Google Sheets Integration for Caldera Forms Plugin

Development Has Been Seized

Due to Caldera Forms being sunset/retired on December 31, 2021 development of this pluging has been seized too.

You are welcome to continue using the plugin “as is”. However please expect the plugin to stop functioning on October 3, 2022 (because it uses out-of-band OAuth flow that will be deprecated by Google by that date).

I have personally migrated all my forms to Contact Form 7 plugin with the following extensions:

• Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7
• Contact Form 7 Modules
• Contact Form 7 Database Addon – CFDB7
• ReCaptcha v2 for Contact Form 7

And created a plugin for integration with Google Sheets:

• Integration with Google Sheets for Contact Form 7)

Overview

This plugin provides integration between Caldera Forms and Google Sheets.
It adds new processor to Caldera Forms that enables sending of submitted forms to Google Sheets.

Upgrade Instructions

Version 2.x of the plugin introduced some non-backward compatible changes. Follow the below instructions if you are upgrading from plugin version 1.x to 2.x.

Version 1.x of the plugin used Google Sheets API v3 that is shut down by Google.
Version 2.x of the plugin switched to the latest Google Sheets API v4.

Due to this change you MUST do the following after upgrading from version 1.x to 2.x:

• generate your own OAuth2 credentials (if you didn’t do that before) and enter them in plugin Settings screen
• re-connect plugin to Google Sheets by going to plugin Settings screen, clicking “Get Code”, going through the Google authorization pages, copy/pasting the generated Access Code and clicking “Save”
• in all your Caldera Forms that use Google Sheets processor, update processor configuration to use Sheet ID (instead of Sheet Name); Sheet ID may be retrieved from your Sheet’s URL – e.g. for URL https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/abc123456/edit#gid=0 the Sheet ID is “abc123456”

Connecting the Plugin to Google Sheets

After installing the plugin you must connect it to Google Sheets as described below.

Generating OAuth2 credentials

The simplest way to generate OAuth2 credentials is as follows:

• Open the Google Sheets API PHP Quickstart page
• Click Enable the Google Sheets API button in Step 1
• If asked, enter project name and confirm that your use of Google APIs is in compliance with Tems of Service
• On the page that appears, your OAuth2 “client ID” and “client secret” are displayed. Leave this page open, so that you can copy/paste values from it to the plugin configuration. Alternatively, copy the values to some clipboard.

If the above method doesn’t work for you, use the following procedure to generate OAuth2 credentials manually. Refer to screencast for visual assistance.

• Open the Google API Library
• Click Select a project, then NEW PROJECT, enter a name for the project – e.g. “CalderaFormsGoogleSheets” – and click Create.
• Make sure that created project is selected.
• Search for “sheets” and click on Google Sheets API. Click ENABLE.
• Open the Google API Console Credentials page
• On the OAuth consent screen:
  • For User Type select External and click CREATE
  • For Application Name enter “Google Sheets Integration for Caldera Forms”
  • For Scopes for Google APIs click Add Scope, select ../auth/spreadsheets scope and click ADD
  • Click Save
• On the Credentials screen, select Create credentials, then OAuth client ID
  • For Application type select Desktop app
  • For Name enter “Google Sheets Integration for Caldera Forms”
  • Click Create
• On the page that appears, your OAuth2 “client ID” and “client secret” are displayed. Leave this page open, so that you can copy/paste values from it to the plugin configuration. Alternatively, copy the values to some clipboard.

Authorizing plugin acess to Google Sheets

After generating OAuth2 credentials, use the following procedure to authorize plugin access to Google Sheets. Refer to screencast for visual assistance.

• Open a new page and go to plugin Settings screen (or to Admin Panel > Caldera Forms > Google Sheets screen)
• For Google OAuth2 Client ID paste “client ID” from Google OAuth2 Credentials page
• For Google OAuth2 Secret paste “client secret” from Google OAuth2 Credentials page
• Click Get Code button – you will be redirected to Google Sheets authorization page
• You will see This app isn’t verified screen – this is OK, because you are authenticating your own site
  • Click Advanced and then click Go to Google Sheets Integration for Caldera Forms (unsafe)
• In the Grant Google Sheets Integration for Caldera Forms permission screen click Allow
• In the Confirm your choices screen click Allow
• Copy generated “access code” to the clipboard
• Paste “access code” into the Google Access Code in plugin Settings screen
• Click Save

Using the Plugin

After successfully connecting the plugin to Google Sheets, do the following to configure your Caldera Form to send data to Google Sheets on form submission. Refer to screencast for visual assistance.

In Google Sheets

• Create a new Google Sheet
• Determine Sheet ID from the sheet’s URL – for example, in URL https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/abc123456/edit#gid=0 the Sheet ID is “abc123456”
• Name the tab where you want to capture the data with some simple name that doesn’t include space and/or special characters – e.g. “Sheet1” or “InputData”

If you wish to record all of your Caldera Form fields, proceed to the next step and enable “Automatically generate header” option in processor settings.

If you wish to record only selected fields create custom spreadsheet header in the first row as follows:

• Enter “id” in the the first column
• Enter “date” in the the second column
• Enter slug names of your Caldera Form fields (that you want to record) in the following columns

In Caldera Forms

• Add Google Sheets processor to your form
• Configure the Sheet ID and Tab name
• It is recommended to enable “Automatically generate header” checkbox, unless you created custom spreadsheet header in the previous step
• Click “Save Form” to save processor settings
• Submit a test form and verify that the data shows up in your Google Sheet

Automatic Header Generation

When “automatic header generation” is enabled, the plugin verifies spreadsheet header on each new form submission and adds new fields to it if needed. Note that it never deletes fields from the header – as this would also delete some submission data – though you can do it manually. You may also manually reorder columns as you wish.

Slug Names

• Your slug names should contain only the following characters:
  • english letters “[A-Za-z]”
  • digits “[0-9]”
  • dash “-“
  • underscore “_”
• If your slug names contain capital letters, replace them with lowercase letters in Google Sheet header – e.g. for “SURNAME” slug use “surname” header
• If your slug names contain underscores, replace them with dashes in Google Sheet header – e.g. for “name_english” slug use “name-english” header

Acknowledgements

The initial version of the plugin was based on CF7 Google Sheets Connector

1. Upload “cf-google-sheets” to the “/wp-content/plugins/” directory
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress

1. 

   Connecting plugin to Google Sheets

2. 

   Adding Google Sheets processor in Caldera Forms

2.5

• Fix shift in added rows that sometimes happened

2.4

• Update dependencies to prevent incompatibility with other plugins

2.3

• Fix format of non-string fields

2.2

• Fix submission into empty Sheet

2.1

• Switch to Google Sheets API v4
• Use “Sheet ID” in preprocessor configuration instead of “Sheet Name”

2.0

• Bad SVN checkin – don’t use this version

1.8

• Bug fixes

1.7

• New plugin activation scheme using private OAuth2 credentials

1.6

• Update tested WordPress version

1.5

• Prevent fatal error when Caldera Forms is removed

1.4

• Added support for automatic spreadsheet header generation

1.3

• Added support for “id” column that records entry id

1.2

• Refactor Google PHP API lib to prevent “clash” with other plugins

1.1

• Bug fixes

1.0

• Initial version