How to install your premium Gravity PDF extension

You've purchased a premium extension/plugin through the online store. The next step is to install it on your website.

info

Before you begin, ensure you have Gravity Forms and Gravity PDF plugins installed and activated on your WordPress website.

Install Steps

Once you've completed your purchase you'll receive an email containing a link to your plugin zip file. The email also contains your product key which will give you access to support and one-click updates: keep it safe!

note

If your browser auto-extracts zip files when downloaded, you'll need to temporarily disable this functionality to prevent issues during installation. See how to disable this in Safari.

1. Open the Shop Receipt email you received and locate the Your download(s) section. Click the link to download the plugin zip package.

   

2. Navigate to the Plugins -> Add Plugin page in your WordPress admin area and select the Upload Plugin button. An upload box will appear.

3. Drag and drop the plugin zip file over the upload setting, or click the Browse button and choose the zip file.

   

4. Select the Install Now button and wait for the upload to complete.

5. Once installed, select the Activate Plugin link.

6. To enable one-click updates, locate the newly-installed plugin in the plugins list and follow the "Register your copy of PLUGIN_NAME" link.

7. On the page that loads, enter your license key (found in your Receipt email or in your GravityPDF.com account) and save. A success or error message will be displayed next to the license key to signify how the registration went. See common license activation errors and how to fix.

   

8. Jump on over to the documentation for your specific extension to finish setting up the plugin.

One Click Updates

Extensions will periodically check GravityPDF.com for updates. If there is a new version and your license has been registered, you can one-click update the software on the Dashboard Updates Screen or the Plugins page.

Register the License Key in Code

Instead of using the admin area, you can define your license key(s) with the GPDF_LICENSE_KEY constant in wp-config.php (above the /* That's all, stop editing! */ line). This feature was added to Gravity PDF 6.16.0.

If a license includes multiple products, or you are only using one paid product, you can enter it as a string:

define( 'GPDF_LICENSE_KEY', 'jZ9FQiX9xHoKaRgV4ZmqniqnrDT6PesD' );

The license will get applied to all installed Gravity PDF extensions, and these extensions are auto-activated the next time you visit the WordPress admin area.

If you purchased extensions individually use an array keyed by the extension slug. A wildcard * key is also supported and will be used for any installed extensions not explicit listed in the array:

define( 'GPDF_LICENSE_KEY', [
	'gravity-pdf-core-booster' => 'DFoDzNAKuFjvWtDTuLBEAJJnjcG9j2iW',
	'gravity-pdf-previewer'    => 'apvfZLp3udnWif8MDYg9VN4TnbrPLLtb',
	'*'                        => 'jZ9FQiX9xHoKaRgV4ZmqniqnrDT6PesD',
] );

The slug matches the extension's plugin folder name, and is the same value used in the Composer {slug}@{license} syntax.

When a key is set this way, the matching field on the License settings page becomes read-only and its Deactivate License button is hidden. Remove the constant from wp-config.php to go back to managing the key in the admin area.

Licensing on Multisite

Network Activated

When Gravity PDF is network-activated the primary site owns licensing for the whole network:

• License checks with GravityPDF.com are only run by the primary site
• The Forms -> Settings -> PDF -> License admin page is only shown on the primary site
• A license key set in code is only activated by the primary site.

Activated Per-Site

When Gravity PDF is activated on individual sites (not network activated), each site manages its own license key on its own License settings page. To avoid every site making the same request to GravityPDF.com, update information is cached and shared at the network level.

Install and Update Extensions with Composer

For developers, you can use Composer to install and update Gravity PDF extensions. Basic HTTP authentication is used with a Site URL (username) and license key (password) to verify extensions are only installed by customers with active license keys.

Before you begin you need to locate your license key(s). This can be found in your Purchase Receipt email, or from your GravityPDF.com account. Got them? Great. Let's go:

1. Create an auth.json file in the same directory as your composer.json file.
2. Open auth.json and copy/paste the following :

{
  "http-basic": {
    "composer.gravitypdf.com": {
      "username": "https://{WORDPRESS_HOME_URL}",
      "password": "{LICENSE_KEY}"
    }
  }
}

3. Replace {WORDPRESS_HOME_URL} with your site's domain name (e.g. example.com) and {LICENSE_KEY} with your 32-character key.

note

If a license includes multiple products, the single license allows you to install these products with Composer.

If you have multiple license keys use the alternate syntax {slug1}@{license1}, {slug2}@{license2} in the password field:

{
  "http-basic": {
    "composer.gravitypdf.com": {
      "username": "https://example.com",
      "password": "gravity-pdf-core-booster@NpMmzRwVpkudnXQRfuEdk7wEi2W88Fz6, gravity-pdf-previewer@6NZMdPGmwUTgzfUh6qmfVgGp4kZA7jQ4"
    }
  }
}

You can repeat the {slug}@{license} syntax as many times as needed, separating each entry with a comma (,).

4. Save and close auth.json once you've added your credentials
5. Open your composer.json file and add the Gravity PDF repository:

  "repositories": [
    {
      "type": "composer",
      "url": "https://composer.gravitypdf.com",
      "only": [
        "gravitypdf/*"
      ]
    }
  ]

6. From your CLI, add the Gravity PDF extensions you want installed with these commands:

composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-bulk-generator
composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-core-booster
composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-enhanced-download
composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-previewer
composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-reports-for-gfchart
composer require gravitypdf/gravity-pdf-watermark
composer require gravitypdf/pdf-for-gravityview

7. If the CLI prompts you about the composer/installers package choose yes (y). The package ensures Gravity PDF packages are automatically installed to /wp-content/plugins/, and not the /vendor/ directory.

Troubleshooting Composer

Invalid credentials (HTTP 401) for 'https://composer.gravitypdf.com/gravity-pdf-bulk-generator-3.0.0.zip', aborting.

A 401 authentication error can occur for a number of reasons, but Composer only shows the HTTP status code when an error occurs. To get a better understanding of why a download failed you can make a cURL request from the CLI:

# Replace the username and password with the values in your auth.json file
curl --user "https://example.com:NpMmzRwVpkudnXQRfuEdk7wEi2W88Fz6" https://composer.gravitypdf.com/gravity-pdf-bulk-generator-3.0.0.zip

The API will respond with license key is: {status}. Refer to the common license activation errors and how to fix them.