Caldera Forms Transition Update, 23 June

Just a quick update here to let you all know how work is progressing on the Caldera Forms to Ninja Forms converter and answers to a few common questions we’ve seen over the last little bit!

Conversion Tool Beta 1 (form conversion) is being released soon to early contacts

As outlined in the May update post, we’re approaching this in two phases:

1. Phase 1: Form conversion
2. Phase 2: Entries conversion

Phase 1 is done and Beta 1 of the Conversion Tool is ready. We’ll be distributing soon to everyone who signed on as a first contact in the previous post.

First contacts, you’ll be receiving an email at the address provided in that form soon. We’re looking forward to your feedback, positive or negative, and will be using what you tell us to shape and improve the form conversion process before full launch (tentative eta mid-August to early September).

How the converter works

First and foremost, you will be able to use the converter at zero risk to your current forms. The Conversion Tool does not change or alter them in any way.

You’ll need Caldera Forms, the Caldera Forms Conversion Tool, and Ninja Forms plugins active. Each Caldera Forms form will have an option to convert. At the press of the button, that form will have a new Ninja Forms form generated for it. You can then review the new Ninja Forms form, tweak if needed, and replace the old form at your leisure.

Features in Conversion Tool Beta 1

The following will be converted:

• All fields with 3 exceptions (Gravatar, Color Picker, Button)
• All field settings
• All core processors (those not added by add-ons; these will come soon)
• All form settings
• Magic tags
• Calculations
• Layouts
• Steps (form pages)
• Logic (simple logic only for now, more advanced logic translation coming soon)

Note: if you are using logic, form steps, file uploads fields, or certain layout features of Caldera Forms, you’ll need a Ninja Forms add-on or membership for these features to convert fully. Please reach out to us and we will take care of these for you at a 75% discount for free Caldera Forms users and just 50 cents for existing customers).

What’s happening next

Conversion Tool Phase 2: Entries

Work is beginning soon on Phase 2 of the Conversion Tool. This will convert your entries into Ninja Forms submissions. As with the form conversion, we’re not going to be touching your entries. They will simply be made available in Ninja Forms. This way there is zero risk that you lose any of the data you depend on. We’re also balancing into this work conversion of the processors and fields associated with Caldera Forms add-ons.

If you’d like to be added to the list of first contacts once Phase 2 is ready for testing so that you can check things out early, sign up below!

Authorize.net and Stripe Elements

Authorize.net for Ninja Forms remains at about 95% finished, and we’re in very early stages still with Stripe Elements. In order to do the best work possible on the Conversion Tool, we pulled all of our devs into the same focus and put these add-ons on the back burner for the moment.

We will be meeting soon to discuss the complexity of Phase 2, and whether we believe we can balance both it and the add-ons in this upcoming project cycle.

At earliest, these will be available mid-August. At the latest, early November. Please stay tuned for updates. We want to get these out asap, but we also want to ensure that the work we do on the Conversion Tool is top notch, i.e. we don’t want to sacrifice quality for speed.

How do I get a discount on Ninja Forms Memberships and add-ons?

I’ve seen this question asked often, so I obviously did a pretty crappy job of communicating the “how” earlier. Sorry about that. Hopefully this clarifies!

For existing Caldera Forms core/free users (i.e. you use the base plugin only and not any of the memberships or add-ons), we’ll be discounting anything Ninja Forms that you need by 75% for the first year. If you do not use logic, steps, uploads, or certain layouts features, you won’t need to purchase anything. Ninja Forms core is also free. If you do, please reach out to us here. We’ll work with you to figure out just what you need at the lowest possible cost.

For existing Caldera Forms customers, please reach out to us here. We’ll work with you to determine what you need and discount your total down to 50 cents for the first year (this is the lowest possible value our payment processors will accept haha).

Any other questions we can help answer?

You can catch up on older transition news here and here. If you don’t spot your answer there, please feel free to ask here or reach out to us directly. I try to check out comments regularly, but don’t always nail that goal. In support we have someone monitoring the transition queue daily. Let us know what’s on your mind! 🙂