Gravity Forms v1.6.3 Beta 2 is now available for beta testing. This update is not only a bug fix release, but we are also introducing some minor enhancements and refinements which developers will love and users will benefit from.

We have introduced a hook to enable attaching files to email notifications. We have also included example code with the documentation for this hook which will make it easy for you to automatically attach all file uploads for a form submission as file attachments on the email notification. Please be aware that file attachment functionality will require that your web server can reliably handle sending file attachments via email.

These new hooks are documented here:

• gform_admin_notification_attachments
• gform_user_notification_attachments

This is the first step to bringing easy file attachment support to the Gravity Forms UI. The first step is introducing hooks to enable it, which allows developers to leverage it. In a future release we will overhaul the Notifications to support controlling file attachments directly from the admin interface itself.

Another enhancement we have made is enabling Gravity Forms merge tag parsing on the HTML field. This will allow you to utilize available merge tags within the content of an HTML field positioned on your form to output global data such as user and post meta within the content of that HTML. The Gravity Form HTML field already supported short codes so combined with merge tag support it has become even more flexible.

We are looking forward to receiving feedback from users who want to help us test out the new features. Please provide beta feedback and bug reports on the Support Forum and make it clear you are referring to the 1.6.3 Beta 2 release when doing so. Thanks!

We will be releasing v1.6.3 via automatic upgrade once it has undergone beta testing. Own Gravity Forms and want to give it a try and help us test? Grab a copy on the downloads page!

Here is a quick rundown of what is new in Beta 2:

• Added merge tag support for HTML fields.
• Added hook to enable attachments to be added to notifications.
• Refined and updated Dashboard Widget.
• Added filter to customize dashboard widget title.
• Fixed issue when applying conditional logic to the submit button.
• Fixed issue with non-translatable strings in JS files.
• Updated POT file.

Here is a quick rundown of what is new in Gravity Forms v1.6.3:

Conditional Logic Enhancements

Conditional Logic has been greatly enhanced to support not only new field types, but new conditions too! You can now configure conditional logic so that it works with text inputs as well as drop down, radio button and checkbox fields. We have also introduced additional conditions such as: greater than, less than, contains, starts with and ends with.

Please note that not all field types are supported. We will be enhancing the new conditional logic to support more advanced fields such as the Address Field in a future release. However, all of the standard text input Advanced Fields such as Email and Website are supported, as well as the Multi-Select field introduces in the v1.6 release. We will continue to enhance and refind this functionality going forward.

Post Category Enhancements

We have enhanced the Post Category field to support a broader range of field types. Category selection can now be done using the Drop Down, Radio Button, Checkbox or Multi-Select fields. This allows users to select multiple categories using a single field if you choose a field type that supports multiple selections.

We have also added full conditional logic support for the Post Category field, including all of the available field types we have added to the Post Category field.

Akismet Setting

We made the decision to automatically support Akismet in the v1.6 release of Gravity Forms, however users expressed a desire to be able to turn this on or off as they choose. We have added a new option on the Gravity Forms Settings page to allow you to turn On or Off the Akismet integration. This option will only appear if you have the Akismet plugin installed and activated.

Entry Pagination

Simple next/previous pagination has been added to the Entry Detail page. This allows you to easily navigate between entries when viewing entry details.

Multi-Page Progress Bar Enhancements

You can now enable displayig the Progress Bar on the confirmation of multi-page forms. Enabling this option will start the progress bar at 0% with the progress bar being shown as 100% completed when displayed with the confirmation message.

WordPress Editor API Integration

If you are running WordPress v3.3+ you will now see the TinyMCE editor when editing the Message of your Notifications. This is the first step in providing broader support for the new editor API introdued in WordPress v3.3. Currently we have only added it to the Notification message body but will be expanding it’s use in future releases.

Other Fixes and Enhancements

• Added field type (Multi Select, Drop Down, Radio, Checkbox) support to Post Category field.
• Added setting to enable/disable Akismet.
• Added hooks to enable CDATA wrapping.
• Added back button to entry detail pagination.
• Added pagination on entry detail page.
• Added support for {admin_email} merge tag and using it as the default value for notifications instead of the actual admin email.
• Added “gform_akismet_enabled” hook which allows you to disable akismet integration.
• Added ‘eventName’ parameter to ajaxSpinner submit event to allow third party integrations to target this specific event.
• Added $ajax parameter to ‘gform_pre_render’ hook.
• Added ability to turn on/off progress bar and set completion text when displayed with the confirmation text.
• Added “gform_progressbar_start_at_zero” hook to set progress bar back to previous behavior.
• Added functionality to store a static copy of the product info when the entry is created.
• Added TinyMCE editor to notification page.
• Updated conditional logic to support other types of operation and other types of fields.
• Updated search in admin to maintain the filter (starred, unread, spam, trash) so the filtered results you are viewing are what is searched.
• Updated single product field so that its quantity is defauted to 1 when the quantity field is disabled.
• Updated admin paging total to not include items in the trash.
• Updated admin paging links so that when an item is moved to the trash using the link, the counts are updated as necessary to reflect the change.
• Updated admin paging links so that when an item is marked spam using the link, the counts are updated as necessary to reflect the change.
• Updated enqueue and print scripts functions to always include jQuery, allows “gform_post_render” js hook to be accessible even when GF not using it.
• Updated field type menu on form editor page to prevent it from overlapping the form toolbar when a notice is displayed.
• Updated Really Simple Captcha to set a tabindex.
• Fixed issue with post author not being correctly set for posts configured to be created after payment is received.
• Fixed notices in export and notification page.
• Fixed issue with Date field not honoring the “No Duplicate” setting and allowing duplicate dates to be entered when they shouldn’t.
• Fixed issue with custom confirmation not working properly on AJAX forms.
• Fixed WP3.3 bug with {user:***} merge tag.
• Fixed issue with chosen script initialization when field is target of conditional logic.
• Fixed admin paging so that the filter carries through to the next page.
• Fixed admin paging so that the counts displayed apply to the entry list you are viewing (all, unread, starred, spam, trash).
• Fixed issue with textarea and input mask script on AJAX forms.
• Fixed issue with multi-select fields on AJAX multi-page forms.
• Fixed notice occuring when ‘postFormat’ property of form object was not present.
• Fixed issue with main Gravity Forms permission that prevented the Forms menu from displaying the first time a new user logged in.
• Fixed issue with Simple Captcha field not validating because of an extra “input_” in the input’s ID attribute.
• Removed CDATA from scripts to prevent JS error on some browsers due to a character replacement done by WP core. Added hooks to support enabling cdata wrapping as an alternative.

Please note that documentation for these new items is in progress.