Guide: Two-Way Connect Gravity Forms with Google Sheets

Think of the potential Gravity Forms and Google Sheets have for unlocking new ways to use your data: collect data in Gravity Forms, then automatically send and sync with Google Sheets to take advantage of all the functionality Sheets provides. Use Sheets as a database, CRM, or to just get meaningful insights from your data. This also opens the door to other Google Sheets integrations, like Looker Studio.

This is our hunch behind why Gravity Forms Google Sheets has quickly become one of our most popular plugins.

So, what if you wanted to populate that same data back into Gravity Forms, once you’ve worked your magic in Sheets? Using Gravity Forms Populate Anything, this two-way connection can become effortless. You can go as far as to populate data from a Gravity Form into Google Sheets, then back into the same form.

This article is all about doing just that: creating a two-way connection between Gravity Forms and Google Sheets to seamlessly send data both ways.

Getting Started

To get started, make sure you have both Gravity Forms Google Sheets and Populate Anything installed and activated.

For this tutorial, we’re going to use an example of attendees registering for a gala event. We’ll create a registration form for guests to fill out when registering, and we’ll export the guest details to Google Sheets. Then, we’ll create an attendee sign in form that will populate the guests into a drop down list for the event organizer to confirm and sign each guest in.

1. Getting Started
2. Build the Guest Registration Form
   1. Connect the Registration form to Google Sheets
   2. Create a new Google Sheets Feed
   3. Insert a test row
3. Build the Guest Sign In Form
   1. Create a new Google Sheets Feed
4. Taking it Further
   1. Display Guest Details on the Front End using Gravity Forms Entry Blocks
   2. Add available tickets or seats with Gravity Forms Inventory
   3. Create digital codes with Gravity Forms QR Code

Build the Guest Registration Form

We’ll start by building a simple guest registration form. Create a new form called “Guest Registration” and add the following fields:

• Name
• Phone
• Email

Connect the Registration form to Google Sheets

Next, it’s time to link your Google Account to Gravity Forms. Under Forms in the WordPress sidebar, click on Settings › Google Sheets. Under Google Account, click Connect, and follow the prompts to sign in to Google.

For more detailed information about connecting your Google Account, take a look at our Gravity Forms Google Sheets documentation here.

Create a new Google Sheets Feed

Now that your Google Account is connected, it’s time to connect the guest registration form to Google Sheets. With your form open, navigate to your Settings › Google Sheets. You should see the GP Google Sheets Feed table. Click Add New to create a new feed:

Create a new Google Sheets feed with the following fields filled out:

• Name: Guest Registration
• Google Sheets Settings: Create New Sheet
• Column Mapping: We’ll name the columns and select the values as follows:
  • Guest Name: Name
  • Guest Email: Email
  • Guest Phone: Phone

Insert a test row

Click Save Settings at the bottom to save your changes. To test out the sync with the guest form fields, click Preview and fill out the guest info.

Build the Guest Sign In Form

Once the guests are all registered, let’s make it easy for the gala coordinator to sign everyone in during the event. We’ll build a form for the coordinator where they can select each guest and record the time of when they signed in.

Start by creating a new form called “Guest Sign In”. We’ll add a new Drop Down field called “Choose Guest”. Make sure the Field Settings are configured as follows:

• Check Populate choices dynamically
• Type: Google Sheet
• Sheet: Choose your Guest Details sheet
• Value: Row Number
• Label: Guest Name

Next, we’ll add a Checkbox field called “Sign In Status”, with one choice called “Arrived”. When the event coordinator fills out the form, they’ll check “Arrived” to indicate that the guest is signed in.

Finally, we’ll record the exact time that the guest signs in for audit purposes. Add a new hidden Single Line Text field called “Sign in Timestamp”. To automatically record the current time and , we’ll navigate to Field Settings › Advanced › Default Value and add the following: {today:time}

Create a new Google Sheets Feed

Once the coordinator signs the guest in, we’ll send a record of the data to Google Sheets. Following the same steps as the registration feed, navigate to your Settings › Google Sheets. You should see the GP Google Sheets Feed table. Click Add New to create a new feed:

Create a new Google Sheets feed with the following fields filled out:

• Name: Sign In List
• Google Sheets Settings: Create New Sheet
• Column Mapping: We’ll add new columns and values as follows:
  • Guest Name: Choose Guest
  • Arrival Confirmation: Arrived
  • Sign in Time: Sign In Timestamp

That’s it! You now have a smooth, seamless event registration process that’s fully integrated with Google Sheets.

Taking it Further

Display Guest Details on the Front End using Gravity Forms Entry Blocks

To make it easy for the event coordinator, you can use the power of Gravity Forms Entry Blocks to display your guest registration form entries on the front end.

With Gravity Forms Entry Blocks installed and activated, create a new page and choose the Guest Registration form. You should see your guest details displayed in a table like this:

For more information on how to set up the entry block, check out our Entry Blocks documentation here.

Add available tickets or seats with Gravity Forms Inventory

What if the gala only has a limited number of tickets or seats for guests? Gravity Forms Inventory is the perfect tool to manage tickets, seats, or any type of bookable resource.

Check out our full documentation here to learn how you can incorporate Simple, Choice-based, Shared, or Scoped Inventory into your guest registration form.

Create digital codes with Gravity Forms QR Code

Once your tickets are created, you can use Gravity Forms QR Code to generate a unique code for each guest. The QR code can be included in an email notification once the guest finishes registering.

When it’s time for the guest to sign in, just add a Single Line text field to your form, enable the QR code scanner, and you’ll have the ability to scan the guest’s code as part of the sign in process.

Learn more about how to generate and scan QR codes here.