Note: This post refers to code and a project from many years ago 😱. The content was edited in March of 2025 to remove dead links, improve clarity, or fix formatting, but no other edits were made. Enjoy this time capsule into the past.
Okay so like may others I love Gravity Forms. Simple, elegant forms for WordPress. However, I recently ran into a snag when trying to use the awesome Custom Post Type plugin to allow my client to upload a PDF then have that be saved as an attachment to the post. Here is my solution in hopes it helps you. I’m open to suggestions on better ways to do this.
add_filter("gform_after_submission", "nifty_add_post_attachements", 10, 3);
function nifty_add_post_attachements($entry) {
//you'll need this later, TRUST ME.
if(!function_exists('wp_generate_attachment_metadata')){require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/image.php');}
//do we even have a file?
if (isset($_FILES['input_4'])) {
$file_url = $entry['4']; //great but what is its url?
$upload_dir = wp_upload_dir(); //where do you want to put it?
$file_data = file_get_contents($file_url); //show me what you're made of
$filename = basename($file_url); //so cute but what's its name?
if(wp_mkdir_p($upload_dir['path'])) //can we put it there?
$file = $upload_dir['path'] . '/' . $filename; //yes great
else //or no, okay fine let's try somewhere else
$file = $upload_dir['basedir'] . '/' . $filename; //get the whole location
file_put_contents($file, $file_data); // tada home at last
$wp_filetype = wp_check_filetype($filename, array('pdf' => 'application/pdf','pdf' => 'application/x-pdf') ); //is it the right type of of file?
$attachment = array( //set up the attachment
'post_mime_type' => $wp_filetype['type'],
'post_title' => sanitize_file_name($filename),
'post_content' => '',
'post_status' => 'inherit'
);
$attach_id = wp_insert_attachment( $attachment, $file, $entry['post_id'] ); //insert attachment
$attach_data = wp_generate_attachment_metadata( $attach_id, $file ); //asign the meta
wp_update_attachment_metadata( $attach_id, $attach_data ); //update the post
//remove the entry
//(to keep the entry comment or delete these line)
// IMPORTANT See: https://pastebin.com/quvsvGHJ for the function
if(!function_exists('sedc_gform_remove_entries')){ die('next time maybe you should read the comments');}
else{ nifty_gform_remove_entries($entry, $form );}
}
}
I have included a function that removes the entry and original file upload. That function can be found here. There is also a simpler version that doesn’t give a damn about the file upload that can be found here. Both are original from the GF support forms but have been slightly modified for v 1.6. I should also point out that some of the upload code came from here.
Hope you find this useful
