Add HTML5 placeholder without losing Field label

I agree, the HTML5 placeholder was not designed to replace to field label, rather to be used in conjunction with it.

I am currently only aware of one plugin which adds placeholders the correct way and that is Gravity Perks, it is a premium plugin so if that's not for you there is an alternative method which involves adding some code to your theme's functions file, however it doesn't add placeholders to the same number of field types that Gravity Perks does.

It was posted in this topic but here's the full code, what it does is add a placeholder option to the field settings panel in the form editor.

add_action("gform_field_standard_settings", "jtd_gform_placeholders", 10, 2);
function jtd_gform_placeholders($position, $form_id){
  // Create settings on position 25 (right after Field Label)
  if ( $position == 25 ) {
  ?>
    <li class="admin_label_setting field_setting" style="display: list-item; ">
      <label for="field_placeholder">Placeholder Text
        <!-- Tooltip to help users understand what this field does -->
        <a href="javascript:void(0);" class="tooltip tooltip_form_field_placeholder" tooltip="<h6>Placeholder</h6>Enter the placeholder/default text for this field.">(?)</a>
      </label>
      <input type="text" id="field_placeholder" class="fieldwidth-3" size="35" onkeyup="SetFieldProperty('placeholder', this.value);">
    </li>
  <?php
  }
}

/* Now we execute some javascript technicalities for the field to load correctly */
add_action("gform_editor_js", "jtd_gform_editor_js");
function jtd_gform_editor_js(){
?>
  <script>
    //binding to the load field settings event to initialize the checkbox
    jQuery(document).bind("gform_load_field_settings", function(event, field, form){
      jQuery("#field_placeholder").val(field["placeholder"]);
    });
  </script>
<?php
}

/* We use jQuery to read the placeholder value and inject it to its field */
add_action('gform_pre_render',"jtd_gform_init_scripts", 10, 2);
function jtd_gform_init_scripts( $form ) {
    $script = "";
    /* Go through each one of the form fields */
    foreach($form['fields'] as $i=>$field) {
        /* Check if the field has an assigned placeholder */
        if(isset($field['placeholder']) && !empty($field['placeholder'])){
          /* If a placeholder text exists, inject it as a new property to the field using jQuery */
          $script .= "jQuery('#input_{$form['id']}_{$field['id']}').attr('placeholder','{$field['placeholder']}');";
        }
    }
    GFFormDisplay::add_init_script($form["id"], 'jtd_placeholder', GFFormDisplay::ON_PAGE_RENDER, $script);
    return $form;
}

One thing to keep in mind if using the original is that in the code I pasted above Lines 30 onwards have been updated recently by Alex our lead developer to improve compatibility with ajax enabled forms.

@pyroboy024 if you fill in our new request support form we'll see what we can do about getting that function working for you.

Regards,
Richard