TutorialImport Entries from Excel Gravity Forms

With the plugin Import Entries you can easily import entries using an Excel file. This makes it also possible to import big list of data to your WordPress site and use it to fill in information automatically using the Polulate Field possibility in Gravity Forms.

Prepare an Excel file to Import (to CSV)

To use your Excel file in Import Entries, you have to save it as a Comma Seperated Values file. For this Tutorial we use an Excel file from Google’s Keyword Planner.

Screenshot of preparing an import CSV file to import in Gravity Forms.
Screenshot of preparing an import CSV file to import in Gravity Forms.

Make sure to save your excel file as a Comma Separated File for it to work with Import Entries plugin. You can check this by opening the CSV file in your Notepad and checking if there are only Comma’s used to separate the columns.  This should look like this in notepad:

Screenshot of the CSV file opened in Notepad (to check the structure)
Screenshot of the CSV file opened in Notepad (to check the structure)

Make a form with the exact same Column Names

As you saw in the Excel file, there are 12 columns:

  • Ad group
  • Keyword
  • Currency
  • Avg. Monthly Searches (exact match only)
  • Competition
  • Suggested bid
  • Impr. share
  • Organic impr. share
  • Organic avg. position
  • In account?
  • In plan?
  • Extracted From

In this tutorial, we will only use the bold columns:  

Screenshot of a Gravity Form wherein the CSV data will be imported.
Screenshot of a Gravity Form wherein the CSV data will be imported.

Mapping the Form Fields

With your Form ready, you can start importing Entries with the CSV file. Go to Forms > Import/Export > Import Entries and Upload your CSV file. See below what it looks like:

Screenshot of mapping columns in the CSV file to the Gravity Forms fields. Gravity Forms 2.4 and earlier.
Screenshot of mapping columns in the CSV file to the Gravity Forms fields.

Because we use the exact same column names as field names in the Gravity Form, it is possible to click on Map Exact Matches. With doing that, it will look for matches between the field names and the CVS column names. This saves a lot of time, especially when you have to repeat Excel imports to your forms.

Screenshot of button to Match Exact Matches.
Screenshot of button to Match Exact Matches.

Configuration and importing entries to Gravity Forms

There are some configuration options for your import.

  • Be sure to check the ‘Use Default Field Values’ in this example. Why? Because the Suggested bid field is sometimes empty. The default value (standard value) is 0, so if empty this will be asymptomatically zero.
  • You can also choose to upload the files to the new website you are maybe working on, or choose to just link to the files that are in the csv file. Be aware: if you choose for uploading the files, it will take quite a long time for the import, because every file will be downloaded to a new folder.
  • You can also set conditions for the import (like you are used to with Gravity Forms). It will set conditions based on the values in your csv file.

Click on ‘Save Configuration’ to update all your choices.

Screenshot of Import Entries settings.
Screenshot of Import Entries settings.

After this: hit ‘Begin Import’ to import your Entries from Excel. You will see this message if the import is completed:

Screenshot of Import Results.
Screenshot of Import Results.

Read more tutorials about Katz Web Services, Inc.

GravityView by Katz Web Services, Inc. is the best way to display Gravity Forms entries on your website. With GravityView you can easily display entries visitors (or users) of your website made using GravityForms on the front-end. It’s an amazing piece of software and developments are going strong. Katz Web Services, Inc. offers besides GravityView other interesting Add-ons for Gravity Forms like Import Entries, Inline Edit, GravityExport, GravityActions and Math. Visit GravityView.co
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