Fillable PDFs v2.3 Released

Travis  •    —   5 min read

Fillable PDFs for Gravity Forms version 2.3 is now available via auto-update and for download from the Downloads page.

This release adds some major feature enhancements, bug fixes and security enhancements.

Replace Template Files

The biggest frustration of Fillable PDFs users has been resolved! If you have an existing template that you want to make a minor change to, you no longer have to delete the template, upload the new file and then remap your Gravity Forms fields.

Replace an existing template file

When editing a template, a new Replace Template File has been added above the template preview. Clicking the button will show an upload input where you can upload a new PDF file for the template.

This will not make any changes to your Fillable PDFs feeds. If you removed or renamed any fields, be sure to review your mappings to ensure all fields are mapped correctly.

You can also download the original template file by clicking the Download action in the Templates table.

Globally Available Templates

We’ve also made a slight adjustment to the licensing tiers. The Global Available Templates feature is now available to all Professional license customers.

This makes it possible to use the same template across all the sites associated with your license. Note: Globally available templates can only be edited and deleted from the site they were initially created on.

Display Generated PDFs in a Post or Page

With the new Fillable PDFs Gutenberg block, a table of generated PDFs can now be displayed on any post or page. The PDFs displayed will be limited to the currently logged in user.

This block is currently in beta. Although the block is stable and ready for use on live sites, we’re working on refining the features available with it. Have feedback? Let us know!

Example Fillable PDFs block within the editor

The Fillable PDFs Block includes four different columns: File Name, File Size, Date and Download Link. Clicking on the column header will allow you to modify the name of the column or remove the name entirely.

Columns can be enabled or disabled through the block settings. If the Download column is disabled, the File Name will become the download link.

There are several other settings available including changing the file sorting order, the format of the date and which forms to display PDFs from. You can learn more about how to configure the block here.

Display Download Links in GravityView

Not only can you display links to generated PDFs on a post or page, you can now display them within a GravityView View!

Adding a Generated PDF Link field to a GravityView View

Using the new Generated PDF Link field, you can include a link to the PDF generated for an entry by selecting which feed to use. You can also optionally override the link text and sign the URL.

Embed a Chart

Whether it be survey results, registrations or sales & assessments, you can now embed chart data directly in your PDF fields through our new integration with GFChart.

Mapping a GFChart chart to a PDF field

When mapping to a PDF field, a new Integrations group will be available with a GFChart option. This option will be only be available if you have GFChart installed with at least one chart created. Selecting the GFChart option will present an extra drop down for you to choose which chart to embed in the field.

Chart embedding requires GFChart’s Image Charts Add-On, available with the GFChart All license.

Enhanced Security

A major focus for us when developing Fillable PDFs 2.3 was to improve our already high security standards, including having an independent security audit conducted on the codebase.

Publicly Accessible Files Warning

We’ve added some additional checks around the potential for users to directly access generated PDF files.

Once a week, Fillable PDFs will run a test to see if the PDFs folder is directly accessible to the public. If it is, a warning will appear on all Gravity Forms page indicating the issue with a link to our documentation on how to resolve it.

This will not be an issue for most sites, as we include an .htaccess file that blocks access to any file or directory within the PDFs folder.

Updated Download Permissions

We’ve made multiple changes around who has permission to download a generated PDF.

The previous Download Permissions setting has been deprecated in favor of a new Enable Public Access setting. This setting allows you to set if a PDF can be downloaded, regardless of who is attempting to access it.

When a generated PDF is attempted to be downloaded, Fillable PDFs allows the download if the requestor matches any of the following rules:

More information about how this process works, including how to make changes to some of the settings, can be found in our Protecting Your PDFs documentation article.

Fillable PDFs Version 2.3 Release Notes