How to "call" a certain entry and use it to update a field

[user65428e5876c73402 (Ashley Cain)]

I think I’m probably complicating this, but I’m hoping someone can help me with an issue.

I have a parent form set up that has a child form. I’ve had to set up the associated workflow
with ‘Create New Entry’ steps rather than ‘Form Submission’ steps because I need them to go out simultaneously and not wait for the last one to be submitted.

But I also need a way for the parent form to collect the status of these child forms so that I can report that status to someone. However, I am having trouble with this. The workflow needs to look like this:

1. Form A is submitted
2. Admin fields on that form are then auto-populated with names and emails of people who are assigned to review Form A
3. An entry of Form B is created for each person assigned and each entry’s ID is logged in an associated field on Form A. There are always multiple form entries created and there are fields for each of them depending on who is conditionally assigned.
4. Form B is sent out to the people assigned to complete it. There are always multiples of this form sent out.
   5. Once Form B is completed, I need to update a radio button field in Form A saying it’s completed.

Step 5 is the issue. I need Form B’s workflow to be able to look up the correct Entry ID on Form A and then check the radio box associated with that entry. I’ve played with a few solutions and cannot get it to work so that it’s finding the right entry field.

Included are screenshots. The first is of the fields from Form A where the assignees and the entry ID for Form B is filled in. You’ll see the radio button in question to the left of those fields. There are about 20 different assignee fields that can be filled in.

Second screenshot shows the existing workflow structure for Form B.

Third screenshot shows the workflow step (update fields) where I was trying to mark the corresponding radio box on Form A to show it as complete but can’t find a way for it to look up the correct field/entry ID.

[JamieO (Jamie (Gravity Flow))]

You are very close in your setup I think.

The Update FIelds step is used to search for values in other form entries and modify the one running the Update FIelds step in its’ workflow. From the summary you gave, the #5 step should be an Update an Entry step type to tell the Form A entry about the new values/status from the Form B entry currently running the Update an Entry step.

As long as your initial Create an Entry step (in Form A) provides its’ entry ID into a field in Form B, the Update an Entry step in Form B will have the details needed to map back whatever you need. Or could leverage the gravityflowfonnector_update_entry_entry filter to use code to customize if needed.

If your scenario wanted Form A workflow to pause until the Form B workflow gets complete or past a specific step, the docs on Update an Entry show how you can also use it to mark a different entry that is on an approval step as approved. So effectively assign the Form A entry it to a “holding” user to wait until the Form B Update an Entry step marks it approved.

Regards,
Jamie

[user65428e5876c73402 (Ashley Cain)]

Jamie,

Thanks for your reply, but I’m still not sure I understand how to execute this. I set up an ‘Update an Entry’ step on Form B’s workflow. But then when I get to the bottom of that where you set up the field mapping, I run into issues again. I have no trouble telling Form B which Entry ID to look for from Form A so it knows which entry it’s updating. What I don’t understand is how to tell it which field to update in Form A since each field in Form A will be different depending upon who completed their Form B entry. For example, if Jane, John, and Jason are all assigned to complete Form B then each time one of them does complete it, I need a field in form A to update saying it’s done but there is an individual field in Form A designated for each person. How do I map this so that the Update an Entry step knows that I want to mark only John’s entry as complete but not Jane or Jason’s? Screenshot of the place where I’m stuck for reference. Would I need to set up separate steps for each person?

I’m assuming that the update entry filter you referenced may address this, but I’m not confident in getting that right. What does “jo_gravityflowconnector_update_created_user” need to be changed to so that it’s looking for the entry ID fields in Form A (there are almost 30 of them and they are all labeled differently)? How do I figure out which Step ID (workflow step attached to Form A or Form B)? I don’t know how to update this for my use case and sometimes this documentation assumes a lot of foundational knowledge that I may not have.

add_filter( 'gravityflowformconnector_update_entry', 'jo_gravityflowconnector_update_created_user', 10, 5 );
function jo_gravityflowconnector_update_created_user( $update_entry, $entry, $form, $target_form, $step ) {
    // Change to match the Step ID you want the swap to occur on.
    if ( $step->get_id() != '175' ) {
        return $update_entry;
    }
 
    $potential_user = get_user_by( 'email', $entry['2'] );
 
    if ( ! $potential_user ) {
        // Replace with user ID that should receive the task if the user registration were to fail for other reasons.
        $update_entry['3'] = '';
    } else {
        $update_entry['3'] = $potential_user->ID;
    }
 
    return $update_entry;
}

[user65428e5876c73402 (Ashley Cain)]

Also, a question about a possible alternative solution:

I worked with you on a previous issue where we created a filter that would take entries from one form and create a table in another form displaying some of those entries.

Could something similar be done here to show the entries and the status from Form B in a table on Form A for each person assigned to complete it? If so, I could eliminate the radio buttons asking if each individual assigned has completed their form.

If this would work, I’m not sure how to duplicate that original snippet. I had already tried a few days ago to add code to that first snippet creating another custom merge tag to do this and then calling in the correct fields and it didn’t work. I set up a separate snippet with the new custom merge tag and the correct fields and that didn’t work either.

The original snippet, which DOES work is this:

//{rda_consultant_feedback:review_fields='565,568,570,572,574,576, 578, 580, 582, 584, 586, 588, 590, 592, 594, 596'}
add_filter( 'gform_replace_merge_tags', 'rda_mergetag_consultant_feedback', 10, 7 );
function rda_mergetag_consultant_feedback( $text, $form, $entry, $url_encode, $esc_html, $nl2br, $format ) {
	 
    $matches = array();

    preg_match_all( '/{rda_consultant_feedback(:(.*?))?}/', $text, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER );

    if ( ! empty( $matches ) ) {

        foreach ( $matches as $match ) {
            //Get the parts of the merge tag into separate values we can evaluate against
            $full_tag       = $match[0];
            $options_string = isset( $match[2] ) ? $match[2] : false;
            $attributes = shortcode_parse_atts( $options_string );
    
            if ( ! isset( $attributes['review_fields'] ) ) {
                $text = str_replace( $full_tag, '', $text );
            } else {
                //Begin to craft the markup as it is on the specific merge tag of interest
                $markup = '<div class="rda-consultant-feedback">';
                $markup .= '<table id="consultant-feedback">
                    <thead><tr>
                        <th>Entry ID</th>
			<th>Consultant</th>
                        <th>Feedback</th>
                    </tr></thead><tbody>';
                //Get the field IDs into an array
                $feedback_ids = explode( ',', $attributes['review_fields'] );

                //Loop each ID and ensure that it is a valid entry with a completed workflow
                foreach( $feedback_ids as $position => $feedback_id ) {
                    $feedback = GFAPI::get_entry( $entry[ $feedback_id ] );
                    
                    if ( is_wp_error( $feedback ) ) {
                        continue;
                    }
					
					if ( $feedback['workflow_final_status'] != 'complete' ) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    //Add the feedback to the markup
                    $markup .= '<tr><td>' . $feedback['id'] . '<td>' . $feedback['1.3'] . ' ' . $feedback['1.6'] . '</td><td>' . $feedback['5'] . '</td></tr>';
                }

                $markup .= '</tbody></table>';
                //Put the markup back to the $text which the merge tag function returns.
                $text = str_replace( $full_tag, $markup, $text );

            }
        }
    }

    return $text;
}

[JamieO (Jamie (Gravity Flow))]

@user65428e5876c73402

What I don’t understand is how to tell it which field to update in Form A since each field in Form A will be different depending upon who completed their Form B entry.

In that case, you might want to:

• Add either a hidden field or a user field to Form B
• Have the Create an Entry steps in Form A populate with a static value or the user that should be doing the activity in Form B.
• Then the Update an Entry steps in Form B would use a condition check of that field/value to know whether to perform or not.
• Each of the Update an Entry steps would have different field mappings corresponding to which set of fields in Form A need to be updated.

@user65428e5876c73402

I’m assuming that the update entry filter you referenced may address this, but I’m not confident in getting that right.

Yes. The approach I suggest above would lead to multiple Update an Entry steps in your Form B, but only one of them would match the conditions to execute. The use of the gravityflowformconnector_update_entry filter would let you use code to do the appropriate field mappings all via one step.

@user65428e5876c73402

I don’t know how to update this for my use case and sometimes this documentation assumes a lot of foundational knowledge that I may not have.

For hooks and code snippets that is something we try to balance sharing examples without overwhelming people about how flexible/customizable Gravity Forms and Flow can be to tailor to your use case.

Reach out to our Gravity Flow support team and they’ll be able to assist with a simplified example that you can then adjust to your form / field / step IDs for your actual form.

Regards,
Jamie

[JamieO (Jamie (Gravity Flow))]

@user65428e5876c73402

Could something similar be done here to show the entries and the status from Form B in a table on Form A for each person assigned to complete it?

It sounds like a feasible approach yes. If recommendations from the Gravity Flow support team for you to customize the code to your needs isn’t sufficient and you want a “built for you” approach, I’d recommend to reach out to Gravity Experts.

Regards,
Jamie