Show them the total before they hit the limit.

Every item on your list carries a number. Add them up as someone picks them, and say plainly when the list has gone past the amount you recommend.

See the plugins See how it works

Today’s sodium 3 items

Counted as each one is added.

Tinned tomato soup 1 bowl

890 mg

Rye bread 2 slices

340 mg

Mature cheddar 40 g

260 mg

1,490 mg against the 2,300 mg limit you set

Illustrative experience

Items from your own catalog
A total that keeps up
Your limit, shown beside it

The finished experience

The total is never a surprise at the end.

Someone sees where they stand while they are still choosing, instead of finding out after they submit.

A good fit for
Clinics, nutrition programs, and anyone helping people stay inside an amount they publish.

1

Keep the items in one place

Each item is a record — a post with a custom field for the number you are counting — so whoever maintains the list never has to open the form.

GP Populate Anything
2

Add as many as it takes

Every pick becomes a child entry with its own amount and quantity, populated from the record, and the list stays readable however long it gets.

GP Nested Forms
3

Total it, then show the limit

Use the Nested Forms :sum modifier to total the child amounts. A native calculated Number field can divide that sum by your published limit to show a percentage; no Advanced Calculations perk is needed.

GP Nested Forms

Inspired by a real build

Spotlight: Netalys’ Salt Consumption Calculator June 2022 A behind-the-scenes look at how one customer built a daily salt consumption calculator using Nested Forms and Populate Anything. Read the spotlight

What you’ll need.

Start with Gravity Forms. Add the capabilities this solution needs, then make the experience your own.

GP Populate Anything

Fills each item's amount from the catalog you maintain, so every number comes from one place.

Explore GP Populate Anything

GP Nested Forms

Collects every item someone adds as its own entry and sums their amounts into the total the parent form shows.

Explore GP Nested Forms

Taking it further

Add these optional plugins when your project calls for more.

Optional

GC Google Sheets

Reads the item list from a Google Sheet when the catalog lives in a spreadsheet rather than in WordPress.

Explore GC Google Sheets

Optional

GP Advanced Select

Optionally adds search to a large item catalog. Configure the Populate Anything filter so the item name contains Advanced Select Search Value; test loading and empty results with the full catalog.

Explore GP Advanced Select

Before you start

A catalog of items with the value you are counting on each one.
Our free Add Child Entry on Trigger snippet, if you want one-click adds instead of the child form's modal.
GC Google Sheets and a Google account only if the catalog lives in a spreadsheet.

Free snippets it also uses

Add Child Entry on Trigger Optional one-click variant: adds a populated child entry when the trigger field changes instead of opening the child-entry modal.

Snippets are free, and each one carries its own instructions in the Snippet Library .

Get this built.

A plan covers how many of our plugins you run at once, and on how many sites. Here is what this one needs.

Required

GP Populate AnythingPerks
GP Nested FormsPerks

Optional

GC Google SheetsConnect
GP Advanced SelectPerks

Gravity Perks Advanced $169 /year

2 perks need Advanced or above — on up to 3 sites.

Gravity Connect Basic $59 /year

Only if you add GC Google Sheets.

See plans for this solution

Every plan renews at the same price, and you can upgrade any time for the difference.

Make it fit
your project.

Where do the item values come from?

Whatever you already maintain. The clinic build this came from used a post per food with its salt value in a custom field; entries or a database table work the same way, and a Google Sheet needs the separate GC Google Sheets Connection.

Can the form stop someone going over the limit?

Conditional logic can show a warning or hide Submit as interface guidance. If the limit must be enforced, validate it on the server as well; hiding a button does not reject a crafted submission. For a recommended amount, a clear warning may be enough.

Can it look like a gauge?

The total is a field, and the gauge in the clinic build was a div with a few lines of CSS reading that field. None of the plugins draw one for you.

Does it have to be milligrams?

No. Anything with a number per item counts the same way — grams, watts, hours, kilos of material.