PLEASE NOTE: These forums are no longer utilized and are provided as an archive for informational purposes only. All support issues will be handled via email using our support ticket system. For more detailed information on this change, please see this blog post.

Is gravity the right tool for the job?

Gravity Support Forums » Plugin Support » Gravity Forms

  1. anointed
    Member

    Project:
    1. allow the site admin to create a custom post type - sermons
    2. the custom post type sermons would include input fields as follows
    --Preacher
    --Preacher image
    --Preacher description
    --Sermon series
    --Sermon series image
    --Sermon series description
    --Sermon Title
    --Sermon pastors notes
    --Sermon date
    --Sermon time preached
    --Sermon location
    --Sermon audio file upload
    --Sermon video embed code
    --Sermon attachments like pdf sermon file notes
    --Scriptures used in sermons

    What I am after, is having a really easy backend for the site admin to add in their sermons, something I can style myself to make it as easy as possible.

    Obviously the site admin would need to be able to edit any data on the given sermon in an easy fashion.

    Here is where it gets really complicated:
    I run wp-mu hosting a number of separate church sites. Someday I would like to also pull all the sermons from all the blogs on my install, into a central blog location as well.

    Basically I am curious if gravityforms is the best tool for this project. I have looked into pods quite extensively, and while I know that would work, man it's complicated. I have also looked into 'more fields' plugin, however that seems to be a dead project now with no updates in some time. Finally I looked into 'magicfields' the flutter fork. That one has promise, but once again I'm not sure about it.

    My real problem is I have never seen a working example of gravity forms working on the backend like I would require.. sure would be nice to see a demo of that someday.

    Posted 14 years ago on Tuesday January 5, 2010 | Permalink

  2. Carl Hancock
    Administrator

    This would be possible to do, the problem is you would need to be very VERY familiar with PHP, WordPress and API hooks. You would have to make extensive use of the available post submission API hooks. Even then i'm not 100% sure if you can implement a custom post type as things are now.

    We plan on adding custom post type capabilities, but this feature was just made more widely useful with the introduction of WordPress 2.9 so we need to first explore their usage before implementing it in Gravity Forms.

    Gravity Forms is designed to be used on the frontend, the only backend forms are the form previews. We do have ideas on implementing Gravity Forms for backend usage but right now that isn't what it is designed to do.

    I'd say what you want to do is probably possible but it would take extensive use of the available hooks to accomplish. You could even create an add-on that creates nav menus in the WordPress admin that outputs Gravity Forms for backend usage. You could do all sorts of things, but it's certainly not a quick implementation.

    Posted 14 years ago on Tuesday January 5, 2010 | Permalink

  3. anointed
    Member

    Thank you for the information, I really appreciate it.

    I would say I am 'somewhat' familiar with php, more of a hacker than a coder, but I can get my way around. As to the hooks, yes I am familiar with many of them and have used hooks throughout my custom themes.

    Have you come across a tool like gravity for this type of situation before, that may be better suited for the job?

    I have seen hundreds of plugins and features on the frontend, but very limited addons when it comes to the backend of wordpress. It's almost like everyone treats the backend as some 'voodoo' that no one dares touch lol...

    Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday January 6, 2010 | Permalink

  4. Idealien
    Member

    There are 3 plugins I have tried for post types with custom menus in the backend that you might want to look at: More Fields, Flutter, PODS.

    Each have their strengths and weaknesses, but none are nearly as easy to create forms as what GF offers or - in my limited experience with each - have nearly the level of quality and timely support.

    Your question sounds very similar to this feature request - http://forum.gravityhelp.com/topic/gf-custom-write-panels - sounds very much like what you are after.

    Posted 14 years ago on Thursday January 7, 2010 | Permalink