Set up a documentation hub with lead gating

  • documentation
  • hub
  • lead-gating
  • gravity-forms

Updated

To turn your downloads into leads, put your files on one library page and ask visitors to fill out a short form, usually their email address, before they can download. You can let visitors skip the form if you'd rather not make it required.

The steps below use the Dirigible Documentation plugin, plus Gravity Forms for the form. The library page is called a documentation hub: one page where visitors browse, filter, and download your files. Lead gating is optional and applies to Public docs.

Lead gating is separate from member-only access. Selected users docs never show the lead form. See Add downloadable docs and control who can see them.

Build the hub page

  1. Create or edit the page that will be your documentation hub.
  2. Insert a Section, then place a Documentation Explorer block inside it.
  3. Publish the page.
  4. Go to Appearance → Customize → Dirigible Documentation → Documentation.
  5. Set Documentation Base Page to that page.
  6. Click Publish.

Once Documentation Base Page is set, filtered views of the Explorer get their own links under your hub page, and each Doc page gets an ← All Documentation link back to it.

How do I ask for an email before a download?

Gating applies to all Public docs at once. You can't turn it on for just one Doc.

  1. In Gravity Forms, create the form visitors should fill out. An email field is typical.
  2. Go to Appearance → Customize → Dirigible Documentation → Gating.
  3. Turn on Enable Gating.
  4. Enter the Gravity Form ID. Enter 0 to remove the form, but turn Enable Gating off too: with gating on and the ID at 0, public docs show Locked with no form to fill out.
  5. Fill in Headline, Subeadline (spelled that way in the Customizer), and Body (HTML Allowed) if you want text above the form.
  6. To let visitors skip the form, turn on Enable Gate Bypass and set Bypass Text (default No thanks).
  7. Click Publish.

Visitors see the form over the doc preview. The download button shows Locked until they submit the form or click the bypass link.

Reset gating for everyone (optional)

If you change the form or what you ask for, you can make every visitor fill it out again. Click Dirigible in the admin menu, find Reset Documentation Gating, and click Reset. This also helps when you want to test the form yourself.

Tips

  • Add the Documentation Explorer to the hub page before setting it as the Documentation Base Page, so those links never land on an empty page.
  • Keep the Subeadline short. It sits right under the headline.
  • More on the gate and its settings: Lead gating in the Documentation plugin docs.