Gravity Forms v1.9 is now available via the downloads page. This is a major feature release that introduces several highly anticipated features such as Save and Continue!
We are taking a slightly different approach to the roll out of this major release. We have made Gravity Forms v1.9 available to new users and to existing users via the downloads page. However, we will not be deploying it via automatic update until we release v1.9.1.
Why? Because a follow up to a major feature release such as this is inevitable and we'd prefer that existing users do not need to automatically update multiple times within a short time period if it can be avoided. We are taking deployment cues from managed WordPress hosting services who routinely deploy major WordPress updates only after a subsequent maintenance release.
If you would like to update an existing site prior to automatic update being deployed, you can certainly do so by downloading v1.9 from the downloads page and manually updating your site.
Enough with the boring details, let's take a look at what is in the v1.9 release of Gravity Forms...
Save and Continue
The most highly anticipated new feature is the introduction of Save and Continue functionality that allows users to save their progress and return to the form at a later date to complete and submit the form.
Save and Continue is enabled within the Form Settings. When enabled, a user filling out a form will see an option to save their progress next to the submit or multi-page form buttons. When clicked, the user will be presented with a unique URL that can be used to return to the form and given the option to receive an email containing their unique URL so that they do not misplace it.
Using Gravity Forms Notifications and Confirmations you can customize what is presented to the user when they opt to save their progress and continue later.
Please note: Save and Continue is a user facing feature. It does not allow the administrator to view and edit saved progress. It is strictly designed to allow a user to save their progress and return to complete and submit the form at a later date. The ability to view and edit saved progress is being considered.
Placeholders
Gravity Forms now natively supports placeholders. Independent from a Field's Label, Sub-Labels or Default Values, a Placeholder will utilize HTML5 when available and fallback to JS when not available. Placeholders are configured via the new Appearance tab when editing a field within the Form Editor.
We have also taken things a step further and implemented placeholder support within drop down/select fields. When configured, the Placeholder will appear as the first item in the drop down. The placeholder does not act as a default value and is not stored if the user does not select another value. If the field is marked as required the placeholder will not be a valid selection.
Name Field Enhancements
The Name Field has been overhauled to provide more granular control. The Name Field now supports capturing a prefix, first name, middle name, last name and suffix. You can configure which of the fields are displayed and customize the sub-labels and placeholders for each.
With this overhaul we have removed the field type setting for the Name Field. You now simply configure which inputs you would like presented to the user. With the removal of the field type setting we have also removed the option for a simple single input Name Field. If you have a need for a single input Name Field then you can use a Single Input field and give it a Field Label of Name. Existing forms utilizing the simple field type will not be impacted.
Address Field Enhancements
Like the Name Field, we have also overhauled the Address Field to provide more granular control over the inputs and sub-labels. No more using hooks to customize the sub-labels. We are far from finished with the Address Field and will be enhancing it further in future releases.
Address Field Linking
Have you ever wanted to allow a user to duplicate Billing Address information already entered for the Shipping Address with a single click? Now you can. Address Field Linking allows you to link two Address Fields and present the user with an option to populate the contents of the field with the values from another. This will be particularly useful for order forms.
Form Editor Drag-n-Drop
The Form Editor has been enhanced so that you can now drag-n-drop fields from the Toolboxes and place them anywhere on the form. This allows you to quickly place the fields exactly where you'd like them without them automatically being placed at the bottom and then having to drag them into position. Fields can still be added by simply clicking on the field in the toolbox.
Sub-Label Control
You can now control the sub-label on advanced fields from within the field editor without requiring the use of hooks. Any field that makes use of sub-labels will now allow you to customize the sub-label values from within the General tab of the Field Editor. Sub-Labels can still be customized via the localization file or hooks.
Field Settings Enhancements
The Field Settings have been consolidated into 3 categories: General, Appearance, and Advanced.
New Appearance related field settings have been introduced that allow you to control the Description Placement and Sub-Label Placement on a field by field basis. Configuring these settings on a field will override any form wide settings applied in the Form Settings.
New Form Settings
New settings have been added to the Form Settings that allow you to control the visual placement of both the Field Description and any Sub-Labels on Advanced Fields that may exist on the form. You can now configure a form so that the description is placed either above or below the field and sub-labels placed either above or below the individual inputs.
Form Export/Import Overhaul
Form Export/Import functionality has been overhauled to utilize a JSON file format instead of XML.
Consolidated Updates
The Gravity Forms Updates area (Forms > Updates) will now reflect any updates for official Gravity Forms Add-Ons. This will allow you to quickly see if any Gravity Forms related updates are available and allow you to execute the updates. This also limits the number of outgoing requests for updates by consolidating the update requests into a single request.
Please note: Only Gravity Forms Add-Ons built on the Gravity Forms Add-On Framework will support consolidated updates. All of our Add-Ons are in the process of being updated to support the Add-On Framework. Until this process is completed not all of our Add-Ons may be reflected within the Updates page.
Background Automatic Updates
There is now a Gravity Forms Setting that allows you to enable background automatic updates.
Background Automatic Updates function just like the background automatic updates in WordPress itself when enabled. Background automatic updates have been very successful in enabling WordPress core to keep sites up to date. Users not updating plugins has historically been one of the biggest issues facing the community as it relates to security.
We have opted to NOT enable Background Automatic Updates by default, for now. We highly recommend users enable this feature in the Gravity Forms Settings.
Background automatic updates currently only execute maintenance releases (ex. X.X.1, X.X.2) and major feature releases (ex. X.1, X.2, X.3) will still require you to click on the update link in order to execute the update.
Please Note: Documentation for the features and functionality introduced in Gravity Forms v1.9 is still in progress. We are completely overhauling all of the Gravity Forms documentation and support resources.
Don't own a Gravity Forms Yet? What are you waiting for? Purchase a copy today!
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Nice update, thx!
Can you give me a hint, where I can hide the field labels if I use placeholders?
I can't find it 🙁
It appears the options to control the description placement (above/below fields) and the sub-label placement (above/below fields) were accidentally hidden by a hook. We temporarily removed the option to hide Field Labels and Sub-Labels in the 1.9 final release as we are still working on accessibility issues as it relates to screen reader usage when those labels are hidden. We are still working out the accessibility end of that specific capability.
We're correcting this and will be making v1.9.0.1 available. It will also be corrected in v1.9.1 when we deploy it via automatic update. I'll comment on here once v1.9.0.1 is available. I'll also include information on the hook that is required to enable the settings related to hiding field and sub-labels. But until we work out the accessibility end of things, fields with that enabled won't be friendly for those browsing using a screen reader.
Gravity Forms v1.9.0.1 is now available via the Downloads page. It corrects the issue of the Field Description and Sub-Label Placement controls within the Appearance tab of the Field Editor not being available
Yes! I was thinking about this, just this morning! Didn't know if you were waiting to release a "2.0" version.
Nice update. Love the place holders.
Will Gravity Forms ever come with a few themes for styling?
Cheers
Yes, we do plan on tackling the concept of themes as well as visually styling forms. It's on our roadmap 🙂
So since, there is no auto-update roll-out with this version what is the recommended manual update process.
This should be spelled out, in steps on the release notes.
Thanks
Darrell
There IS going to be an auto-update roll out of the new release. It is just happening next week, not this week. This is so we can make sure any inevitable post-launch fixes and changes are included when existing installs are automatically updated.
As far as updating manually goes the process would be the same for any WordPress plugin. Go to the Plugins page in the WordPress Dashboard. Deactivate Gravity Forms, then delete Gravity Forms. Then upload and activate the new version as if you were installing it for the first time.
As long as you only deactivate and delete Gravity Forms this way your costing Gravity Forms data will still be in your MySQL database so when you then upload and activate the new version it will pick right up.
Just do NOT remove Gravity Forms by going to the Uninstall option in the Gravity Forms Settings (Forms > Settings). That will delete ALL of the Gravity Forms data in your database. It is only used when you want to completely remove Gravity Forms from a site, including its data.
Any way of hiding a Field Label? I want to create a small form using the Place Holders and therefore don't want the Field labels at all. Would be a great option for forms in small spaces
@jacquesbez The ability to set the Field Label and Sub-Labels to hidden was removed in the final 1.9 release because we weren't happy with it. We're working on some accessibility issues with it and once we're satisfied we'll make it available within the Field Editor.
However, you can enable it using a hook. Just keep in mind that there are some accessibility issues with it right now. If a user is using a screen reader it's more helpful for them to have the labels present when the program reads them what is on the screen. But if you still want to do it, there is a hook you can use that enables the feature.
The hook is:
gform_enable_field_label_visibility_settings
Use the hook in your themes functions.php file like so:
add_filter("gform_enable_field_label_visibility_settings", "__return_true");
This will add options in the Appearance section of the Field Editor to set the Field Label and the Sub-Label placements to hidden.
Thanks for the active development. I've seen how you've grown & developed a great product that keeps getting better.
These features are great!
After updating I've noticed a bunch of line breaks messing up some things like my name field and check boxes. You can see what I mean by scrolling down to the checkboxes on this page:
korumindfulness.org/user-profile/
Any tips on what's going on with this and how I can fix it?
Thanks for all your hardwork! I'm new to it and am really happy I got on board.
@oyegigi It sounds like you are experiencing a conflict of some sort. If you haven't solved the issue be sure to submit a support ticket with the details.
Is there anyway to also have the Save & Continue link at the top of the form so people can see it right away? Some of our forms are so long we are afraid people will not realize its available if they dont make it to the bottom before they have to leave. Otherwise I guess I can put a notice at the top of the form?
@akakacey Good suggestion. I've noted it and we can look at enhancing this in a future release.
Hi Carl,
I'm on 1.9.0.6 and don't see the option to hide labels. Thought you mentioned above that it was in 1.9.0.1...
@gsibert So my comment here which discusses this feature:
https://www.gravityforms.com/gravity-forms-v1-9-released/#comment-1564
Great update! Any idea if/when you'll be adding reporting capabilities? I'd love to be able to see tabulated data of various form entries without having to export a csv and work in a third party app.
@tzaroban Reporting capabilities is a feature that we do plan on tackling in the future as an Add-On.
Is CPT entries still in the road map?
Is there a reason why this is such a neglected thing? 🙁
@Kenshino CPT support is on the road map but it is part of a complete overhaul of the post creation capabilities of Gravity Forms. We don't want to shoehorn it into the existing way of doing things. A complete overhaul of the post creation functionality is on our roadmap for later this year. CPT support is most definitely a piece of this overhaul. CPT creation can be done right now using a hook to set the post type that is created.
If I upgrade GravityForms to 1.9.1.1 the Gravity Forms User Registration Add-On (Version 2.0) complains that I need to have GravityForms 1.7 installed (I currently have GravityForms 1.8.22 installed) ...
@StudioForty9 That sounds like a bug. Please submit a support ticket with full details and our support team will get it resolved.
This name field change presents a real problem for me. If any form is re-saved it defaults to first & last name. This means that all notifications will no longer have the from name.
I want to use single field for names, but I also want auto-fill to work for users when they fill in the form with their name. If you use single line text field for names it will not work with auto-fill.
Adding extra fields cuts downs on conversions, so I want to avoid increasing fields.
Sorry I don't like this change if you are eliminating single field names 🙁
I also have a lot of forms, so editing the name fields & correcting notification from names for every form is going to be a long job.
Please bring back the single name field!
@wayne Any existing forms created pre-v1.9 that utilized the simple name format with a single input for the Name should still behave that way in v1.9 when editing the existing form. Existing forms shouldn't be impacted. Only new forms or adding a new Name Field to an existing form would use the new format.
It should be backwards compatible for existing forms that are still using the single input (simple) Name Field configuration. If it is not behaving this way for you, please submit a support ticket and our support team will look into it.
The ability to have a single input Name Field still exists. You simply add a "Single Line Text" field to your form and give it a field label of "Name". You don't have to use the actual Name Field to accomplish this. A single input name field is after all simply a single input. So if you don't want to use a Name Field consisting of multiple fields then simply use the Single Line Text field.
I just installed the latest version and I still do not see this option. How can I access this?
@stevew If you are referring to the ability to hide field labels please see my comment here: https://www.gravityforms.com/gravity-forms-v1-9-released/#comment-1564
Let me say this loud and clear...
GRAVITY FORMS ROCK!
Thank you so much for all your hard work!
Hello
Issue with placeholder and required fields, the * stay on top of the fields...
> http://www.wax-interactive.com/contact/
@pako69 I'm not 100% sure what you are referring to based on your comment and the link you provided. Please submit a support ticket on the issue and our support team will assist you in resolving it.
Thanks for the new update GF Team! I have a "monster" form on a website so, the Save and Continue feature is a huge plus.
Thanks for the clarification Carl, I had another look, and like you say, if you edit elsewhere and re-save, the Name field is not impacted, it's only when you expand the field in the editor and then re-save that it changes...I feel a lot better about it now 🙂
@wayne That still sounds like a bug. I'll have our team investigate.
@akakacey
You can use a little jQuery snippet to easily re-position the "save and continue later" link
I actually just added a HTML field to the beginning of the form and added the jQuery snippet along with a quick inline CSS block there for my example. Of course, you can put the jQuery and styles elsewhere to keep things tidier if you prefer.
admin screenshot: http://grab.by/EINc
the code snippet: (link no longer active)
front end screenshot: http://grab.by/EIMC
Hope that helps out.
Will there be a way in code to forcibly disable automatic updates? With WordPress core, I can define a constant in wp-config.php to do so. This is important to me because we have some pretty strict testing requirements before code goes onto production Web sites.
What would be ideal is a filter I could override with a quick __return_false, but I'll take whatever I can get.
@wustlpa Do you mean disable the hands off automatic update feature introduced in 1.9? If so it's disabled by default but we strongly suggest users enable it in situations where they are able to. If you are referring to automatic updates in general, as in the traditional way plugins are automatically updated via notice on plugins page and then clicking link to initiate automatic update I do not believe there is currently a hook available to disable this. Please confirm which you are referring to. A hook could certainly be added.
I'm having the same issue as the other Wayne, trouble with the Name fields (in our case the display formatting broke - and I have LOTS of forms to fix, clients NOT happy). We have in some cases tied Name Fields to WP User Meta, but I have not yet been able to determine if it is affected negatively. I have submitted a separate support ticket. I personally don't think that the option of the Simple Name field should have been removed (i.e. "Why fix it, it it ain't broke.") - a Simple Name Field is handled differently in some cases than a Single Line Text field, in particular how it could be addressed with custom CSS.
If you add define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS') to wp-config.php, that disables automatic updates for most plugins. I just want to be sure that your auto-update feature will honor that setting.
A hook for disabling Gravity Forms auto-updates specifically (and hiding the GUI option to re-enable it) would certainly be nice, in case some users want to disable your updates specifically, but for my purposes DISALLOW_FILE_MODS is sufficient.
I know, it's an odd request -- most users really should have automatic updates enabled, for WordPress and for any add-ons that support it -- but I work in an odd environment.
@wustlpa The standard way to do this should work. We use WordPress core functionality for implementing automatic updates. If you find there is an issue with this submit a support ticket and we can definitely look into it.
For everyone wanting to hide labels and replace them with placeholders, please be aware that this is a major accessibility and usability issue.
According to the official HTML5 specification that defines placeholders:
There are some workarounds to this, but forms without visible labels cause a number of unavoidable usability problems, even when the label is accessibly hidden. For further information, you can read Jakob Nielsen's explicit warnings about this in "Placeholders in Form Fields are Harmful." I also wrote about this issue and Gravity Forms specifically in an open letter last month.
@mrwweb Very good points and it's why it was pulled from 1.9. We're still testing out various methods to do it in a more accessibility friendly manner but there's still a very good chance we may not roll it out because of the accessibility concerns even with workarounds.