Gravity Forms Live Table Rows Premium Add-on Setup Guide

The Gravity Forms Live Table Rows Premium Add-on turns Gravity Forms entries into rows of a table in the free Ninja Tables plugin. You pick the table, say which field goes in which column, and every new entry appears as a row that visitors can search, sort and page through. When the entry changes, the row changes with it.

What You Need

• Gravity Forms 2.9 or newer.
• The free Ninja Tables plugin from wordpress.org, active on the same site. The paid version of Ninja Tables is not needed.
• An active GravityExtra license key for this add-on.

Install and activate the add-on, then open Forms, Settings, Live Table Rows to enter your license key. The same screen shows which version of Ninja Tables was found and how many of your tables can get rows.

Which Tables Can Get Rows

The add-on writes rows to tables that use the standard engine and keep their own data. These are the tables you get when you create a table by hand, add columns and type or import rows. Two kinds of tables are left alone, and the feed screen tells you why:

• Tables that get their rows from another source, such as a list of posts or a custom query. Their rows are not stored in the table, so there is nothing to add to.
• Tables that use the DataTables engine. They keep their rows in a separate database table of their own, so the add-on does not write to them in this version. A table with the standard engine works.

Make Your First Feed

1. Create the table in Ninja Tables with the columns you want to show, for example Name, E-mail, Role and Hours.
2. Open the form, go to Settings, then Live Table Rows, and add a new feed.
3. Give the feed a name and choose the table. The screen reloads and shows the columns of that table.
4. In the Columns panel, pick a table column on the left and the value on the right. The value can be a field, one part of a field such as the first name, the entry ID, the entry date, or any merge tag typed as a custom value. Use the plus button to add more lines.
5. In the Privacy panel, read the warning and confirm that the mapped values may be shown in this table. Until you confirm, the feed writes nothing.
6. Save the feed and send a test entry.

The new row is in the table at once. Ninja Tables shows it with its own search box, sorting and paging, in the style you chose for the table. A column that you did not map stays empty, and a mapped column that no longer exists in the table is skipped.

Entry Values You Can Map

• Any field of the form. A name, an address or a list of checked boxes becomes readable text, and a drop-down shows the label of the choice.
• One part of a field, for example the first name only, or one checked box.
• Entry properties: the entry ID, the date, the IP address, the page the form was on and the form title.
• A custom value with merge tags, such as the form title, a user name or a few fields joined with a comma.

Password, card and captcha fields are never offered and never written, whatever the feed says.

Numbers, dates and links

When a table column is a number column, the value is written as a plain number: a thousands comma or a currency sign is removed. The entry date is written in the time zone of your site. If you tick the Links option, an e-mail address becomes a mailto link and a web address becomes a link that opens in a new tab. Links are off by default.

Privacy

A table in Ninja Tables is usually public: anyone who can open the page can read every row, and a visitor can search and sort it. A form is often private. That difference is why the feed has a Privacy panel.

• The warning at the top reminds you who can read the table.
• Contact details can be masked. An e-mail address is shown with its first letter and the domain, and a phone number with only its last two digits. Masking applies to e-mail and phone fields and to any mapped value that looks like an e-mail address. You can switch it off when the table is for your team only.
• The confirmation is required. Without it the feed does nothing, and each entry gets a note that says so.
• Every cell is text. Markup is removed, and square brackets are turned into plain characters, so nobody can put a shortcode into a cell through your form.

Ask the people who fill in the form for their consent when the table is public, and use the feed condition to write a row only when they agreed.

Keep the Table in Step

Each row is tied to its entry. The add-on keeps the link on the entry itself, so it never guesses which row belongs to which entry.

Updates and removals can be switched off in the feed. Rows that you added by hand in Ninja Tables are never changed or removed by the add-on, because it only touches the rows it wrote.

Conditions

Turn on the condition at the bottom of the feed to write a row only for some entries, for example only when a role is Driver, or only when a consent box is checked. The condition is checked again when an entry is edited or restored.

Rebuild from Entries

Sometimes you want to write the rows again: after you change the column map, after you import old entries, or to keep a table to the newest entries only. The Rebuild panel does that. It removes the rows this feed wrote and writes them again from the entries that match your choices:

• Entries: all active entries, starred entries only, or unread entries only.
• Field is exactly: only entries where a chosen field has the exact value you type.
• Only the last days: only entries of the last number of days you type.
• Most rows: the newest entries are kept when there are more. The add-on allows 5,000 rows in one rebuild.
• Rebuild automatically: never, every hour, twice a day or once a day. This uses WordPress cron, so it runs when the site gets a visit after the time is due.

Rebuild now starts it at once and shows how many rows were removed, written and skipped. Running it twice gives the same table: there are no duplicates. A rebuild also respects the feed condition and the delayed payment option, and entries in the trash or marked as spam are left out.

Payments

The feed supports delayed processing. Turn on the option to add the row only when the payment is completed, and a gift or order that is still pending does not appear in the table. Payment fields can be mapped to columns.

Notes and Messages

Every entry gets a note when a row is added, updated or could not be written, with the reason. A Table rows box on the entry screen shows the table, the row number and a link to the table. If Ninja Tables is switched off, a notice on the Gravity Forms screens says so, your forms keep working, and the rows are written again the next time an entry comes in or you rebuild.

For Developers

Two filters and actions let your code join in.

// Change a cell before the row is written.
add_filter( 'gfnt_row_values', function ( $values, $feed, $entry, $form ) {
    if ( isset( $values['name'] ) ) {
        $values['name'] = strtoupper( $values['name'] );
    }
    return $values;
}, 10, 4 );

// Run your own code after a row was added or updated, and after a rebuild.
add_action( 'gfnt_row_written', function ( $status, $table_id, $feed, $entry, $form ) {
    // $status is added or updated.
}, 10, 5 );
add_action( 'gfnt_table_rebuilt', function ( $result, $feed ) {
    // $result holds removed, added and skipped counts.
}, 10, 2 );

The rows are written in the format Ninja Tables itself uses, and the add-on fires the same actions that the Ninja Tables editor fires when a row is added, changed or deleted, and clears the cache of the table. See the Ninja Tables documentation at wpmanageninja.com for the table settings and shortcode options.

Questions People Ask

Do I need Ninja Tables Pro?

No. The add-on works with the free plugin from wordpress.org.

Can a table have rows from two forms?

Yes. Make a feed on each form and choose the same table. Each feed only touches its own rows.

What happens to the rows if I delete the feed?

They stay in the table. Delete them in Ninja Tables, or run a rebuild before you delete the feed to clear them.

Does it send my entries anywhere?

No. Everything happens on your own site, and the add-on makes no outside requests.

Why is my table not in the list?

It uses the DataTables engine or gets its rows from another source. The feed screen names each such table and says why.