PlugUpp Dynamic Attachments for Gravity Forms: Notification Attachments, PDFs and Private Files

Gravity Forms can attach the files a visitor uploads. It cannot attach a file you already have, such as a brochure, a price list or the guide a page is about. This plugin adds that, one notification at a time.

The file you send can be private. A private file is not in the Media Library and the site never shows its web address. It exists to be emailed. Upload it in the Private files tab of the same window you pick Media Library files from.

Requires Gravity Forms 2.5 or later, and 2.9 or later for the files from the page. No other plugin is needed.

Open a notification and you will find an Additional attachments section at the end, with two switches. Turn on either or both.

Private files

Wherever you choose files, the media window has a third tab, Private files, beside Upload files and Media Library. Upload a file there and it goes into the plugin’s own store under your uploads folder. Each file sits alone in a folder with a long random name and keeps its own name, made safe for a server. WordPress’s own upload checks apply, so only the types your Media Library accepts can be uploaded. No Media Library entry is made and no address is shown anywhere.

Each row shows a small preview, the file’s real name and a pill saying Private or Media Library. View opens a private file in a new tab through the plugin, for signed-in users who can upload files. Anyone else is turned away. The email carries the file under its real name.

Private files are managed on the plugin’s tab under Forms, Settings. The list shows where each file is used, with links to those pages and notifications. Delete removes a file from the server and from every page and notification that uses it. Remove, on a page or a notification, only takes it off that one list.

When you delete the plugin, its private files are deleted too, because nobody could open them without it. A switch on the same tab keeps the folder instead.

Static attachments

Turn on Static attachments and press Add files. Pick Media Library files, private files or both. Every send of that notification carries them. Any type the Media Library accepts can be attached, and nothing about your upload permissions changes.

Attach the files from the page the form was on

Each page, post or custom post type record gets an Email attachments box on its edit screen, in the block editor’s sidebar or the classic editor’s side column. Add one or more files there, from the Media Library or the private files. Put the form on the page and turn on the second switch in the notification. When someone sends the form, Gravity Forms saves the page they sent it from, and the notification attaches every file in that page’s box. One form and one notification can then deliver different files from every page it sits on.

There is no hidden field and no merge tag to set up. You choose which post types show the box on the plugin’s tab under Forms, Settings. Posts and Pages are ticked until you change them.

Static files and the files from the page work together on the same notification, and a file reached both ways is attached once.

Held back, never sent short

If any configured file cannot be prepared, that notification is not sent. The entry, the confirmation and every other notification carry on as normal. The entry gets a note saying which notification was held back, why, and how to fix it, and the reason is also written to Gravity Forms logging. A notification is never sent with a file missing, and a failure on the page’s files never falls back to the static files.

The checks run at send time on the final email, after Gravity Forms has added any uploaded files and other plugins have added theirs:

• The page must still exist, be published, have no password, and be a type that shows the Email attachments box.
• Its box must hold at least one file.
• Every file must be a real, readable file inside your uploads folder. A private file must still be in the plugin’s store.
• The whole email must carry no more than 25 MiB of files. A developer can change that ceiling with the dagf_max_total_bytes filter.

Submissions, delayed sends and resends from the entry screen all go through the same checks. A resend uses the page saved in the entry and the files that page holds today.

Who it is for

Sites that send a document when a form is filled in: a guide request, a brochure download, a booking with terms attached, a course with its handouts.

External services

The attachment features call no outside service. Files are read from your own uploads folder and sent through Gravity Forms’ normal sending. One screen makes a call to WordPress.org, described here in full.

The More from PlugUpp panel

On this plugin’s own tab under Forms, Settings, and nowhere else, your site asks the WordPress.org plugins API (https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.2/) for the list of plugins published by the PlugUpp account, once a day, and shows them as cards with their WordPress.org icons (served from https://ps.w.org/). The request carries the author name and nothing about your site, your forms or your entries. This is the same API WordPress itself uses for the Add New plugin screen and for update checks. If it cannot be reached, a short built-in list is shown instead. WordPress.org privacy policy: https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/