Anyone who uses the photographer’s studio management software ShootQ knows there are extremely few options for integrating it with an existing web site, especially with the ubiquitous WordPress, and they left a lot to be desired. What I wanted to create was a way to use Gravity Forms for my ShootQ integration because of it’s flexibility and fabulous feature set. Here is the fruit of that effort: the Gravity Forms ShootQ add-on. Of course, you need to have Gravity Forms already installed. If you don’t, go ahead and get it now. I’ll wait.
You’re back? Excellent! Let’s move on…
Installation
Installation is as simple as any other WordPress plugin. First, download and install the Gravity Forms ShootQ add-on. Once activated, you will see there is a convenient link to the Settings page in the plugin’s entry in the plugin list. This is where you will need to enter the API Key and Brand Abbreviation from your ShootQ account.
If you’re not already, log into ShootQ in a separate browser window and visit the Settings tab. All the way at the bottom is a link with a key icon that say “Public API.” Click this link and you will get your Public API page. Copy the API Access Key and Brand Abbreviation from the Public API page into your ShootQ Settings admin page.
You will notice the checkbox on your Public API page that says “Enable Public API access” for your brand (circled in red below). You must check this box in order for the plugin to communicate with your ShootQ account! Once you’ve checked this box and copied your API Key and Brand Abbreviation, you may close your ShootQ window and return to WordPress.
The Public API page on ShootQ
Configuration
Once your ShootQ Settings are saved, it will prompt you to create a new feed. A “feed” is a connection you make between the ShootQ add-on and a Gravity Form. This enables you to use the ShootQ plugin only with those forms you designate. If you have not done so, go ahead and create a new form you want to use to collect leads for ShootQ. You may collect any information you like, but ShootQ requires the minimum of a name and an email address for the customer. Make sure you mark these fields as “required” when creating your form. I also suggest disabling the notifications on the form and letting ShootQ handle that process.
You should also include a Shoot Type in either a hidden field (if you want to set a single type for the form), or create a select box and let the user select the type themselves. I would recommend also providing fields for the shoot date, referrer, and remarks as the minimum fields for a ShootQ lead creation form. Keep in mind that Gravity Forms allows you to have conditional fields, so you can implement functionality similar to (or better than!) ShootQ’s own public contact form.
Sample Gravity Form with fields already populated
After you add your form and save your page, return to the ShootQ Feeds list by clicking “ShootQ” from the Forms section of the WordPress admin menu, then click “Add New.” (If you had already created a form to use and are still on the ShootQ Settings page, just click the “configure a new feed” link that appeared after you saved your settings.) This will take you to the Add/Edit ShootQ Feed page.
Form selection from the Add/Edit ShootQ Feed page
Mapping fields in the Add/Edit ShootQ Feed page
The sample lead as it appears in ShootQ
Troubleshooting
A few of you may experience problems with no leads getting to ShootQ. First of all, make sure you copied the entire API Key and pasted it into the field. Typing it manually is just asking for trouble and it’s so much more work! Same goes for your Brand Abbreviation. Copy and paste is always your best bet. Also, double-check that “enable public API access” checkbox. It’s easy to overlook this step, so don’t assume it’s done. Check the check!
Second, there are some web hosts who may have their servers set to block outgoing http requests by default. Contact your service provider and find out if this is the case. In most cases they will simply turn it on for you with no hassle.
If you’re still having problems, you’ll need to turn everything off and do a little testing. I know it may be a hassle, but you really shouldn’t get to this point as most issues will be resolved by following the steps above. In any case, here is the process in a nutshell:
- Change your theme to the Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven theme that came with your WordPress installation, and deactivate all of your plugins except for Gravity Forms and the ShootQ add-on plugin.
- Visit your form page – the one that uses the form to which you connected your ShootQ account – and submit some bogus information. If it works, then you’re on the right track. (If not, revisit the configuration instructions above.)
- Re-enable your theme and submit some more bogus information through your form. Did it still work? Great! Move on. If it didn’t, you have a theme incompatibility and you may have to find another theme.
- Is it still sending Joe Schmoe leads to ShootQ? Fantastic! Now, re-enable one plugin and then submit your form again with another dummy lead.
- Keep repeating the re-enable/submit procedure until you get a submission that doesn’t make it to ShootQ. The last plugin you activated is your perpetrator and should be given a fitting execution. Don’t worry, there are many more where that one came from…
A Note to ProPhoto Users
P.S. I have seen that people using the ProPhoto blog theme for WordPress are getting two leads in ShootQ instead of just one. This may be due ProPhoto having some built-in connectivity to ShootQ. Please check your settings and contact ProPhoto support if you need help.
Donations
If you’ve gained any benefit at all from the use of my plugin, please make a small donation. Your generosity is much appreciated! 
I am one of those using a ProPhoto 4 template and it generates 2 leads. I sent emaisl to ProPhoto but thought I’d ask here as well if anything has been done to fix this.
THANKS!
Since I don’t have access to ProPhoto, I cannot give any detailed instructions on configuration. However, there is probably a section in the ProPhoto settings where you provide the API Key and Brand Abbreviation. Just removing that information may solve your problem. There may also be a checkbox that allows you to disable the ShootQ integration functionality, which I would recommend turning off. Other than that I can’t make any other suggestions. Good luck!
Ok I have set up the form and shootq plugin all seems to be working and shootq is sending back a response as follows:
“ShootQ received a lead via email, and was unable to process it.
For best results, lead emails should be sent as text/plain. HTML emails (like yours) must include a text/plain alternative.
You may also consider using the lead from email feature of ShootQ to create this lead. The contents of the original email can be found below for your reference: ”
Not sure what else I can do??
I had shootq leads working with CONTACT FORMS 7 – so I know the comms between my site and shootq are fine – please help
JP
John, it sounds like you are using the Gravity Forms email notification to send information to ShootQ. You will need to disable the notifications entirely in your form and then follow the installation and configuration instructions above for mapping your form fields in the ShootQ plugin. If you get all of your required fields mapped and still have problems, let me know.
Thanks so much for posting this. I’ve been looking for something like this for some time now. We’ve got it all integrated into our site and are loving it so far. Quick question: is there any way to integrate another form you may have a couple fill out down the line that would then be added to their info in ShootQ.
For example, let’s say we wanted the couple to fill out a quick survey, could a form be created with those survey questions that, when submitted, would submit the information they filled out in their ‘Remarks’ field in ShootQ?
This would be cool, but seems like there may need to be a couple more connections made. Just wondering. Thanks.
Sorry, the ShootQ API does not allow adding information to an existing lead or shoot. I think that’s a cool idea, and you could always create your survey using Gravity Forms and send the email notification to ShootQ containing all of your form fields. If you are interested in doing it that way, send me an email and I’ll give you some suggestions on how you could implement it.
Thank you!! This is exactly what I needed. Your steps were fabulous to follow and I got it all working with shootQ.
Hello. Does this work with WP templates? I have installed the Shootq integration plugin and then the gravity forms add on and I do not see the settings link anywhere. I see it under Shootq plugin but not for gravity forms. Under settings, shootq, I have entered all my API info, but do not find how to find the forms page to link my fields. Any help appreciated. Thanks
You should have installed Gravity Forms first, then the ShootQ add-on. If you installed them in reverse order I can see where that may create some issues, although I haven’t tested this. If you think there are some errors, uninstall both plugins and then re-install starting with Gravity Forms. Let me know if you have any more issues after that.
I went ahead and deactivated the plugins and removed the both folders from the plugin folders. I then went ahead and uploaded Gravity first and activated. I have not yet uploaded Shootq add-on and the settings tab is still missing from the gravity plugin.
There is a Forms section of the admin menu that is the Gravity Forms menu. There will be a “Settings” link there right above the “Import/Export” link. After you install the ShootQ add-on plugin, “ShootQ” will be located right above that “Settings” link and the ShootQ settings page will also be linked from the Gravity Forms settings page. If you have any more issues finding your way around after that, send me an email with some screenshots.
I installed something called Gravity Forms ShootQ Add-On. I don’t see any way to edit as you are describing above. Are there two different plugins I need to install? One called Gravity Forms ShootQ Add-On and another one?
Yes. As stated in the first two paragraphs, this plugin is an add-on to the Gravity Forms plugin. You must install it first and then install the ShootQ add-on. Gravity Forms provides the form with which you collect your lead information, while the ShootQ Add-On plugin sends that form’s submission to ShootQ through their API.
Thanks so much for this. Used it on a client’s site and it does work for her, with one caveat, which I’m hoping you can give me some thoughts on. You say to make sure the fields we create in the Gravity Form are mandatory, but sometimes people aren’t sure, yet, what their locations are…so I wanted to NOT make those fields necessary. But when I don’t make the date or locations necessary, the info. doesn’t get forwarded at all with the form. Is there any way around this? I’d like to get everything they put into our form, whether it’s noted as optional or not. Thank you again!
I suggest that the mandatory ShootQ fields (name, email and shoot type) are set to be required. The others are at your discretion.
Hi great plugin. But I have a problem. When I try to create the ShootQ feed I get the following error:
Gravity Form
Fatal error: Call to undefined function gform_tooltip() in /home/content/d/a/v/davidmedina/html/wblog/wp-content/plugins/gravity-forms-shootq-add-on/shootq.php on line 483
I am using Prophoto 4 with the latest version of WordPress.
Any suggestion as how to fix it?
Thanks
Sorry for the problem! This issue has been fixed in the latest update to the plugin.
Hi Ben and everyone!
Ben suggested I post my question here as it might be beneficial to all.
First off, LOVE the add-on. Works perfectly. I am looking to tailor the way the information ported to ShootQ appears in the lead. I have created a number of custom questions in my form that now appear in the Remarks section of the ShootQ lead. However, those responses are not appearing in the same order in which they are posed in my form. For example, I have a couple of conditional responses that appear NOT after the question to which they are associated. Somehow, the info ported to ShootQ is getting shuffled somehow. It would be great to get the Remarks answers to appear in the same order top to bottom they appear in my original form. Thoughts? Eric
The form I use on this site also gets the information in a different order, and it gives me the same level of frustration. It may be the way ShootQ processes it’s API calls, as it doesn’t seem to correspond to the field IDs Gravity Forms uses. I am looking into the issue now and I hope to have it resolved in a future update of the ShootQ plugin. Shameless plug: Your support for continued development is greatly appreciated.
I just wanted to say HELL YES! Can I get a HELL YES? Finally, a form solution that isn’t total crap, with customized feed linking and the ability to add other required fields. I didn’t even mind paying for GF (though I did search for a discount code, heh) to get this to work. THANK YOU!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
You’re a damn genius & have made my day!
This works like a charm and took 10 minutes to set up…finally a contact form that looks like it’s part of my website and interacts with ShootQ!
You’re very welcome!
I can’t get it to send to ShootQ. I’ve got everything set up according to instructions. What am I doing wrong?
I replied to your email. Any luck on the ProPhoto duplicates? I’ve sent them an email, but it will be after the holidays before I hear anything from them.
Hello, We are trying to set this up with a client’s website. We have done everything correctly and it actually does work on our testing site, but once uploaded to the client’s site the leads aren’t generated in shootq. It’s driving us crazy because the test site and the client’s live site are exactly the same, other than hosting. The emails from gravity forms still go through but not to shootq. Any thoughts? Hosting issue??
Yes, I would say it’s a hosting issue if the only difference is the host. Some hosts have their servers configured to block http requests by default. Please check with their hosts to see if this is the case and request for it to be turned on.
Hi Ben..
Have problems here getting the ShootQ Gravity Forms Plugin to talk to ShootQ.
Am using WordPress 3.2.1 , Gravity Forms 1.5.2.8 and a brand new ShootQ subscription.. Untouched.
The install instructions for both Gravity Forms and ShootQ plugin for Gravit Forms was very straightforward. I’ve read through as much documentation as I can and read other people’s problems and solutions but still can’t seem to understand why mine it’s not working.
I’ve enabled the public API in shootq, I’ve configured Gravity Forms and mapped the fields properly. Basically, I found the install and configuration very straightforward and quite simple. This is why i can’t work out what’s wrong.. I’ve double checked to make sure the API key and name are correct etc..
There’s nothign else left to try that I can thnk of.. : (
-Frankie
If you don’t mind giving me temporary access to your blog, create a user with admin access and use development [at] pussycatintimates [dot] com for the email. When I’ve seen all I need to, you can delete the account.
Hi Ben – Thanks for the response
Ok cool, where can I privately email you the login and password?
Oops silly me.. I made you the account using the email you asked.
On the ShootQ side it’s all in order. Enable Public API is ticked.
-Frank
Can you send the password to that email please? Can’t log in without it.
Ok done.. Sorry I think I had a spelling mistake in my original email that wordpress would have sent you.
The form is being sent twice to ShooQ and I end up with duplicates in ShootQ. Any idea why?
I cannot duplicate your issue in my test environment. What other Gravity Forms add-ons do you have installed, if any? You can troubleshoot your issue by disabling your plugins (including the GF add-ons) and submitting your form again. If that eliminates your duplicates, go through each plugin and re-activate them one by one, submitting again each time. Post here if you find the culprit.
This is the only GF add-on that I have. I’ll try disabling each and trying to see if one is incompatible. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Ok, just got done deactivating plugins. Went one by one until only GF and your ShootQ add-on were left, still getting duplicates. Any other ideas on what the issue may be? I’m using a ProPhoto Blog. Also, I’ve noticed that the Date field in GF does not display properly, either in Date Field or Picker format. Could there be an issue with my GF installation?
I believe ProPhoto uses a bundled version of Gravity Forms, is that correct? That version may have an installation or functionality that is different than the “normal” version of the plugin. As I don’t use ProPhoto, I have no way of testing this. I’ll send you an email with some further questions.
I purchased and installed GF separately from ProPhoto. I’ll try uninstalling and doing a reinstall.
I installed the plugin, and the installation went perfectly, I configured everything according to instructions, but I’m not getting the leads in ShootQ. I can see that the form generated a lead through the WordPress Plugin, but nothing is coming through on ShootQ. Any help would be splendid!
First of all, make sure you have read all of the installation instructions. There are two vital things beyond adding your correct ShootQ API Key and Brand Abbreviation. First, double-check to make sure that the “Enable API access” check box is checked on your ShootQ Settings -> Public API page. ShootQ will ignore any communication from outside sources if you don’t. That’s the big one! Second, the form you use needs to have a name and an email address field, both marked as required. I see you’ve done the second thing, so verify that check box in your ShootQ settings and try again.
Yup, I’ve checked and double checked the API, unchecked and rechecked the box, and copied and posted the API and Brand Abbreviation.
Any thoughts on this? I had to disable the form for now, to make sure that leads continue to come in, but I would love to get the gravity forms working.
I had sent you a personal email so we don’t bog the comments down. Can you please check your spam folder? Thanks!
Howdy,
Would love to use your Gravity Form. However, after install and activation, I do not see a link to the settings page.
I’m using wordpress version 3.1.4. Unable to upgrade to version 3.2.1 at this time due to my MySQL version 4.1.25. Does this have anything to do with it?
Can you post an image with the settings link? Maybe I’m just blind…
Thanks,
Chris
The ShootQ plugin’s settings are accessed in either one of two ways.
From the Plugins page right under the plugin name – click the “settings” link (next to “deactivate” and “edit”) and it will take you right there, or
from the Forms menu in the left-hand navigation – go to “Settings” first, then select “ShootQ” under the title Gravity Forms Settings.
If you are having issues with Gravity Forms itself, you will need to visit their support forums and ask your question there.
That’s the problem. Their is no settings link next to “deactivate” and “edit”
Yes, the plugin has been activated.
Apparently I didn’t read the whole post. Wasn’t aware that yours was an add-on plugin for a plugin.
sorry for all the reply’s. I’ll get the gravity form and retry….
Yes. Follow the link to Gravity Forms and get it installed first. You may be able to simply activate the ShootQ plugin after you install Gravity Forms, otherwise just delete and reinstall.
Along the same lines as Chris P, I have purchased Gravity Forms, and can’t get it to install properly as a plugin.
I’ve downloaded it, uploaded it, activated it, and added the ShootQ integration.
There is no settings link.
Can you help? I’m running the latest WordPress 3.2
First of all, which plugin are you having issues with? If it’s Gravity Forms, make sure you used the Add New functionality of the WordPress plugins section for installing it so you know it’s getting installed properly. I would take care of setting up Gravity Forms and creating a test form to make sure everything is good to go before you install the ShootQ plugin.
Install the ShootQ plugin the same way if you downloaded it from here, or you can search for it in the WordPress plugin repository from the Add New page. As I told Chris, the settings for the ShootQ plugin are accessible from either the plugins page (see the image below) or from the Gravity Forms Settings page which you get to from the left-hand admin menu under Forms -> Settings. (It doesn’t say “Gravity Forms” just “Forms.” I don’t know why.) This Settings page has a row of links below the “Gravity Forms Settings” header and one should be “ShootQ.” If you don’t have the Forms navigation you have a faulty Gravity Forms installation. If you don’t see either of the ShootQ settings links you have a bad installation of that plugin.