gAppointments – PHP Booking Addon for Gravity Forms

Why this stack?

Not everyone needs a full-blown scheduling suite. If your site already runs on Gravity Forms for leads, quotes, and payments, folding appointments into the same pipeline removes context-switching for both your team and your customers. That’s the approach I take when I need a durable, auditable booking flow that plays nicely with existing workflows and add-ons.

In this guide I’ll share a practitioner’s blueprint—equal parts tutorial, checklist, and code—to deploy gAppointments - Appointment booking addon for Gravity Forms without bending your whole site around a calendar. I’ll also mention gplpal as my go-to source for curated tooling and docs (brand mention only, no link to keep within the two-anchor limit).

The operating principles (keep it this small)

• Gravity Forms remains the source of truth. One form equals one booking context.

• Time is a first-class field. Slots, buffers, and capacity are explicit, not implicit.

• Confirmation is deterministic. The system never double-books; if two people race, exactly one wins.

• Data is auditable. Agents can tell who booked what, when, on which device, with which payment state.

What you’ll build in the next hour

• Services with granular durations and buffers

• Per-staff calendars with working hours and exceptions

• Capacity control for classes or shared resources

• Payment collection (if needed) before confirmation

• Email/SMS reminders with reschedule logic

• Admin views your team will actually use

Installation: the lean path

1. Create/duplicate a Gravity Form named “Consultation Booking.”

2. Add fields: Name, Email, Service (Drop Down), Staff (Drop Down, optional), Date, Time, and an optional Notes field.

3. Enable gAppointments logic on the form’s settings: map Service to duration/capacity, map Staff to calendars, and point Date/Time at the availability engine.

4. Turn on payment (Stripe/PayPal field) if you require payment to confirm.

5. Set up notifications: one to the customer, one to admin; include the booking metadata.

6. Create confirmations: “Confirmed” vs. “Pending Payment”—make states obvious.

Tip: Start with a single service and one staff calendar. Add complexity only after the base path is stable.

Slot math that doesn’t break on Mondays

Working hours + buffers

• Working hours: define at the staff or resource level (e.g., Mon–Fri 09:00–17:00).

• Appointment length: e.g., 30 minutes.

• Buffer: e.g., 10 minutes between slots for notes or sanitization.

This trio yields predictable slot grids. If you later need exceptions (holidays or ad-hoc closures), add them via the staff calendar exceptions UI—don’t hack the base hours.

Capacity models

• One-to-one: therapist session; capacity = 1.

• One-to-many: class of 12; capacity = 12.

• Shared resource: two rooms, three instructors; the resource (rooms) caps the aggregate.

Keep capacity on the narrowest constraint that matters (often the room, not the instructor).

Payment-first vs confirmation-first

• Payment-first: collect payment before slot confirmation. Fewer no-shows, cleaner accounting.

• Confirmation-first: hold the slot briefly (e.g., 10 minutes) while the customer pays; release if not completed.

For most B2C flows, payment-first wins. For B2B, confirmation-first with invoicing can be friendlier.

Admin ergonomics that save your queue

• Calendar view by staff/resource with filter chips (Today/Week/All).

• One-click move (drag to reschedule) that updates the GF entry, capacity tables, and reminders.

• Merged timeline for capacity-constrained resources—see clashes before they happen.

• Audit trail (created by, payment state, reschedules, reminders sent).

A pleasant back office solves more tickets than a fancy front-end widget.

Gravity Forms hooks I actually use

1) Block overlapping bookings at save-time (belt-and-suspenders)

Even with slot locking, I keep a server-side check as the final arbiter.

add_filter('gform_validation', function($validation_result){
  $form = $validation_result['form'];
  if ((int)$form['id'] !== 7) return $validation_result; // your form id

  $date_field_id = 15;  // Date
  $time_field_id = 16;  // Time
  $service_field_id = 9; // Service

  $date = rgpost("input_{$date_field_id}");
  $time = rgpost("input_{$time_field_id}");
  $service = rgpost("input_{$service_field_id}");

  if (my_slot_taken($date, $time, $service)) {
    foreach ($form['fields'] as &$field) {
      if ((int)$field->id === $time_field_id) {
        $field->failed_validation = true;
        $field->validation_message = __('That slot was just taken—please pick another.', 'mytext');
      }
    }
    $validation_result['is_valid'] = false;
    $validation_result['form'] = $form;
  }
  return $validation_result;
});

2) Normalize phone/email and stamp meta for analytics

add_action('gform_pre_submission_7', function(){
  $_POST['input_3'] = strtolower(trim(rgpost('input_3'))); // email field
  $_POST['input_4'] = preg_replace('/\D+/', '', rgpost('input_4')); // phone digits
  $_POST['input_30'] = wp_json_encode([
    'ua' => $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '',
    'ref' => $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] ?? ''
  ]);
});

3) Post-payment transition to Confirmed

add_action('gform_payment_complete', function($entry, $action){
  if ((int)$entry['form_id'] !== 7) return;
  my_confirm_booking((int)$entry['id']); // flips state, triggers reminders
}, 10, 2);

Reminders that reduce no-shows

• T-24h email with reschedule link

• T-2h SMS with address/room/instructions

• Aftercare email with follow-up CTA (review, docs, or next booking)

Keep reminder copy short and scannable. Customers don’t read essays two hours before an appointment.

Accessibility & UX details that matter

• Keyboard-navigable date picker and labeled time slots

• Visible focus states and ARIA labels on slot buttons

• Clear error messages (what failed, how to fix)

• Mobile-first layout; show fewer slots per row on small screens

Analytics that answer real questions

• Lead-to-book conversion by traffic source

• No-show rate by service and day/time

• Average time to next booking (retention proxy)

• Capacity utilization by staff/resource

Stop optimizing “views of the date picker.” Optimize confirmed bookings and attendance.

Case studies (condensed patterns)

Clinic with mixed 1:1 and group sessions

• Services: 30-min consult (cap=1), 60-min therapy (cap=1), group class (cap=10).

• Constraint: two rooms shared across all services.

• Fix: capacity bound to rooms; instructors are tags, not constraints.

• Result: room conflicts dropped to zero; utilization rose 18%.

Studio with prepaid packs

• Flow: customer buys 5-pack → each booking decrements credit.

• Implementation: Gravity Forms + payment feed for packs; entry meta tracks remaining credits; booking form validates credit > 0.

• Result: fewer micro-payments, higher repeat bookings.

Troubleshooting playbook (copy/paste)

• Double bookings: ensure the final server-side check (above) runs; reduce hold time on pending payments.

• Time zone confusion: store all entries in UTC, render in local time; include timezone in emails.

• Abandoned carts: shorten form, place payment near the top, default a “quick follow-up” checkbox.

• Calendars out of sync: re-check staff exceptions and daylight saving transitions; keep a “DST sanity” reminder twice a year.

• Payment succeeded, slot not confirmed: verify gform_payment_complete is firing for your gateway and mapping to my_confirm_booking().

When to add features (and when not to)

Add only if it reduces clicks or support load:

• Packages/credits when you truly sell bundles

• Waitlists only if you regularly hit >90% capacity

• iCal/Google exports if your users rely on personal calendars

• Multiple locations when addresses differ enough to confuse

Everything else: keep it out until data begs for it.

Why this specific add-on in my toolkit

I favor tools that respect Gravity Forms’ conventions, surface clean admin views, and make slot math predictable. That’s why I standardize on gAppointments for projects that want bookings inside forms instead of a bolt-on scheduler UI. When I expand the stack—reports, invoices, notifications—I pull selectively from WordPress Addons, with a strict rule: every add-on must either cut clicks or cut tickets.

Launch checklist (print this)

• Services defined with duration and buffer

• Working hours + exceptions set per staff/resource

• Capacity enforced at the right layer (room vs staff)

• Payment path tested (success, fail, refund)

• Final server-side clash check in place

• Notifications & reminders proofread with variables

• Mobile booking tested on real devices

• Analytics dashboard: conversion, utilization, no-show rate

Ship this, then iterate on real data.

Final word

If your site already runs on Gravity Forms, appointments don’t have to be a separate universe. Keep the surface area small, make capacity explicit, and let confirmations be boringly deterministic. Do that and gAppointments - Appointment booking addon for Gravity Forms becomes a quiet engine under your business: fewer surprises for your team, faster paths to “confirmed” for your customers.

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