Gravity Forms v1.9 Beta 1 is now available. Gravity Forms customers can download this brand new feature release from the downloads page. This is a major release that introduces several highly anticipated features.

We have also introduced support for automatic updates with this beta release. Previous beta releases have required manual updates when we would release a new beta build. With Gravity Forms v1.9 Beta 1 you will now be able to update to Beta 2, etc. via automatic update. Once the official release is ready to go you’ll then be able to update from the beta or release candidate directly to the public release.

Let’s get right down to business. Continue reading to find out what is what is new in Gravity Forms v1.9…

Save and Continue

The most highly anticipated new feature of Gravity Forms v1.9 is the introduction of Save and Continue functionality to allow users to save their progress and return to the form at a later time to complete and submit the form.

When enabled on a form via its Form Setting a link that allows the user to save their progress will be displayed next to the submit or multi-page form buttons. When clicked the users form data will be encrypted and stored. The user will be presented with a unique URL that they can use to return to the form and will be presented with an option to email themselves this URL so that they do not misplace it.

Using Gravity Forms Notifications and Confirmations you can customize what is presented to the user when they opt to save their progress and continue later.

Please note: Save and Continue is a user-facing feature. It does not allow the administrator to view and edit saved progress. It is strictly designed to allow a user to save their progress and return to complete and submit the form at a later date. The ability to view and edit saved progress is planned for a more advanced Add-On.

Address Field Enhancements

The Address Field has been overhauled and this is phase 1 of a variety of enhancements we have planned for the Address Field. You now have more granular control over both what Address Field inputs are displayed and what the sub-label for each of those inputs will be. No more using hooks to customize the sub-labels.

Address Field Linking

Ever wanted to allow a user to duplicate their Billing Address in order to utilize it for the Shipping Address? Now you can. Address Field Linking allows you to tie Address Fields together and present the user with a checkbox that allows them to populate the contents of the field with the values from another Address Field they have already filled out. This will be particularly useful for order forms.

Name Field Enhancements

The Name Field has been overhauled to provide more flexibility and options for what data the field captures. The Name Field now supports capturing a prefix, first name, middle name, last name and suffix. You can configure which of the fields you would like displayed and you can also customize the sub-labels for each.

With this overhaul, we have removed the field type setting for the Name Field. You now simply configure which inputs you would like presented to the user. With the removal of the field type setting we have also removed the option for a simple single input Name Field. If you have a need for a single input Name Field then you can use a Single Input field and give it a Field Label of Name. Existing forms utilizing the simple field type will not be impacted.

Form Editor Drag-n-Drop

The Form Editor has been enhanced so that you can now drag-n-drop fields from the Toolboxes and place them anywhere on the form. This allows you to quickly place the fields exactly where you’d like them without placing them at the bottom and then drag-n-dropping them into position. Fields can still be added by simply clicking on the field, but you can now also quickly drag and drop the field anywhere on the form.

Placeholders

Gravity Forms now natively supports placeholders. Independent from a fields sub-labels or default values the placeholders will utilize HTML5 when available and fallback to JS when not available based on the users browser. You can configure the placeholders for a field via the new Appearance tab when editing a field.

We have taken things a step further and implemented placeholders on drop down fields. When you configure a placeholder on a drop down field it will be the first thing a user will see in the select. If the field is marked as require the placeholder will not be a valid selection.

Sub-Label Control

You can now control the sub-label on advanced fields from within the field editor without requiring the use of hooks. Any field that makes use of sub-labels will now allow you to customize the sub-label values from within the General tab of the Field Editor. Sub-Labels can still be customized via the localization file or hooks.

Field Settings Enhancements

The Field Settings have been consolidated into 3 categories: General, Appearance, and Advanced.

New Appearance related field settings have been introduced that allow you to control the Field Label Visibility, Description Placement and Sub-Label Placement on a field by field basis. Configuring these settings on a field will override any form wide settings applied in the Form Settings.

Combined with the new placeholder functionality you can now hide the Field Label and Sub-Labels and rely only on placeholders. Or you can choose to hide the Field Label and still display the Sub-Labels. How you’d like to handle things is entirely up to you.

New Form Settings

New settings have been added to the Form Settings that allow you to control the visual placement of both the Field Description and any Sub-Labels on Advanced Fields that may exist on the form. You can now configure a form so that the description is placed either above or below the field and sub-labels placed either above or below the individual inputs.

Form Export/Import Overhaul

Form Export/Import functionality has been overhauled to utilize a JSON file format instead of XML.

Consolidated Updates

The Gravity Forms Updates area (Forms > Updates) will now reflect any updates for official Gravity Forms Add-Ons. This will allow you to quickly see if any Gravity Forms related updates are available and allow you to execute the updates. This also limits the number of outgoing requests for updates by consolidating the update requests into a single request.

Please note: Only Gravity Forms Add-Ons built on the Gravity Forms Add-On Framework will support consolidated updates. All of our Add-Ons are in the process of being updated to support the Add-On Framework. Until this process is completed not all of our Add-Ons may be reflected on the Updates page.

Background Automatic Updates

With this beta testing, we are going to be testing out WordPress core style background automatic updates for the beta releases. This will allow us to push updated beta releases to users as needed to ensure they are running the very latest. Updates function just like the background automatic update feature in WordPress itself. Update checks are made when WordPress checks for core updates.

Background automatic updates have been very successful in enabling WordPress core to keep sites up to date with the latest WordPress releases. Users not staying up to date with the latest releases have historically been an issue within the WordPress community. Staying updated is extremely important from a security standpoint.

Background automatic updates are enabled by default, however, they can be disabled via a hook.

Please note that this is a test run. Depending on how successful the feature is during the beta phase, and based on user feedback, we may roll it out as an available option with the public release.