Documentation
Approve & Deny for Gravity Forms documentation
How to set up and use Approve & Deny: install, settings and fixes for common problems.
Overview
Approve & Deny adds an approval step to a Gravity Form. You approve or deny each entry from an email button or a dashboard, and Gravity Forms sends the follow-up emails.
Where to find it: Approve & Deny, in the main WordPress menu.
What you need
- WordPress 6.2 or newer
- PHP 7.4 or newer
- Gravity Forms, installed and active
Install
- With The Vault (easiest): open The Vault in your WordPress menu, find Approve & Deny and click Install. It is installed and activated for you.
- By hand: download it free from the plugin page, then go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip and activate it.
Updates arrive automatically from wpwizards.com, like plugins from WordPress.org.
Quick start
- Create a workflow. Go to Approve & Deny → Add New and choose the form. A Status field with Pending, Approved and Denied is added to the form for you.
- Add the buttons to your admin email. In the Gravity Forms notification you receive for new entries, add
{approve_link}and{deny_link}. - Create the follow-up emails. Add notifications that use the Approval status changed event, with conditional logic on the Status field (for example, Status is Approved).
- Decide. Click a button in the email, or approve and deny from the workflow’s dashboard.
How emails are sent
This plugin does not send email itself. Every message is a normal Gravity Forms notification, so your wording, routing and logs stay in one place.
A third status
A workflow can have an optional third choice beside Approve and Deny, such as “Follow up” or “Waitlist”. Enter its label when editing the workflow. It gets its own button, filter and count on the dashboard.
The workflow dashboard
Each workflow lists its entries with the name, date submitted and status, and Approve / Deny actions. Filter by status to see what is still pending.
Settings
Workflow
| Name | Shown in the WordPress admin menu. |
|---|---|
| Form | The Gravity Form whose entries need a decision. |
| Status field | The radio field with Pending, Approved and Denied. Managed automatically. |
| Name field | The form field used for the Name column in the entries table. |
| Approved value / Denied value | The wording stored in the Status field. |
| Active | Turns the workflow on or off without deleting it. |
Troubleshooting and questions
The buttons in the email do nothing.
Make sure the workflow is active and that the notification containing the links belongs to the same form.
No email goes out after I approve.
Create a Gravity Forms notification with the Approval status changed event and conditional logic matching the Status value.
Can I approve from my phone?
Yes. The email buttons work from any device.
Get help
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