How to Connect Gravity Forms to TableCrafter in 5 Minutes

Updated June 2026 • 6 min read

If you have Gravity Forms collecting data and want to display those entries as a clean, searchable frontend table — without touching a line of code — TableCrafter gets you there in under five minutes. This guide walks every step from installation to a live table on your page.

What You Need Before You Start

Before you begin, confirm you have the following in place:

• WordPress 6.0 or later
• Gravity Forms 2.6 or later (any license tier)
• At least one active Gravity Form with submitted entries
• TableCrafter installed and activated

TableCrafter does not require WooCommerce, ACF, or any third-party dependency beyond Gravity Forms for this integration. If Gravity Forms is not yet active when you activate TableCrafter, the plugin will display an admin notice and the Gravity Forms source option will be grayed out in the table builder until the dependency is met.

Step 1: Install and Activate TableCrafter

Navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin in your WordPress admin. Search for "TableCrafter" and click Install Now, then Activate. If you purchased a Pro license, upload the zip file via Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin instead.

After activation, a new TableCrafter menu item appears in the left admin sidebar. Click it to open the plugin dashboard. You will see an empty table list and a prominent Create New Table button at the top right.

Step 2: Create a New Table Configuration

Click Create New Table. The table builder opens to a two-panel layout: a settings panel on the left and a live preview panel on the right. The preview starts empty and populates as you configure each section.

In the Table Name field at the top, enter a descriptive internal label such as "Contact Form Submissions" or "Job Applications — Q2 2026". This name appears only in the admin and is never shown on the frontend.

Step 3: Select Gravity Forms as the Data Source

Scroll to the Data Source section. You will see a row of source icons: Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, REST API, Airtable, Google Sheets, and others. Click the Gravity Forms icon. It highlights with a blue border to confirm your selection.

A dropdown labeled Select Form immediately appears below. This dropdown is populated with every active Gravity Form on your site. Select the form whose entries you want to display. The moment you select a form, the Available Fields panel on the right populates with every field in that form — field label, field type, and field ID are shown side by side.

Step 4: Drag Columns into the Table

The Column Builder appears below the form selector. On the left side you see all available fields as draggable cards. On the right side is an empty column zone labeled "Drag fields here to add columns."

Drag the fields you want to display, in the order you want them to appear left to right. A typical starting configuration for a contact form might be:

1. Entry ID (auto-included by default as the first column)
2. First Name
3. Last Name
4. Email
5. Date Submitted

Each column card has three controls once it lands in the column zone: a Label text field (pre-filled from the GF field label, fully editable), a Width field (leave blank for auto), and a Visibility toggle. You can drag columns to reorder them at any time, and drag them back to the left panel to remove them.

The live preview panel on the right updates after each drag. It shows a sample table with placeholder rows so you can confirm the column order and labels look right before saving.

Step 5: Configure Basic Options

Scroll to the Table Options section. At minimum, review these four settings:

• Rows per page: Default is 20. Set to 10 for dense data or 50 for admin review tables.
• Search bar: Toggle on if you want a live search field above the table.
• Pagination: On by default. Disable only for tables with fewer than 30 expected entries.
• Sort on columns: Click any column card and enable the "Sortable" checkbox to allow frontend sorting on that column.

Leave Edit Mode and Export off for now — those are separate workflows covered in their own guides. Click Save Table at the top right. The configuration saves and the builder displays a green confirmation banner.

Step 6: Copy the Shortcode

After saving, the builder displays the shortcode for this table directly below the table name:

[tablecrafter id="1"]

The id value is the internal TableCrafter table configuration ID, not the Gravity Forms form ID. Copy this shortcode. If you need the full shortcode with optional parameters enabled, the builder shows an expanded version:

[tablecrafter id="1" search="true" filter="true"]

Step 7: Place the Shortcode on a Page

Navigate to Pages > Add New Page (or open an existing page). In the block editor, add a Shortcode block — search for "shortcode" in the block inserter. Paste your shortcode into the block. Click Preview or Publish to see the live result.

If you use Elementor, add a Shortcode widget to any section and paste the code there. The table renders in the Elementor preview panel without needing to leave the builder.

Troubleshooting: Common First-Run Issues

Table shows "No entries found"

This almost always means the form has zero approved entries. Go to Forms > Entries, select your form, and confirm entries exist and are not in the Trash or Spam filter.

Columns show field IDs instead of values

This happens when a multi-input field (Name, Address, Checkbox) is added as a top-level column. See the field mapping guide for how to split these into sub-columns.

Table layout breaks on my theme

TableCrafter outputs a standard <table> element. If your theme's CSS applies aggressive global table styles, add .tc-table { all: revert; } to your child theme's stylesheet as a starting point, then re-apply only the styles you want.

Next Steps

You now have a live, paginated Gravity Forms data table on your WordPress frontend. From here, the natural next steps are mapping complex field types (Name, Address, Checkboxes) covered in the field mapping guide, enabling per-user entry filtering for member portals, or turning on inline editing so users can update entries without going to wp-admin. Each of those workflows builds on exactly the table configuration you just created.