Gravity Wiz

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Submit a Gravity Form to Access Content

This plugin provides a simple way to protect your content, requiring the visitor to submit a form in order to gain access.

Last updated | Written by 418 Comments

  • January 12, 2023: Added cookie_expiration parameter to allow configuring when the cookie that tracks submitted forms expires.

  • November 23, 2021: Added gfsa_has_access filter for filtering whether the current viewer has access to a given post.

  • March 2, 2021: Updated snippet to run as a Singleton plugin. Added gw_submit_to_access()->has_submitted_form() helper method.

  • June 21, 2017: Improved support for automatically showing required form if no required message is specified.

  • March 2, 2017: Updated submitted forms cookie to be persistent by default. Added new "is_persistent" option to disable this.

  • March 1, 2017: Added support for "gwsa_requires_submission_redirect" option to allow automatically redirecting to a specific page if the user requires access.

  • March 23, 2016: Added support for requiring a form to be submitted before any page can be accessed. Added support for storing submitted forms in user meta.

  • March 3, 2015: Added support for shortcodes in "gwsa_requires_submission_message" custom field. Fixed issue where json_decode() did not return an array.

Show All Updates
View DemoView CodeDownload Plugin

You have a post or page you’d like to protect but you don’t want to require the user to sign up for a user account and you just don’t need a full-blown membership system. All you want to do is collect a few details about the user for your mailing list or CRM.

This plugin provides an easy way to accomplish this. Any post-based content (that includes pages and custom post types) that support custom fields can be locked down. You set a few special custom fields and the Gravity Forms Submit to Access plugin takes care of the rest.

Getting Started

  1. Check requirements

  2. Install the plugin

    • Click the “Download Code” button above and save the file to your Desktop.
    • Drop the file into your WordPress plugins folder via FTP – or – zip the file up and upload it via WordPress plugin uploader.

  3. Configure the plugin

    • Read on for step-by-step instructions

Locking Down a Page

  1. Navigate to the Edit screen for any post, page, or any custom post type.

  2. Enable “Custom Fields via the Screen Options at the top of the page. There is a good chance they are already enabled.

    gw-submit-to-access-enable-custom-fields

  3. Add a custom field named gwsa_require_submission with a value of 1.

    gw-submit-to-access-gwsa-require-submission

  4. Add a custom field named gwsa_form_ids and set the value to the ID of whichever form the user should submit to gain access to this page.

    gw-submit-to-access-gwsa-form-ids

That’s it!

Custom Field Options

gw-submit-to-access-custom-field-options

  • gwsa_require_submission (string) (required)

    Add this custom field with a value of 1 to require a Gravity Form to be submitted to gain access. Set this value to per_page to require the submission on the page itself.

  • gwsa_form_ids (bool) (optional)

    Add this custom field and set the value to the ID of the form which must be submitted to gain access to this page. If there are multiple forms that can be submitted to gain access, you may include them as a comma-delimited list (i.e. 1,2,3). If any form can be submitted to gain access to this page, do not add this custom field option.

  • gwsa_requires_submission_message (string) (optional)

    Override the default message that is displayed when the user does not have access to view the content of this page.

    Use the {form} custom merge tag to control where the required form is output alongside the requires submission message. This allows you to wrap the form and message in your own custom markup.

  • gwsa_requires_submission_redirect (string) (optional)

    Provide a URL to which the user will be redirected if they do not have access to view the content of this page.

Per Page Locking

By default, any pages locked by the same form submission will all be unlocked simultaneously. For example, let’s say you lock down two pages on your site, called Welcome New Members and House Rules, and you only want members of your site to be able to view those pages. You can use the same form to unlock both pages by inserting the same Form ID into the gwsa_form_ids field on both pages. When a user submits the form on either of the two pages, both pages are unlocked at the same time.

In some cases, you only want to unlock a page when a form is submitted on that page. In the case of the examples pages above, you might have a simple Terms of Service form that requires the user check a box indicating they have read the terms before they can view the content. If you set the gwsa_require_submission custom field value to per_page instead of 1, the page content is only unlocked when the user submits the form on that specific page.

Global Parameters

  • requires_submission_message (string) (optional)

    Define the default message that is displayed if the user does not have access to the content. This value will be overridden if a post-specific message is set via the gwsa_requires_submission_message custom field option. Defaults to 'Oops! You do not have access to this page.'.

  • bypass_cache (bool) (optional)

    Enabling this option will allow the script to bypass any page/cookie caching by fetching the post content via AJAX. Defaults to false.

  • loading_message (array) (optional)

    If bypass_cache is enabled, this option allows you to control the loading message which is visible while the post content is being fetched via AJAX.

  • is_persistent (bool) (optional)

    The cookie that stores which forms have been submitted for the visitor is persistent by default. Set this to false to make the cookie session-based.

  • enable_user_meta (bool) (optional)

    Set this to true to save submitted forms in the user meta rather than a cookie. Only works for logged-in users.

  • cookie_expiration (bool) (optional)

    Set this to a timestamp (in the future) at which the cookie should expire. For example, to have the cookie expire each night at midnight, set the value to: strtotime( 'midnight tomorrow' ).

Any questions?

This is a bare bones plugin. It uses WordPress’ custom fields UI to handle setting the options and advanced configuration should happen in the plugin.

If this proves to be a popular resource, I’ll be happy to enhance it to be even easier to use.

Did this resource help you do something awesome with Gravity Forms?

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Comments

  1. Paul says

    Hi – Is it possible to use a form on a page that you want to protect rather than having a separate page please? The idea being that we could have a number of page in /protect-pages/ that would show the form when first visited, but only the page content (minus the form) when the form has been submitted?

    Thanks for your help.

    Reply

    • Scott Ryer says

      Hi Paul,

      Yes, the default behavior of the plugin when the user hasn’t yet submitted the form is to display both a message and the required form. If you want to control that message and form location, you can do so using the gwsa_requires_submission_message parameter.

    • Scott Ryer says

      Hi Ben,

      This snippet supports locking down posts, pages, and custom post types. You simply need to enable custom fields on the post and add the appropriate fields.

  3. Cat says

    I love this plugin, it does exactly what I need it to do. One question though, i don’t know how to style the page since i use elementor as a page builder and this locks the whole page. i want to make it so it doesn’t go all the way to the edges of my page, as you can see here: mylymedoc.com/bookquiz

    any idea how to add margins to it or format it so it’s not so overwhelming?

    Reply

    • Samuel Bassah says

      Hi Cat,

      You can use custom CSS to style the form the way you want. Something like this should get you started;

      // Update '1445' to the Post ID and '2' to the Form ID. .page-id-1445 #gform_wrapper_2{ width: 610px; margin: auto; padding: 60px 0; } }

      Generally, support for our free plugins is limited to license holders, so if you need additional help with this, we’ll need you to submit a support ticket, so we can assist you further.

      Best,

    • Dario says

      Hi Sal, the snippet will only gate the content in the page or post (including links to the files) but not the files themselves. If the files are accessed directly, they will be shown to the user.

      Best,

    • Sal says

      Thanks Dario – then maybe a solution could be put all the downloadable links into a container, then gate the container.

  5. Matt Peskett says

    Hello, is there a way to get this to work so that I don’t have to include ‘now refresh this page’ in the form’s confirmation message to make it load the locked content? It’s not great for the end user. I’d rather it just automatically appeared after submission but I can’t do that using redirect in GF form settings because it just reloads the form empty for the post (post meaning I also can’t use ‘Page’).

    Thanks

    Matt

    Reply

    • Matt Andrews says

      Hi Matt,

      If you set the form Confirmation Type to Redirect, and enter the post’s URL, the post should load when the form is submitted.

      If this isn’t happening, can you check to see if cookies are enabled on your browser? Could you also check any caching that you may have on your site? If this isn’t a cookies or caching issue, we’ll need you to submit a support ticket for this, so we can dig into this further. Please note that although the snippet is free to use, you’ll need an active Gravity Perks license for support.

      Best,

  6. Jonathan Weaver says

    How do I change the cookie expiration time to different times like 30 minutes, 4 hours, 2 days, etc?

    Reply

  7. Jonathan Weaver says

    I would like to use 3 forms for different users but have them open one single page. Can I put 3 forms on 3 pages and have them all open a fourth page that has the content? I have the Constant Contact addon on Gravity forms so my goal is for the forms to open the same page but add users to 3 different lists based on which URL they come in through. Hope that makes sense. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Dario says

      Hi Jonathan, this should be possible by setting the form ID’s in the gwsa_form_ids custom field. If there are multiple forms that can be submitted to gain access, you may include them as a comma-delimited list (i.e. 1,2,3).

      If you’re having any difficulties setting this and if you have an active Gravity Perks license, contact us via our support form, so we can look at your setup and assist you further.

      Best,

    • Samuel Bassah says

      Hi Jon,

      Can you check to see if cookies are enabled on the other browsers? If cookies are enabled on the other browsers and this isn’t a cookie related issue, we’ll need you to submit a support ticket for this, so we can dig into this further. Please note that although the snippet is free to use, you’ll need an active Gravity Perks license for support.

      Best,

    • Jon says

      It was the page caching at the server. I added the page to the exempt list and the form worked as expected. Thanks!

  9. Jonathan Trenor says

    Thanks for this awesome plugin!

    Note that I also had to explicitly exclude the respective pages from the server cache on Flywheel in order for the gated content to show after submitting the form.

    Reply

    • Kylee Bustamante says

      Hi Jonathan,

      Are you able to provide more details on how you were able to exclude the respective pages from the server cache? I’m noticing some unexpected behavior with this plugin that I suspect is Flywheel related but all the settings are so abstracted that I can’t figure out how to do this.

    • Samuel Bassah says

      Hi Kylee,

      I am not really familiar with how Flywheel cahciing works, so I will leave this for Jonathan to assist you. You may also want to contact Flywheel support to see if they can assist you with this.

      Best,

  10. Mia Jordan says

    I apologize if I missed this question, there are ALOT of previous comments to scroll through! Is there a way to have the form display as a popup modal that covers the content instead of replacing it on the page?

    So, if I first enter the page, and popup modal keeps me from interacting with the content unless I fill out the form?

    Thanks for this – it seems like exactly what I need, but I think the client will prefer the popup option if it can be done.

    Reply

    • Dario says

      From what I understand, we don’t have any ready solutions to block the page content when using a modal, since the snippet doesn’t handle how the modal works. We use Magnific Popup to handle the modals on our site. It’s a simple JS library that we use to generate popups using custom code in our theme.

      I hope this helps!

  11. Eoin says

    I’m having the same issue as https://gravitywiz.com/submit-gravity-form-access-content/comment-page-8/#comment-874719 and the provided solution will not work.

    I have a custom post type that has the required custom fields and displays the content. I need the content to be displayed when the form is submitted.

    Instead of using the Page option in the confirmation (as it’s not relevant – the form is not on a page) I tried using the {referer} merge tag for the redirect option. The form reloads on the post but instead of the content it just shows the form again.

    How can I use this on a custom post type?

    Thanks

    Reply

    • Matt Andrews says

      Hi Eoin,

      I’m not sure why this isn’t working for you. We’ll need to dig into this further to know what’s happening. I’ll contact you via email to request additional information.

  12. Lindsay says

    Thank you for this. I had to disable WPRocket caching entirely on the locked page for it to work (even with the bypass_cache variable set to True), but with caching disabled it works great!

    I was curious, are you using this plugin or something else for the popup to download the plugin? Is it one of the Gravity Perks available for purchase? I’d love to implement a similar feature to capture emails for free downloads.

    Reply

    • Scott Ryer says

      Hi Lindsay,

      Glad to hear you got it working once you bypassed the cache.

      We use Magnific Popup to handle the modals. It’s a simple JS library that we use to generate popups using custom code in our theme.

    • Scott Ryer says

      Hi Brandon,

      Global parameters are added to the snippet itself. Instead of using the plugin version, download the snippet version.

      To use global parameters, you’ll need to make some changes to the last line. Replace this line:

      gw_submit_to_access();

      With this, including any global parameters you want to set:

      gw_submit_to_access( array (
        'is_persistent' => false,
    )
);

  14. janna says

    Are there any particular settings for the form? This doesn’t appear to be working for me…the form appears in the post with the requirement message; but when submitted, it just shows the form’s default confirmation message plus the requirement message rather than loading the page content.

    Reply

    • Scott Ryer says

      Hi Janna,

      You’ll want to set the form’s confirmation page to the page where you’re restricting content. When the form is submitted, it will automatically refresh the page to display the content.

      Confirmation page set to restricted page

    • Samuel Bassah says

      Hi David,

      I’m unsure about this but the plugin currently only supports hiding the content of the page content or the_content. So if the content from Google are displayed within the_content, it should also hide them. You can give it a try to confirm how it works.

      Best,

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