Gravity Forms QR Code Generator: Complete Setup Guide & Documentation

The Gravity Forms QR Code Generator Add-on allows WordPress site administrators to dynamically generate, customize, and embed high-resolution QR codes from form entry data. Whether encoding website URLs, personalized vCard contact files, event ticket tokens, or WiFi credentials, this add-on creates scannable image assets in real time on your server—allowing you to display them on confirmation screens, dispatch them via notification emails, and insert them into PDF receipts with the QR merge tag.

Creating QR Code Feeds & Field Mapping

The add-on operates on a flexible multi-feed architecture, allowing you to generate multiple distinct QR codes from a single form (for example, one QR code for a vCard contact pass and another for a payment transaction URL). Follow these steps to configure your feed:

Step 1: Add a New QR Code Feed

In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Forms, hover over your targeted form, and click Settings > QR Code. Click the Add New button to create a new generation feed.

Step 2: Map Form Fields into the QR Code Payload

Enter a descriptive Feed Name (e.g. Attendee Ticket QR). In the QR Code Fields mapping table, pair form fields with specific key identifiers. Click the plus (+) icon to add additional parameters.

Step 3: Constructing Dynamic URLs with Query Parameters

To generate a scannable hyperlink that opens a specific website with entry-specific tracking parameters, set the first key as {url} with your base URL as its value. Any subsequent rows added to the mapping table will automatically append as structured query string parameters (such as ?user_id=10&ticket=VIP).

Step 4: Customizing QR Code Dimensions & Captions

Define the rendered image Size (e.g. 300 for 300×300 pixels, or 500 for high-resolution print) and specify an optional Label displayed beneath or alongside the QR graphic.

Step 5: Conditional Logic for Selective Generation

Use standard Gravity Forms Conditional Logic to control when the QR code feed executes. For example, only generate a VIP QR pass if the user selects the “VIP Registration” ticket tier, or if a payment status equals “Approved”.

Embedding QR Codes in Confirmations & Emails

The add-on automatically provides convenient merge tags to place your generated QR codes anywhere throughout your Gravity Forms notifications, confirmation screens, or PDF documents.

The add-on registers three primary merge tag variations:

• {QR-code-id-FEED_ID}: Outputs a complete HTML <img> tag rendering the generated QR code graphic.
• {QR-code-url-id-FEED_ID}: Returns the direct public image URL, ideal for custom CSS styling or background images.
• {QR-code-file-id-FEED_ID}: Returns the server filesystem path for advanced server-side scripting or PDF compilation.

To locate your specific Feed ID number, inspect the ID column in the QR Code feeds list under Form Settings > QR Code.

Upon submitting the form, your user or administrator receives their email notification containing the freshly generated, scannable QR graphic.

Troubleshooting & Frequently Asked Questions

Related Resources & Live Demonstration

Scan QR Codes into a Field (Version 1.1.0)

From version 1.1.0 visitors can fill a Single Line Text field by scanning a QR code with the camera of their phone or computer, or from a photo. Use it for event check-in, ticket and voucher validation, equipment and asset forms, or any form where people would otherwise type a long code.

1. Open the form in the form editor and click the Single Line Text field that should receive the code.
2. Open the Advanced tab and tick Show a “Scan QR code” button.
3. Optional: tick Submit the form after a successful scan for a one-tap check-in.
4. Update the form.

On the form, a Scan QR code button appears under the field. It opens the camera (the back camera on phones). As soon as a QR code is recognised, its text is written into the field and the camera is turned off; the field then behaves as if the value had been typed. Visitors can still type or correct the value.

If the browser has no camera or camera access is blocked, the dialog says so and offers Use a photo instead: visitors pick or take a picture of the QR code and it is read in the same way. Scanning happens entirely in the visitor’s browser; no image is uploaded or sent anywhere.

• Camera access needs HTTPS. Browsers only allow the camera on secure (https://) pages.
• Browsers: current Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on phones and computers. Browsers with a built-in QR reader use it; the others use the reader that ships with the add-on.
• Several fields: each field with the setting gets its own button.

Where QR Images Are Stored

QR images created by the feeds are saved in wp-content/uploads/qr_code_img/ of your site (on multisite, in the uploads folder of each site) with unique, hard-to-guess file names, and the folder cannot be listed. Images created by earlier versions stay where they are, and links to them in entries, notifications and emails keep working.

Scan barcodes into a field (version 1.2.0)

From version 1.2.0 the scan button of a Single Line Text field can read barcodes as well as QR codes.

Set it up

1. Open the form in the form editor and select the Single Line Text field.
2. On the Advanced tab, tick Show a “Scan QR code” button.
3. Under Allowed formats, tick the codes this field should read, or click a preset:
   • QR only: QR Code (the default, and what every field made before 1.2.0 uses).
   • Retail (EAN / UPC): EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E.
   • All 1D barcodes: EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 128, Code 39, ITF.
   • All formats: all of the above plus QR Code and PDF417.
4. Optional: tick Only accept values that match an allowed format (checked again on submit). A typed or pasted value must then be a valid code of one of the allowed formats, for example an EAN-13 with the right check digit. QR Code and PDF417 accept any text.
5. Save the form.

What visitors see

When a field allows a format other than QR, its button reads Scan barcode. The scan window shows a wide aiming frame for 1D barcodes. Visitors can use the camera or Use a photo instead.

As soon as a code is read, the field is filled and the usual change events fire, so conditional logic and calculations react. If “Submit the form after a successful scan” is on, the form is submitted.

How misreads are handled

• Codes in a format the field does not allow are ignored.
• EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E reads must pass the check digit.
• Code 39 and ITF have no check digit: a camera read is only used when two frames in a row agree.
• A UPC-A code is filled as a 13-digit EAN-13 (with a leading 0) when the field allows EAN-13 but not UPC-A, and the other way round.

Browsers and privacy

The plugin uses the browser’s built-in barcode reader when it supports every format the field allows. Otherwise it uses a barcode reader bundled with the plugin, which is loaded only on forms that allow a format other than QR. No external service is called and the image never leaves the visitor’s device. Camera scanning needs HTTPS (or localhost); without camera access, a photo works.

Limits

• One code per scan; the first valid code found is used.
• Code 39 is read in its standard character set (A-Z, 0-9, space and – . $ / + %).
• Small, blurred or curved barcodes may need a closer, steadier photo.