{"id":38067,"date":"2024-10-18T13:12:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T17:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/?page_id=38067"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:13:17","slug":"gravity-forms-slate-integration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/products-and-tools\/nc-state-web-platform\/gravity-forms-slate-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"Gravity Forms Slate Integration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

The NC State Web Platform has two ways to leverage Slate<\/span> forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Using the Slate<\/span> Form Embed block<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Configuring Gravity Forms to submit form entries via a web hook<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This documentation discusses how to configure option two. This option allows for more customized and better visually integrated forms on your site while still allowing important prospective student information to flow into the university\u2019s Slate<\/span> systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are two aspects to getting Gravity Forms working with Slate<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. One-time initial configuration<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Configuring individual forms<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      One-time Initial Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Activate the Gravity Forms Webhooks Add-On<\/code> plugin. If you are not able to activate plugins, you may need to ask your site administrator to activate this plugin. If it is not already installed on your site, submit a ticket to wordpress@help.ncsu.edu<\/a> to have the plugin installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This plugin is used to submit form entries to Slate<\/span> and is used in the form-specific configuration section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Form-specific Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Existing Gravity Forms can be \u201cupfitted\u201d to begin submitting data to Slate<\/span>, but the steps below assume that you will be creating a new form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      To begin, create a new blank form with a name and an (optional) description of your choice. Add the desired fields to the form. You can include any fields you would like, but the table below includes what fields can be passed into Slate<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Some fields are optional while others are required. These requirements differ based upon if you are submitting information about prospective undergraduate, graduate, or non-degree students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The “user-facing” fields below are either recommended or required to be fields within your Gravity Form. The “back-end” fields will be used later in the form configuration process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      A general rule of thumb within marketing communications is that more form fields will result in fewer people submitting the form. Therefore, it is recommended that you only include the absolutely necessary user-facing fields in your form.<\/p>\n\n\n

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      \n \n
      \n \n \n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n

      Undergraduate<\/h2>\n <\/summary>\n

      \n \n\n

      Field<\/th>Key<\/th>Description<\/th>Location<\/th>Required<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
      First Name<\/td>first<\/code><\/td><\/td>User-facing<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Last Name<\/td>last<\/code><\/td><\/td>User-facing<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Email<\/td>email<\/code><\/td>Include instructions to use personal email address rather than a school-issued or a parent’s email address.<\/td>User-facing<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Date of Birth<\/td>date_of_birth<\/code><\/td><\/td>User-facing<\/td>Strongly Recommended<\/td><\/tr>
      Entering Year<\/td>entering_year<\/code><\/td>Expected year to enroll at NC State<\/td>Almost Always User-facing<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Academic Interests<\/td>academic_interests<\/code><\/td>Potential areas of studies from EMAS list<\/a><\/td>Usually User-facing<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Student Type<\/td>student_type<\/code><\/td>First Year<\/code> or Transfer<\/code><\/td>User-facing or Back-end<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      College<\/td>college<\/code><\/td>College name based upon this list<\/a><\/td>Back-end<\/td>Recommended<\/td><\/tr>
      Instance<\/td>instance<\/code><\/td>Slate<\/span> instance (ugrad<\/code>, grad<\/code>, or nds<\/code>)<\/td>Back-end<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr>
      Entry ID<\/td>entry_id<\/code><\/td>Gravity Forms entry ID<\/td>Back-end<\/td>Recommended<\/td><\/tr>
      Parent’s First Name<\/td>parent_first<\/code><\/td>Name of parent <\/td>User-facing<\/td>Recommended Depending Upon Strategy<\/td><\/tr>
      Parent’s Last Name<\/td>parent_last<\/code><\/td>Name of parent<\/td>User-facing<\/td>Recommended Depending Upon Strategy<\/td><\/tr>
      Parent’s Email<\/td>parent_email<\/code><\/td>Email of parent<\/td>User-facing<\/td>Recommended Depending Upon Strategy<\/td><\/tr>
      Channel\/Medium of Lead<\/td>lead_source<\/code><\/td>Attribution for lead<\/td>Back-end<\/td>Recommended<\/td><\/tr>
      Source URL<\/td>source_url<\/code><\/td>URL of page where form submitted<\/td>Back-end<\/td>Recommended<\/td><\/tr>
      Entry Date<\/td>entry_date<\/code><\/td>Date when form submitted<\/td>Back-end<\/td>Required<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n\n
      \n \n \n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n

      Graduate<\/h2>\n <\/summary>\n

      \n \n\n

      Integration coming soon<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n\n

      \n \n \n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n

      Non-degree<\/h2>\n <\/summary>\n

      \n \n\n

      Integration coming soon<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Once your form has been created, you will now need to configure the integration with Slate<\/span>. To do this, go to the “Webhooks” section of your form’s settings and create a new Webhook integration. Configure the Webhook per the steps below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. Provide a Name<\/code> of your own choice. This will only be seen by site administrators. If you are unsure of a name, “Slate<\/span> Integration” is a good default choice.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Add \u201chttps:\/\/web.ncsu.edu\/slate\/intake.php\u201d as the Request URL<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Retain \u201cPOST\u201d as the Request Method<\/code> and \u201cJSON\u201d as the Request Format<\/code>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
        \"ScreenshotSlate<\/span> integration settings\" class=\"wp-image-38069\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        Within the \u201cRequest Body\u201d section, choose \u201cSelect Fields\u201d to map your Gravity Form\u2019s data to the corresponding Slate<\/span> field using the appropriate fields listed above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        For each key you can either choose its value from one of the fields within your form or you can manually hard-code the value. When you manually hard-code a value it will be the same for everyone who submits the form. This makes sense for keys such as instance<\/code> or college<\/code> where you know that all form submissions will be from (for example) undergraduates and the College of Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        While some keys should always be mapped to the user input and other keys should always be hard-coded, some keys will vary based upon the strategic purpose of your form. For example, if the form is placed on a page for prospective computer science students to request more information, you can manually populate that key rather than having the prospective student select “Computer Science” from a dropdown. The context of the form indicates and ensures how the key should be populated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Many of these fields are important to help make sure that prospective students and their families do not receive duplicate or conflicting information. First name, last name, email, and date of birth are the most important fields for appropriate contact matching within Slate<\/span>. Data is transferred from Gravity Forms into Slate<\/span> once per day in the early morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"Screenshot<\/a>
        The instance<\/code> and college<\/code> keys are manually hard-coded in this example.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        You can now save the web hook settings, and you’re all done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Make sure your form is added to the relevant page(s) on your site. You can also submit test entries and email wordpress@help.ncsu.edu<\/a> to verify that your entries are being submitted to Slate<\/span> as intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        There are a few last items to consider to make sure your Gravity Form is ready to perform well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n