Gravity Flow is a powerful WordPress plugin that extends the functionality of Gravity Forms, a popular form builder plugin. It adds workflow automation features, allowing you to create advanced, multi-step workflows for form submissions. This can be particularly useful for automating processes such as approval workflows, user registrations, content submissions, and more. With Gravity Flow, you can set up complex processes, such as form submissions being routed to specific users for approval, editing, or notification based on predefined conditions.
Key Features of Gravity Flow Plugin:
- Multi-Step Workflows:
- Create workflows with multiple steps, such as approval processes, data collection, notifications, and tasks assigned to different users.
- Steps can include actions like sending emails, updating form entries, or making decisions based on form input.
- User Approvals and Rejections:
- Gravity Flow allows you to create workflows that require user approvals or rejections. For example, you can create a system where a manager must approve a form submission before it can move forward to the next stage.
- Users can approve or reject submissions through an easy-to-use interface within their WordPress dashboard.
- Conditional Logic:
- You can define conditions to control the flow of the workflow. For instance, a submission could only proceed to the next step if certain conditions (like a form field value) are met.
- This allows you to tailor workflows to your specific needs, automating processes based on form data.
- Task Assignment:
- The plugin supports task assignments, allowing you to assign specific users to certain steps in the workflow. This is useful for creating a sequence of tasks that need to be completed by different individuals or teams.
- Tasks can include reviewing, editing, or approving form submissions.
- Notifications and Alerts:
- You can configure automatic notifications based on workflow stages, so users are notified when a form is submitted, when they are assigned a task, or when their input is needed.
- Notifications can be customized and sent via email or displayed in the WordPress admin area.
- Status Tracking and Monitoring:
- With Gravity Flow, you can track the status of form submissions at every stage of the workflow. This gives administrators and users visibility into where each submission is in the process.
- You can view detailed logs of each step in the workflow, which helps in auditing and tracking progress.
- Approvals & Rejections in the Frontend:
- The plugin supports frontend user interfaces where users can approve, reject, or edit submissions from their frontend profile page or custom forms.
- This feature helps make the process more user-friendly, especially for organizations where workflow participants may not have admin access to the backend.
- Customizable User Interface:
- Gravity Flow comes with an intuitive and customizable user interface that enables admins to configure workflows with ease.
- You can also control how users interact with each step of the workflow, providing them with the relevant information and actions needed to move the process forward.
- Data Routing:
- You can route data and submissions based on rules defined in the workflow. For example, depending on the values selected in the form (like department or location), the data can be routed to different approvers or actions.
- Integrations with Other Gravity Forms Add-ons:
- Gravity Flow integrates well with other Gravity Forms add-ons, including Gravity Forms PayPal, Stripe, User Registration, Gravity PDF, etc. This ensures that you can create comprehensive workflows involving payment processing, PDF generation, and other actions.
- Approvals & Rejections Log:
- Keep track of every approval, rejection, and action taken in the workflow. This log can help with audit trails, ensuring all actions are documented and can be reviewed later.
- Advanced Workflow Actions:
- Gravity Flow provides advanced actions like Webhooks (to send data to external services), Slack Integration (to notify teams on Slack channels), Task Notifications, and more.
Use Cases for Gravity Flow:
- Approval Workflows:
- For any scenario where you need a form to be approved by a manager, supervisor, or team before moving forward, Gravity Flow makes it easy. This is ideal for employee leave requests, content submissions, expense approvals, or client approvals.
- Content Submission:
- Allow users to submit content (like blog posts or media) that goes through a review and approval process before being published. For example, an editorial workflow can be set up where multiple people review and approve a piece of content before it's made public.
- Employee Onboarding:
- Automate the employee onboarding process with Gravity Flow by creating a workflow for the new hire submission form. Each step could involve HR reviewing documents, sending welcome emails, or assigning tasks to managers.
- Client Intake Forms:
- For agencies or service providers, Gravity Flow can automate the process of intake forms where submissions are routed to appropriate team members for review and action.
- Document Approval Process:
- If your business needs to approve documents, contracts, or proposals, Gravity Flow lets you set up automated workflows that require multiple stakeholders to review and approve documents before they are finalized.
How to Set Up Gravity Flow:
1. Install Gravity Forms:
- To use Gravity Flow, you need to have Gravity Forms installed and activated on your WordPress site. If you haven't already, go to Plugins > Add New, search for Gravity Forms, and install it.
2. Install Gravity Flow Plugin:
- Purchase the Gravity Flow plugin from its official website. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin and install the ZIP file. After installation, activate the plugin.
- You may need to enter an activation key (provided when you purchase the plugin) to fully enable the plugin.
3. Create a New Workflow:
- To start creating workflows, go to Gravity Forms > Settings > Gravity Flow and click on the Workflows tab.
- Click on Add New Workflow to create a new workflow. From here, you can define the steps, tasks, and rules for your workflow.
4. Define Workflow Steps:
- Define the individual steps in your workflow. You can set up conditions for each step (like approval, rejection, task completion) and who will be responsible for each step.
- You can configure each step to perform specific actions like sending emails, updating form fields, or triggering additional tasks.
5. Configure Notifications and Approvals:
- Set up notifications to keep all stakeholders informed at each stage. This could include emails, user notifications, and Slack alerts.
- Configure each approval or rejection step with a user-friendly interface where users can approve, reject, or edit submissions.
6. Test Your Workflow:
- After creating your workflow, it’s important to test it. Submit a test form to ensure that each step of the process is functioning as expected. This includes verifying email notifications, task assignments, and conditional logic.
7. Publish and Monitor:
- Once your workflow is tested and working, you can publish it for live use. You can also monitor the status of form submissions, track progress, and view detailed logs of all actions taken during the workflow process.
Troubleshooting:
- Workflow Steps Not Triggering:
- Make sure the conditions for each step are correctly configured. Check any conditional logic that could be affecting how the workflow steps are triggered.
- Verify the workflow has been assigned to the correct form.
- Notifications Not Sending:
- Ensure that email settings are correctly configured in both Gravity Flow and your WordPress site. Also, check spam filters or email queue settings that may prevent emails from being delivered.
- Data Not Updating in Workflow:
- Check if the workflow has permission to update the necessary form fields or data. Ensure any third-party integrations (such as webhooks or custom API calls) are set up properly.