Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) Pro is a powerful WordPress plugin that creates dynamic content. ACF allows you to create custom field groups and add fields to them, which can then be assigned to post types or custom post types (CPTs). The plugin boasts a user-friendly interface and solid performance, featuring over 30 field types, including relationship, repeater, and flexible content fields. ACF Pro is widely used and has numerous third-party extensions, making it a go-to solution for dynamic content. While ACF itself doesn’t create CPTs, it pairs well with the Custom Post Type UI plugin or CPT code generators to fulfill this need.
Traditionally, developers have used ACF to craft bespoke themes for small businesses, restaurants, and other niches. This often involved custom coding for theme single and archive template files, with ACF providing helper functions to simplify the process. Today, many template-building tools support ACF, allowing for easier creation of single and archive layouts without extensive coding. ACF’s free version is rich in features, but the ACF Pro enhances functionality with repeater fields, ACF Blocks creation using PHP, flexible content fields, and the ability to use ACF fields on admin options pages.
Despite its many strengths, ACF Pro has some limitations. It cannot create CPTs or handle front-end templating and conditional logic by itself, requiring additional tools or custom programming for these tasks.
Key Features of Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF):
-
Repeater Field: Easily create sets of sub-fields that can be repeated multiple times, effectively managing complex and custom data.
-
ACF Blocks: Develop custom block types using a powerful PHP-based framework that integrates deeply with custom fields, perfect for creating bespoke solutions within the WordPress block editor.
-
Flexible Content Field: Manage content layout dynamically by defining sub-field groups, which can be added, edited, and reordered to create highly customized content layouts.
-
Options Pages: Add extra admin pages to edit ACF fields, with data saved globally and accessible across the entire website, which is ideal for consistent header and footer data.
-
Gallery Field: Manage image collections with a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy to add, edit, and sort multiple images.
-
Clone Field: Reuse existing fields and field groups on demand, enhancing workflow efficiency with powerful settings for field management.
-
More AJAX: Speed up page loading with AJAX-powered search features used in more fields, improving overall performance.
-
Local JSON: Automatically export to JSON to improve speed and allow for easy synchronization of field settings.
-
Easy Import/Export: Simplify the transfer of field groups with an easy-to-use import and export tool.
-
Fresh UI and New Features: Enjoy a refreshed design and new features like the oEmbed field for embedding content, improved form validation with PHP and AJAX, and better customization options with new actions and filters
