Gravity Forms Posting Plans Premium Add-on Setup Guide

Posting Plans joins Gravity Forms and the free WP User Frontend plugin. WP User Frontend lets visitors write posts from the front of your site and sells subscription packs that decide how many posts a user may publish and for how long. Posting Plans adds what the two do not do together: a Gravity Forms form that hands out those packs, cancels them, reacts when something happens in WP User Frontend, and opens only for users who hold a running pack. Use it for a plan sign-up, a paid plan form, a cancellation form, a log of published posts, or a members-only support or booking form.

What You Get

• A feed called Assign WP User Frontend subscription pack. When the form is sent, or when its payment is completed, it makes or finds a safe account and gives the pack with the WP User Frontend function that WP User Frontend itself uses.
• A fixed pack chosen in the feed, or a pack the user picks in a choice field. The field can be filled with your packs, each with its price and length.
• A choice of what happens when the user already has a running pack: keep it, or replace it and start the new one.
• A feed called Cancel the subscription pack, for a cancellation form.
• A feed called When WP User Frontend publishes a post or assigns a pack, which adds an entry, sends notifications, or both.
• A feed called Form gate, which hides a form, replaces it with a message, or refuses the send unless the user has a running pack.
• Merge tags for the pack, its expiry and the posts left, conditional logic, entry notes and a clear notice when WP User Frontend is missing or too old.

Requirements

You need Gravity Forms 2.9 or newer, WordPress 6.5 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer and the free WP User Frontend plugin, version 4.0.0 or newer. The add-on was tested with WP User Frontend 4.3.13. Nothing is sent to an outside service. Only the license check talks to gravityextra.com, when you press Activate.

Quick Start

1. Install and activate the add-on and the free WP User Frontend plugin, then activate your license key under Forms, Settings, Posting Plans.
2. In WP User Frontend, open Subscriptions and create at least one pack. Publish it, because drafts are never offered.
3. Open the settings of your form, choose Posting Plans and add a feed. Keep the action Assign.
4. Map the email field and the name fields, choose the pack, and save.
5. Send a test entry and check the new user and the pack under WP User Frontend.

Step 1: Choose Who Gets the Pack

For a public form the default is right: a logged-in user is handled directly, and a visitor gets a new account made from the email in the form. If the form is only for people who already have an account, choose the logged-in user only. If you want a new account every time, choose that instead.

Then decide what happens when a visitor types an email that already belongs to an account. The safe default is to refuse: nothing changes and the entry gets an error note. This matters more than it looks. If a form could change an existing account, anybody could type the email of an administrator and start something. With the second choice the account only receives the pack. Its name, password and role stay as they are.

Step 2: Keep Roles Safe

A new account gets the WordPress default role unless you choose another one, and the list holds only safe roles. Administrator, Editor, Author and any role that can edit content, edit users, upload files, install plugins or manage the site are never offered, and they are refused again when the feed runs. A pack from WP User Frontend does not need an elevated role. If you ask for a posting role, give it to people through WP User Frontend and its own settings, not through a public form.

Step 3: Pick the Pack

You have two ways to say what the user gets. The first is a fixed pack: choose it in the feed and everybody who sends the form gets it. That fits a free level, an application you approve, or a form on the page of one plan.

The second way is a choice field. Let the user pick a plan in a drop down, radio buttons or check boxes. The add-on can fill the field with your published packs, so a new plan shows up as soon as you create it. Each choice shows the title, the price and the length, for example Plus Pack (19.00, 30 days) or Starter Pack (free). The value is the pack id, and answers may also be the pack title. Tick packs in the feed to allow only those.

WP User Frontend keeps one pack per user. If several packs are picked, the first one that matches is given and a note says so. A pack picked by the visitor is given only for a paid entry, unless you allow a free pick. For a form that sells plans, use a payment add-on and tick the option to run the feed only when the payment is completed. The account is made and the pack is given at that moment, once.

A recurring pack is refused. It depends on a payment profile at a gateway, and a form cannot create that. The entry gets a clear note and the rest of the feed still runs.

Step 4: A User Who Already Has a Pack

Giving a pack overwrites the pack data of the user, including the posts that are left. That is why the default is to keep a running pack: the feed writes a note and gives nothing. Choose replace when the new plan should start at once, for example an upgrade. A pack that has run out is always replaced. If the user already holds the same running pack, nothing is changed and the note says so.

Cancel a Pack From a Form

A subscriber should be able to leave without writing an email. Add a form for it and give it a feed with the action Cancel. The feed works only for the logged-in user and only on the pack that user holds. You can cancel whatever pack the user holds, only the ticked packs, or the pack picked in a field. A recurring pack is never cancelled by the form, because that would also cancel the payment profile at the gateway. The user does that from the WP User Frontend account page.

Log Posts and Pack Changes

The event feed listens to two things in WP User Frontend. The first is a post published through one of its forms. The add-on runs after WP User Frontend has counted the post against the pack, so the posts left are already up to date. The second is a pack assigned to a user, whether by a payment, by an administrator or by a Posting Plans feed. A pack counts as assigned when the user had no pack, another pack or another expiry. A change of the post counts alone does not.

For each event the feed can add an entry to a form, send that form’s notifications, or both. The entry can hold the name, email, username, pack, expiry, posts left, post title, post link, post type and the WP User Frontend form name. You can limit post events to some WP User Frontend forms or post types and pack events to some packs. It is a quick way to build an activity log, a moderation queue or a team alert.

Keep a Form for Subscribers Only

Some forms should be for people with a running pack: a support request, a booking form, a feedback survey, a download request. The gate feed shows such a form only to a logged-in user whose pack has not run out and, when you tick packs, is one of them. You can also require that the pack still allows at least one more post. Others see a message with a login link, or nothing, or the form with a message above it that refuses the send.

The check is also made when the form is sent, so a form that is hidden on the page cannot be posted by hand. An expired pack does not open the gate. Administrators can always see the form unless you turn that off. If WP User Frontend is switched off, the gate stays closed. If the license is not active, every feed does nothing and the form stays open, like all GravityExtra add-ons.

Merge Tags for Confirmations and E-mails

• {wpuf_pack_given} the pack given by this entry, {wpuf_expiry} its expiry date.
• {wpuf_pack} the pack the user holds now, {wpuf_posts_left} the posts left for every post type.
• {wpuf_posts_left:post} the posts left for one post type.
• {wpuf_removed} the pack cancelled by this entry, {wpuf_user_login} the username.
• {wpuf_post_title} and {wpuf_post_url} the post of an event entry.

The tags appear in the merge tag list of the form editor. Notifications get two new events, WP User Frontend: post published and WP User Frontend: pack assigned, on forms that have an event feed.

A Few Practical Setups

• A free level: a form on the page of one plan, a fixed Starter pack, a new account for the visitor and the standard WordPress e-mail to set a password.
• A paid plan: a payment add-on, the feed set to run when the payment is completed and a choice field with your plans.
• An upgrade form: a fixed Pro pack with replace turned on, shown only to subscribers with a gate feed.
• A cancellation form: a cancel feed shown only to users with a running pack.
• An activity log: an event feed that adds an entry for every published post and notifies your editors.

Questions People Ask

Do I need a paid WP User Frontend upgrade?

No. The add-on works with the free WP User Frontend plugin and its subscription packs.

Is it safe to put this on a public form?

The add-on never takes over an existing account, never hands out a role that can manage the site or content, never gives a draft pack or one outside your list, and gives a pack picked in a field only for a paid entry unless you allow a free pick.

Does it replace the WP User Frontend payment pages?

No. WP User Frontend still sells packs on its own pages. Posting Plans gives a pack from a Gravity Forms form, for example after a Gravity Forms payment, and reacts to what WP User Frontend does.

Does it send my data to another service?

No. Everything happens on your own site.

Posting Plans is part of the GravityExtra collection of Gravity Forms add-ons. See the Gravity Forms Posting Plans Premium Add-on for the details.

See the Posting Plans add-on