Prepopulate Gravity Form Select Fields with Custom Taxonomy Terms: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction: Prepopulate Gravity Form Select Fields with Custom Taxonomy Terms
Gravity Forms is a powerful tool for creating forms on WordPress sites, offering a wide range of functionalities for collecting data. Prepopulating select fields with custom taxonomy terms adds another layer of versatility to Gravity Forms, enabling users to select predefined options from taxonomies effortlessly. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to prepopulate Gravity Form select fields with custom taxonomy terms, allowing for streamlined form creation and enhanced user experience.

Understanding Custom Taxonomies in WordPress:
Before diving into prepopulating select fields in Gravity Forms, it’s essential to grasp the concept of custom taxonomies in WordPress. Taxonomies are a way to group content into categories, tags, or custom classifications. While categories and tags are built-in taxonomies, WordPress allows users to create custom taxonomies to classify content in a more structured manner.

Creating Custom Taxonomies:
To create custom taxonomies in WordPress, you can utilize functions like register_taxonomy(). Here’s a basic example of registering a custom taxonomy named “Product Categories”:

function custom_taxonomy_product_categories() {
    $labels = array(
        'name' => 'Product Categories',
        'singular_name' => 'Product Category',
        'menu_name' => 'Product Categories',
    );

    $args = array(
        'labels' => $labels,
        'public' => true,
        'hierarchical' => true,
    );

    register_taxonomy('product_category', 'post', $args);
}

add_action('init', 'custom_taxonomy_product_categories');

This code registers a hierarchical taxonomy named “Product Categories” that can be associated with posts.

Prepopulating Gravity Form Select Fields:
Once you’ve created your custom taxonomy, you can proceed to prepopulate select fields in Gravity Forms with the taxonomy terms. This can be achieved using the gform_pre_render filter hook. Below is a step-by-step guide to prepopulate a select field with custom taxonomy terms:

Step 1: Identify the Form and Field:
Determine the form ID and the ID of the select field you wish to prepopulate. You can find this information by inspecting the form using browser developer tools or by accessing the form settings in the WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Hook into gform_pre_render:
Add a function to hook into the gform_pre_render filter. This function will manipulate the form object before it is rendered.

add_filter('gform_pre_render', 'populate_taxonomy_terms');

function populate_taxonomy_terms($form) {
    // Specify the form ID and the ID of the select field
    $form_id = 1;
    $field_id = 2;

    // Check if the current form matches the specified form ID
    if ($form['id'] == $form_id) {
        // Retrieve custom taxonomy terms
        $terms = get_terms(array(
            'taxonomy' => 'product_category',
            'hide_empty' => false, // Include empty terms
        ));

        // Prepare choices array for the select field
        $choices = array();
        foreach ($terms as $term) {
            $choices[] = array(
                'text' => $term->name,
                'value' => $term->term_id,
            );
        }

        // Find the select field by ID
        foreach ($form['fields'] as &$field) {
            if ($field->id == $field_id) {
                // Update choices for the select field
                $field->choices = $choices;
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    return $form;
}

In this example, we’re populating a select field with custom taxonomy terms from the “product_category” taxonomy.

Step 3: Update Form Choices:
Retrieve the custom taxonomy terms using get_terms() and prepare an array of choices with term names as labels and term IDs as values. Then, find the select field within the form array and update its choices accordingly.

Step 4: Test and Deploy:
Test the form to ensure that the select field is populated with the desired custom taxonomy terms. Once confirmed, deploy the form on your WordPress site.

Conclusion:
Prepopulating Gravity Form select fields with custom taxonomy terms offers a convenient way to streamline form creation and enhance user experience. By leveraging the gform_pre_render filter hook, developers can dynamically populate select fields with taxonomy terms, providing users with predefined options to choose from. Whether you’re creating product order forms, event registration forms, or any other type of form, integrating custom taxonomy terms can simplify data collection and improve form usability. Follow the steps outlined in this guide to seamlessly prepopulate Gravity Form select fields with custom taxonomy terms and unlock the full potential of your WordPress forms.

If you need help coding up a solution to prepopulate your forms with taxonomy content please get in touch.

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