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.
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
- Check requirements
- Make sure you have Gravity Forms installed and activated.
- Already have a license? Download Latest Gravity Forms
- Need a license? Buy Gravity Forms
- 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.
- Configure the plugin
- Read on for step-by-step instructions
Locking Down a Page
Navigate to the Edit screen for any post, page, or any custom post type.
Enable “Custom Fields” via the “Screen Options” at the top of the page. There is a good chance they are already enabled.
1.
That’s it! For a complete list of the available options, read on.
Custom Field Options
- gwsa_require_submission (int) (required)
Add this custom field with a value of 1 to require a Gravity Form to be submitted to gain access.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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? Then you'll absolutely love Gravity Perks; a suite of 33+ essential add-ons for Gravity Forms with support you can count on.
Great plugin but with Gravity Forms version 2.5.6 I now get a blank white screen when I click on the page in WP admin. The frontend works fine, it’s only in admin and only on the pages that are using the Custom Fields for this plugin and the latest version of Gravity Forms.
No problems prior to the GF upgrade.
Hi Rocio,
I’m having trouble reproducing this issue locally, it seems to be working. Could you try updating to the latest GF version which is 2.5.7. If you have an active Gravity Perks License, can you open a ticket with us via our support form, with your account email so that our developers can take a look into it.
Best,
Hi Dario, Thank you for the quick response. I realize that the issue was that the cookie was not set. Once the cookie was set the “blank/white” screen for my locked pages in WP admin showed up just fine. Not a real issue, and great little plugin.
Thanks again! R
I’ve used this before with a form on a separate page, but I’m trying to use it for multiple pages that load a specified form in place.
The problem is once submitted, the Gravity Forms confirmation message is displayed, but it does not then load the page content. One must reload the page.
Is there a way to just have it display the page content on the form submission without showing the confirmation message at all?
I thought that’s what setting a custom field of ‘bypass_cache’ with a value of ‘true’ would do, but it does not seem to.
I must be missing something. Please advise.
Actually, I changed the confirmation to type Redirect of {embed_url}, and that seems to do the trick. Is that the correct way?
Is the ‘bypass_cache’ with a value of ‘true’ still needed? Not clear how that works or why it’s needed.
Hi Michael,
Enabling bypass_cache option will allow the script to bypass any page/cookie caching by fetching the post content via AJAX. Setting the bypass_cache will load the contents via AJAX without a page reload. If bypass_cache is enabled, the loading_message parameter allows you to control the loading message which is visible while the post content is being fetched via AJAX.
If you are a Gravity Perks customer, drop us a line and we’ll be happy to dig into this to see if this is possible.
Hi guys, I’m having a problem getting this to work using Beaver Builder, the fields are created using ACF (basic text fields), I just never get the form before the content. Going on other comments this appears to be working fine with DIVI or Elementor so wondering if anyone has got this to work with Beaver Builder or anything I may be missing, any advice much appreciated. I also have no caching enabled at the moment as the site is in dev.
Hi MicKe,
I’m not really sure why it isn’t working, but instead of using ACF to create the custom fields, could you use the WordPress Custom Fields instead and see if that works.
Best,
Hi! Thanks for providing the plugin!
I have set up the custom fields on my custom post type after form submission it will just redirect to the restriction message so they still can’t access the protected content.
Hi Carl,
If you already have custom fields parameters set up correctly as described in the tutorial above, try clearing the cache and see if that resolves the issue. You could also run a theme/plugin conflict test to check if another plugin is causing this issue.
In case this doesn’t work for you, then we may have to log in to your site to check the setup and troubleshoot the issue there. So if you have a Gravity Perks license, you can reach us via our support form so we dig into this.
Best,
Do you have any videos? I did everything that is written here but still, nothing works
Hi! Thanks for providing the plugin!!!
Are there any known compatibility issues with Elementor Website Builder?
Once I add the custom fields, save the page, I can’t edit the page (or the fields) anymore. I also get this error “The editor has encountered an unexpected error.”
Thanks for your help,
Ken
Hi Kenneth,
The snippet shouldn’t cause any issue with Elementor. It could be with the way you’re creating the custom fields. You may want to check out this article on how to add custom fields in Elementor. If you have a Gravity Perks License and you’re still having issues, you can send us a message via our support form so that we can dig into this.
Best,
This is the same behavior I see when working with Divi Page Builder. The issue is you haven’t submitted the form and set a cookie in your browser giving you access to the page you are trying to edit. Just go submit your access form to set a cookie then return to edit your locked content page. The problem lies in that Elementor (as well as Divi) is loading the full page and not just the WordPress text editor thus getting blocked by the submit to access perk.