=9547&i=b1) and will let you know how that works out.
Looks like Formidable has some great add-ons, like GF. Will be interested to hear your thoughts. Are we friends on Twitter? I’m @cdils.
http://wedevs.com/plugin/wp-user-frontend-pro/
WP user frontend aims to solve this.. which i’m just about to test out now, i have also been using GF and types, but needed a bit more flexiblity and CRED looks bit messy.
Hey Stevie,
I wasn’t familiar with WP User Frontend, but it looks interesting. I’ve heard CRED has improved since it’s initial release, but I’ve never circled back around to try it again.
Thanks for stopping by,
Carrie