Exploring the integration of Gravity Forms, ChatGPT and WordPress

In recent weeks, I've dedicated some of my free time to exploring and experimenting with OpenAI's API, integrating it with plugins and other services on WordPress . My experience with WordPress stretches back further than I can remember, and I've always been a big fan of its value proposition: enabling quick website creation for those with little to no programming knowledge, long before buzzwords like "no-code" or "low-code" became mainstream.

In this context, integrating artificial intelligence with WordPress to transform the CMS into an even more powerful tool has always made perfect sense to me. After testing various plugins, I've established an interesting setup between ChatGPT and WordPress: combining the most powerful form plugin with the OpenAI API to generate personalized responses based on user submissions. Moreover, these responses can become new blog posts, enhancing SEO strategies.

To put this all to the test, I started with a simple yet motivating idea: travel itineraries. The goal was to create a personalized travel itinerary based on the provided destination, duration of the trip, time of year, and traveler's interests. Upon receiving the data, the prompt would return a blog post with all this information in an SEO-optimized article format.

Let's dive in:

The first step is the simplest: secure your own OpenAI API key. This account is different from a ChatGPT account. And you can click here to watch a tutorial on how to create your key. Also, having a ChatGPT subscription won't cut it; when creating your account, you'll need to purchase OpenAI credits, or your API key won't work. I recommend starting with $5. It's enough. We'll talk about the financials later.

I'll skip the WordPress part, assuming you know the basics of setting up a site on the platform. Moving on to plugins: in my case, I used the paid version of Gravity Forms and the free "Gravity Forms OpenAI" add-on by Gravity Wiz . Of all the options I tried, it was the best. Finally, I also installed the free "Gravity Forms Advanced Post Creation Add-On".

For the next step, let's create our form. In the exercise I set up, I created a small form about the visitor's travel preferences: they need to inform the destination (open field, can search any destination), select the time of year, how many days of travel, style of travel, and interests. Lastly, I included a hidden field for ChatGPT to deliver the response, i.e., the complete itinerary.

Before we create our first "feed" with the OpenAI API, we need to input our key in the add-on's settings. Once that's done, we have access in the form's menu to create the feed:

Now, this is where it gets fun: for the purpose I had in mind, I selected the "chat completions" endpoint. In short, it's the best way to get a response to a prompt using ChatGPT. The next step is choosing which model to use: I used gpt-4 in my tests. However, gpt-3.5-turbo-16k offers just as good a result for a lower cost. Speaking of costs, each query using gpt-4 costs around $0.05, while gpt-3.5-turbo-16k costs less than $0.01.

For the prompt, after testing various options, I arrived at one that minimized errors and returns a pleasing result for each travel itinerary:

I incorporated the users' form inputs into the prompt using Gravity's merge tags. This is where a wide array of options unfolds: we can craft a prompt from any user query or information, from travel itineraries to creating a "satisfaction thermometer" from a support channel message. The possibilities are endless.

To wrap up our "feed," we need to configure the "Map Result to Field" where ChatGPT will return the response. This field is the hidden field we created at the beginning of our form. Another setting that impacts our result is the "Timeout." The default value of 15 seconds isn't enough for more complex queries, like my travel itinerary, so I increased it to 120 seconds to avoid errors. In practice, the response is returned in about 30 seconds.

Now, with the prompt result configured, we set up the "Post creation" add-on so that a post is automatically published with the survey data and the hidden field from the form as its content.

I also set up a redirect after the form submission so the user is taken directly to the post article following their inquiry, allowing them immediate access to their personalized travel itinerary.

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