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Front End Editing with Visual Editor

  1. I love Gravity Forms, but the biggest limitation I have with the Plugin is the inability to use it for Front End Editing and the lack of its ability to incorporate the Wordpress Visual Editor into the Front End Posting features it already has.

    I know this is a highly requested feature that was said to be coming when Wordpress 3.3 was released, but we are on the heals of 3.4 right now and still nothing.

    When can we expect to see this set of features?

    I have actually switched to using this "FREE" plugin on 2 of my sites because Gravity Forms cannot do it for me:

    WP User Front End: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-user-frontend/

    User can create a new post and edit from frontend
    They can view their page in the custom dashboard
    Users can edit their profile
    Administrator can restrict any user level to access the wordpress backend (/wp-admin)
    New posts status, submitted by users are configurable via admin panel. i.e. Published, Draft, Pending
    Admin can configure to receive notification mail when the users creates a new post.
    Configurable options if the user can edit or delete their posts.
    Users can upload attachments from the frontend
    Admins can manage their users from frontend
    Pay per post or subscription on posting is possible

    It has all these features for Free and yet we can't get these basic features in Gravity Forms which seems crazy to me. This free plugin also uses the Wordpress Visual Editor as well, allowing users to really submit custom posts and edit them from the front end. It allows the use of Custom Fields, etc. The only limitation I have found is the lack of ability to use Custom Post Types, but that is it.

    All I can say is yes, I am complaining. I consider these to be basic features for a Forms plugin of this type and it is just frustrating to see them not being added to Gravity Forms.

    Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday April 18, 2012 | Permalink
  2. "I consider these to be basic features for a Forms plugin of this type."

    What type is that exactly? Because it is not the type of plugin we have been developing for the last two and a half years. There is a disconnect between what you think Gravity Forms is or should be and what it's actually designed to be.

    Does Wufoo, Formstack, or JotForm provide the functionality you described? They are the type of application Gravity Forms is designed to be. Those hosted form services are our primary competition.

    Yes, Gravity Forms can be used to create WordPress Posts. But the ability to create a post with Gravity Forms is just one of it's many features. Gravity Forms primary focus is NOT on WordPress Post creation. It never has been. It never will be.

    Gravity Forms is a general form management tool that can be used to create and manage all kinds of forms. It's a swiss army knife. Contact forms, surveys, feedback forms, event registration forms, user registration forms, order forms for payment integration, etc. and yes... forms that create WordPress posts.

    How can a free plugin offer the features you described? Easy. It's all it does. That is it's primary function and the only thing it's developer focuses on. Does that free plugin do everything that Gravity Forms does? Of course not. It isn't what it was designed to do. It's focus is strictly on front end post creation and editing.

    Comparing the two plugins is comparing apples to oranges. It's like saying if Event Espresso can provide complete event registration and ticketing functionality, why doesn't Gravity Forms?

    We cater Gravity Forms development to an extremely large user base. Post creation is just one of many, many, many different ways people use Gravity Forms. We devote our development efforts to features, enhancements and add-ons that are going to have the most universal appeal to our users as a whole.

    If post creation was our primary focus as developers of Gravity Forms it would already do everything you have described and more.

    Here is what I can tell you about our plans...

    Is the ability to display posts and edit posts on the front end of the site incorporating ALL of the features in the WP User Front End plugin something we plan on introducing? No.

    The first thing to be aware of is this functionality will not be added to the core Gravity Forms plugin. Far too much functionality and code will be involved to add it to the core Gravity Forms plugin when it is only going to be used by a subset of users. It will instead be introduced as an Add-On.

    What we plan on introducing as far as front end display and editing goes has nothing to do with displaying and editing posts. It has to do with displaying and editing form entries. Will those form entries be associated with a post? They can be, if the form created was configured to create a post. Will editing and updating a form entry associated with a post also update the post? Yes, if you configure it to do so.

    When will we be introducing this add-on? I can't give you a date other than to say that it is planned for release this year.

    Another thing to be aware of is we aren't the only ones that can enhance and add functionality to Gravity Forms. Any WordPress developer can create Add-Ons for Gravity Forms and many have done so. There is a 3rd party add-on already out there that allows users to display and edit entries on the front end of your site. There is also a 3rd party add-on that allows you to use custom post types and custom taxonomies when creating posts. Many of these add-ons are available on wordpress.org:

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=gravity+forms

    Just like WordPress will never do everything you want but can be enhanced by themes and plugins, Gravity Forms is never going to do everything you want. But like WordPress, it too can be enhanced by plugins and even themes.

    Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday April 18, 2012 | Permalink
  3. It wouldn't be an issue if you guys weren't promising it for months. I also read it was planned for Version 1.7. Can I assume this isn't true? Based on your lengthy reply here I assume this was a false promise.

    I am more than willing to bet that if you took a vote, your small "subset" would be larger than you think and would readily agree that these are basic features which most users would want from this plugin.

    I guess I will have to rely on 3rd Party Plugins to get the functionality I and others want from this plugin.

    Thanks for the info.

    Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday April 18, 2012 | Permalink
  4. We have have never promised specific release dates for future functionality. Development priorities and schedules change. They are never set in stone.

    This conversation is precisely why I don't like discussing estimated release dates for functionality that is not in active development because they are just that... estimated. They aren't promises and they aren't guarantees. They are preliminary plans.

    Is this functionality we plan on introducing? Definitely.

    Was this functionality originally planned for Gravity Forms v1.7? Yes. But so were enhancements that were included in Gravity Forms v1.6.2, v1.6.3, and v1.6.4.

    We scrapped the original development plans for v1.7 and have opted to release more frequent incremental updates rather than extremely large updates. Which is why some of the features originally planned for 1.7 were actually included in the last 3 feature releases.

    As for the specific functionality you are referring to, the decision was made not to build this functionality into the core Gravity Forms plugin and instead create it as an Add-On. It was the right decision. Developing an Add-On allows us to update, refine and enhance the functionality on it's own development cycle independent of Gravity Forms itself.

    Development on this new Add-On will begin after major feature enhancements to the User Registration Add-On are completed. These enhancements are in active development and once completed the developer who is working on them will be spearheading the new front end display Add-On.

    Posted 12 years ago on Wednesday April 18, 2012 | Permalink
  5. "There is a 3rd party add-on already out there that allows users to display and edit entries on the front end of your site."

    Which add-on is that?

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  6. David Peralty

    Here it is xcellere - http://wordpress.org/plugins/gravity-forms-update-post/

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  7. Thank you for the link David. I don't know if this is the appropriate forum to ask this question, but I'll give it a shot:

    I read through the details of that add-on, and what I'm not understanding is the difference between editing a POST containing a form, and an ENTRY containing a form. I'm using the Gravity Forms Directory add-on to view multiple entries, and then you can click on an entry to view its full details.

    Would the "Update Post" add-on allow me to edit an entry in the entry's front end address? On my site for example, an entry's address looks like this:

    http://www.dcturanoinc.com/blog/tracking/entry/2/3/

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  8. David Peralty

    I was pretty certain the directory add-on allowed you to edit entries, no? Also, I lack the ability to see anything on that link as I don't have permissions. And you are asking in the right spot.

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  9. I was using that link as an example of how GF links individual entries on the front end, compared to the "gform_post_id" format that "Update Post" uses in their example:

    http://www.dcturanoinc.com/?page_id=230&gform_post_id=239

    I was under the assumption that there would need to be something like "gform_entry_id" considering how an entry is different than a post. Or I could be completely wrong about that.

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  10. David Peralty

    You are right, posts and entries are different. I misread your request and pointed out a tool that gives front-end WordPress post editing. There is still no front-end entry editing available.

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  11. Ah OK, is there still any plan for active development of a front-end entry edit add-on?

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  12. David Peralty

    It is still on our development list, but it isn't in active development yet. We will post any new developments regarding this on our blog as soon as we tackle them.

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink
  13. Thanks for the replies David. Could you possibly email regarding a few other questions? emt@dcturanoinc.com

    Posted 11 years ago on Friday June 28, 2013 | Permalink

This topic has been resolved and has been closed to new replies.