--- title: Key Terms and How a Series Works description: "Most confusion with this plugin comes from one of four places: mixing up a *feed* with a *series*, expecting a backlog that doesn't exist, expecting a feed edit to change running schedules, or expecting \"start\" to mean \"submit\". This page…" url: "https://brightleafdigital.io/docs/key-terms-and-how-a-series-works/" updated: "2026-10-18" category: Recurring Form Submissions for Gravity Forms / Getting Started --- # Key Terms and How a Series Works Most confusion with this plugin comes from one of four places: mixing up a *feed* with a *series*, expecting a backlog that doesn't exist, expecting a feed edit to change running schedules, or expecting "start" to mean "submit". This page settles all four. --- ## The Glossary | Term | Definition | | --- | --- | | **Feed** | A configuration saved on a form. It answers "how often, when, and until when." A feed is a **template**. | | **Parent entry** | A real entry someone submitted. It supplies the values that get repeated. | | **Series** | One parent entry + one feed, actually running. A series is an **instance**. | | **Occurrence** | One point in time when the series should submit. | | **Attempt** | One actual run — successful, failed or skipped — with timestamps and an outcome. | | **Child entry** | The new entry created by a successful attempt. | | **Target** | The exact moment the next occurrence is due, stored with its timezone. | | **Worker** | The background check that looks for due targets, every 15 minutes by default. | | **Heartbeat** | The timestamp of the last completed worker check — proof WordPress really ran it. | | **Issue** | An active problem on a series, opened by the first failure and closed by a success. | --- ## One Feed, Many Series A feed does not run. A **series** runs. ``` Form "Monthly Inspection" └── Feed "Monthly check-in" (repeat every 1 month, 09:00) ├── Series for entry #101 → next run Oct 1, 09:00 ├── Series for entry #118 → next run Oct 14, 09:00 └── Series for entry #140 → next run Oct 22, 09:00 ``` Each series was created when its parent entry was submitted, and each carries **its own copy** of the schedule. That is why: - Three series from one feed can legitimately have three different next dates. - Editing the feed changes what *future* series get — not these three. - Changing these three is a separate, deliberate action (see *Change the Schedule for Existing Series*). If the form has two active recurring feeds, one parent entry gets **two independent series** with their own cards, statuses and controls. --- ## A Series Holds One Target, Not a Queue This is the single most important behaviour to internalise. A series stores **one** next target. It does not build a list of pending occurrences. **What that means in practice:** - If your site is offline for five days, a daily series does **not** owe you five submissions. - On recovery it runs **one** overdue occurrence (or none, if the feed is set to skip) and then continues at its next future time. - Successful counts and end dates behave accordingly — an outage never inflates them. There is no setting that replays an outage. This is a design decision, not a limitation to work around; see *Missed Runs and Downtime*. --- ## The Life of One Occurrence 1. **Due** — the target time passes. 2. **Claimed** — the next worker pass takes exclusive ownership of the series so nothing else can submit it. 3. **Prepared** — values are assembled, either from the snapshot or freshly from the parent entry. 4. **Checked** — optional conditional logic decides whether this occurrence should submit at all. 5. **Submitted** — Gravity Forms validates and saves a child entry, firing notifications, feeds and workflows. 6. **Recorded** — the attempt, its outcome, its lateness and the child entry ID are stored, and a note is added to the parent entry. 7. **Rescheduled** — the next target is calculated, or the series completes. Every one of those steps is visible in **View attempt history**. --- ## Success, Failure and Skip Are Three Different Things | Outcome | Child entry created? | Counts toward the limit? | Counts toward the failure threshold? | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Success** | Yes | Yes | No — it resets the count | | **Failure** | No | No | Yes | | **Conditional skip** | No | No | No | | **Skipped missed run** | No | No | No | A skip is not a failure. A series that skips every occurrence because its conditional logic never passes will keep running quietly forever — it will not trip the failure threshold. --- ## Start, Run, Retry, Resume Four verbs, four different meanings. | Action | Submits now? | Effect on the schedule | | --- | --- | --- | | **Start Series From Now** | No | Creates a schedule; the first occurrence is in the future. | | **Run Next Submission Now** | Yes | Consumes the next slot; the underlying rhythm is preserved. | | **Retry Failed Submission** | Yes | Re-runs the failed target. A success clears the issue. | | **Resume** | No | Reopens a paused or stopped series at its next eligible future slot. | Manual actions always submit, however late the target is — the missed-run setting never applies to a button you pressed.