Introduction – Gravity Form with Self-Deleting Entries

In today’s digital landscape, data security is paramount. Especially when dealing with sensitive information, ensuring that data is handled securely from start to finish is crucial. If you’re using Gravity Forms, a popular WordPress plugin for form creation, and you need to collect sensitive data, you might be concerned about storing it unnecessarily. One approach to enhance security is to create a Gravity Form that automatically deletes its entries upon submission. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of setting up such a form.

Understanding the Approach

The idea behind this approach is simple: once the form is submitted and the necessary actions (e.g., saving data to a database) are completed, the entry is immediately deleted. This minimizes the window of vulnerability by ensuring that sensitive data is not stored any longer than necessary.

Step 1: Install Gravity Forms Plugin

First, ensure that you have Gravity Forms installed and activated on your WordPress site. You can install it from the WordPress plugin repository or purchase it from the Gravity Forms website.

Step 2: Create a Gravity Form

Create a new form or edit an existing one using the Gravity Forms interface in your WordPress admin dashboard. Add the necessary fields to collect the required information. For this example, let’s assume we’re collecting sensitive data such as passwords.

Step 3: Add Custom Code to Handle Entry Deletion

Next, we’ll add custom code to handle the deletion of form entries upon submission. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or preferably in a custom plugin:

add_action( 'gform_after_submission', 'delete_entry_after_submission', 10, 2 );
function delete_entry_after_submission( $entry, $form ) {
    global $wpdb;
    $wpdb->delete(
        $wpdb->prefix . 'rg_lead',
        array( 'id' => $entry['id'] ),
        array( '%d' )
    );
    $wpdb->delete(
        $wpdb->prefix . 'rg_lead_detail',
        array( 'lead_id' => $entry['id'] ),
        array( '%d' )
    );
    $wpdb->delete(
        $wpdb->prefix . 'rg_lead_detail_long',
        array( 'lead_detail_id' => $entry['id'] ),
        array( '%d' )
    );
}

This code hooks into the gform_after_submission action provided by Gravity Forms. It deletes the entry from the database tables where Gravity Forms stores its data.

Step 4: Test Your Form

Once you’ve added the code snippet, test your form by submitting some entries. Ensure that the entries are being processed correctly and then check that they are deleted from the database after submission.

Conclusion – Gravity Form with Self-Deleting Entries

By implementing a Gravity Form with self-deleting entries, you can enhance the security of sensitive data collected through your WordPress site. Remember to always handle sensitive data with care and to regularly review and update your security measures to stay ahead of potential threats.

If you need custom coding help with your gravity forms, please get in touch.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash