Require a form before download Pro

FileDeck’s own lead capture asks for a name and email. That is enough for many sites — but if you already run Gravity Forms, WPForms, Ninja Forms or Contact Form 7, you have a form that is already validated, already styled, and already wired into your CRM. This gates downloads behind that form instead.

FileDeck Pro — Documents → Settings → Downloads → Require a form.

Setting it up

1. Tick Require a form submission before any download.
2. Paste your form’s shortcode, exactly as you would put it on a page: [gravityform id="1" title="false"], [wpforms id="42"], [ninja_form id=3], [contact-form-7 id="99"].
3. Save.

Clicking any download now opens a dialog containing your form. Submit it and the download starts.

One submission unlocks downloads for an hour, so a reader who wants three documents fills the form once.

Why a shortcode rather than a form picker

Because it works with every form plugin, not four. Any plugin that produces a shortcode can be the gate, and the string is the one you already know how to produce.

The four named above open the gate automatically because FileDeck listens for their completion hooks. For anything else, point FileDeck at your plugin’s completion action:

add_filter( 'filedeck_formgate_hooks', function ( $hooks ) {
    $hooks[] = 'my_form_plugin_submission_complete';
    return $hooks;
} );

It is enforced on the server

The download endpoint refuses without a grant, so closing the dialog does not get you the file. Signed share links skip the gate — you created that link for a named recipient, so the grant was already made.

Every submission that opens the gate is recorded in the activity log as a formgate event.

What this is not

It gates the FileDeck download route. A document with no access restriction still has a directly shareable file URL, so anyone with that URL bypasses the form — the same honest caveat that applies to the terms gate and watermarking.

If the gate genuinely matters, pair it with an access restriction so the file is only ever served through FileDeck.

FAQ

Can I use it together with lead capture or the terms gate?

Yes, though you rarely want the form gate and lead capture at once — they ask for the same thing twice. The terms gate combines naturally: terms first, then your form.

Does the form still send its normal notifications and CRM entries?

Yes. FileDeck does not touch the submission — your form plugin processes it exactly as it would anywhere else. FileDeck only listens for "that finished".

Why does the dialog take a second to close after I submit?

FileDeck checks whether the gate has opened rather than hooking into each form plugin’s JavaScript, which keeps it working when a form plugin changes its internals. The check runs every second and a half.

Does it work with caching?

The grant is a cookie, so a page cache that ignores cookies for logged-out visitors will still serve the cached page — but the download route itself is never cached, so the gate holds.