2

A Wordpress theme I have authored uses Custom Fields on posts.

There are about 5 or 6 custom fields to set when authoring a post, and my users have a hard time remembering what to enter for the name and value of the custom field. I've been using the name/value fields for many years so a lot of content is built up based on them.

I'm looking for a way to make the post creation / editing process easier for my users.

Is there built in functionality in Wordpress that I could use that would make existing custom fields not be a field where they have to manually enter the name, but instead a dropdown or select of the custom field that appears on the post being edited? Is this what meta boxes are for? Or is it better to use a plugin?

(I'm starting to get familiar with the Carbon Fields plugin for a different project, but I can see it's creating its own namespace for custom fields and I am not sure how I would use the plugin given I have existing fields on my site).

2 Answers 2

2

In general the answer is yes and the web is full of good tutorials that would do a better job than I can here.

1

Sadly the stock wordpress doesn't give much more help with custom fields.

I'd recommend using the advanced custom fields plugin. https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/

You can set the name when creating a field and match it to what you've been using and it should work retroactively on old posts and content as well.

1
  • thank you for the comment. I have been using advanced custom fields. The plugin introduced a bug such that the standard WYSIWYG editor that comes with Wordpress. With ACF in my Wordpress install, the visual WYSIWYG can be unusable unless the user toggels back and forth between the visual and text editor. This is what has led me to use Carbon Fields. Jul 20, 2016 at 9:10

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.