Spotlight: Updating Custom Post Types with Entry Blocks

Custom post types (CPTs) turn WordPress from a simple blogging tool into a flexible CMS for user directories, e-commerce products, and even custom dashboards or CRMs. With Gravity Forms’ Advanced Post Creation (APC) add-on, creating CPT records is effortless—someone submits a form, and a post goes live without them touching the WordPress admin.

But often record creation is only half the story. What if you need to edit those CPT records just as easily? That was the challenge Josh Blake, managing director at Pioneer Signings, faced—until he discovered GP Entry Blocks.

Let’s take a look!

The authentication system

Pioneer Signings helps fans get closer to their favorite icons through private autograph signings and authentic memorabilia from some of the world’s biggest names. I mean, just look at this Lord of the Rings poster!  🧙

In a space where authenticity is everything, Josh and his team of authenticators needed a simple way to show proof that each autograph was genuine. Their solution? Unique codes in holographic stickers included with every purchase.

These codes are then linked to a lookup tool where customers can instantly view authentication records for their goods, complete with photo evidence of the signing. They just need to input the code into a single-field form and it pulls up the CPT-based authentication record via shortcode.

To generate those records, Josh built a Gravity Forms system with a few key spells:

• GP Unique ID to generate the codes for each sticker.
• GP Nested Forms to capture evidence of multiple signatures per item.
• GF Advanced Post Creation to spin up the CPT-based record on submission.

Everything worked beautifully for record creation, but Josh also needed his authenticators to be able to update existing CPT-based records to fix typos, add more signatures, you name it. With Nested Forms and file uploads in play, neither PHP hooks nor Populate Anything (our Swiss-army-knife plugin) could handle such a feat.

I was trying to find a way to allow the unique records to be edited/added to and tried a number of ways with Populate anything, etc. and couldn’t get the records to fill. Your wonderful team then put me on to Entry Blocks.

The editing solution

So that’s when Josh reached out to our support team for help. Samuel, one of our support wizards, suggested GP Entry Blocks — the “Little Perk That Could.”

On the surface, Entry Blocks lets you display and edit Gravity Forms entries on the frontend. But how could that possibly help Josh’s authenticators update CPT-based records?

Here’s the trick: with a little snippet magic, Entry Blocks updates CPT records created with Advanced Post Creation whenever the original entry is edited. That means authenticators get the sleek, user-friendly Entry Blocks editing UI, while the underlying CPTs stay perfectly up to date.

And the best part? It didn’t just solve that one problem — it also covered all these bases:

• Nested Forms and file upload fields: Fully compatible.
• Filter by sticker code: The Filters Block takes care of it.
• Working with another page builder: Reusable Blocks Extended makes it possible. (Josh uses Divi!)

This worked out the box and allows for the initial created unique record to be edited (except the Unique ID, which is locked), captures the updated information and Nested Forms, and allowed for the quick and easy updating of records.

The signoff

Pioneer Signings now has a smooth, reliable way for authenticators to update records that fits their workflow like a glove. Fans get to see their special moment, the team gets a clean editing experience, and magic takes care of the rest. 🪄

And speaking of magic — if any collectibles catch your eye, Josh has shared a little special incantation: try code gwiz10 at checkout.

Thanks, Josh, for sharing your story with us! If you’d like a step-by-step tutorial on editing custom post types with Entry Blocks, or a closer look at Josh’s authentication workflow with Unique ID and Nested Forms, let us know in the comments.

While you do, I’ll be opening up space for my new Funko Pop collection… Cheers!