Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields

This add-on for Broadcast allows for ACF custom fields to be correctly handled when broadcasting posts between blogs.

If you’re using fields from Elliot Condon’s Advanced Custom Fields plugin, you will find that certain fields require extra handling: images, relations, repeater fields, etc. The Broadcast ACF plugin will detect that ACF is being used and automatically fix the respective fields in the child posts when broadcasting.

The custom field types supported – in addition to the normal text areas that don’t need any processing – are:

  • conditional galleries (see notes)
  • files
  • focus point
  • galleries
  • images
  • image_aspect_ratio_crop
  • Image Crop Add-on
  • post objects
  • relationships
  • taxonomies

The above fields are also supported in:

  • clone fields
  • component fields
  • flexible fields
  • group fields 5
  • repeater fields

The above field types are also supported in taxonomies 5.

5 ACF Pro only

The add-on does not handle ACF Gutenberg Blocks. Instead, you’ll have to use the various Gutenberg add-ons: Attachments, Posts, Terms.

The add-on can also broadcast ACF Options Pages using the Admin > Broadcast > ACF menu.

Screenshots

Notes

Broadcasting field groups

The requirement for correct field handling is that the ACF Field Group from the parent blog is broadcasted to the child blog first, so that it is duplicated with the exact name field names and keys. You cannot create a field group on the child manually because, although the field names will be correct, the unique keys will not match those found in the posts.

Linking field groups to child blogs will ensure that the fields of the child blogs are updated when the parent is updated.

Conditional Galleries

There is support for broadcasting conditional galleries, with both local and global images (with support from the Enhanced Media Library plugin) but as of v1.0.1 requires the file acf-conditional_gallery-v5.php be patched:

Line 299 containing the text $this->checkMultiples($_POST, $post_id); needs to be commented out, otherwise all conditional gallery fields are removed during broadcast.

Gutenberg blocks

This add-on does not handle ACF blocks in the Gutenberg editor. Instead, look at the various Gutenberg add-ons: Attachments, Posts and Terms.

Options pages

The page options that ACF Pro creates can be broadcasted. Be careful how you set them up, else Broadcast will transmit the data from other options pages other than just those selected. Instead of

acf_add_options_page([
    'page_title' => 'Location Services',
    'menu_title' => 'Location Services',
    'menu_slug' => 'location-services',
    'post_id' => 'option-location-services'
]);

do this

acf_add_options_sub_page(array(
    'page_title' 	=> 'Location Services',
    'menu_title'	=> 'Location Services',
    'parent_slug'	=> 'theme-general-settings',
));

Post object / relationship duplicates

When using post object / relationships the ACF Broadcast plugin will first check that the related posts are broadcasted to the child blog.

If not, the posts are broadcasted and then linked. This will create a duplicate if the related post has not been previously broadcasted.

Use the find unlinked children bulk action to first link the related posts with their child posts on the child blogs before editing the main post, in which the relationship is specified.

Tested with

Version 4.4.3 of ACF and 5.8.4 of ACF Pro.

Where to buy

This add-on is a part of the following packs:

Comments

  1. Hello
    We bought your premium package and we have a bug that we found. i hope you can help us with it.
    When creating a repeater field in ACF and in this repeater we have a gallery field or and image field the Broadcast plugin don’t grabe the images into the other child posts. All the other text and content fields are ok.
    thanks
    Reply

    1. I see you’ve gotten a hold of me via e-mail. We’ll solve your problem there.

  2. Hello,

    We are using ACF Options pages (items are stored in the wp_options table) for some content that needs to be broadcast to children blogs. Is there a way to use your plugin to broadcast those settings?

    Reply

    1. It sounds like “acf options” is a special plugin. If you e-mail me and provide me with the plugin, screenshots of how you’ve set up your ACF field group and some instructions on what you need to do, then I can take a look at it and see what can be done.

    2. Hello!
      I am also interested in this issue. The answer was found?

    3. Nope. If you send me the ACF options plugin via e-mail I can see about getting something done about it.

  3. How can I purchase the Advanced Custom Fields add-on for Broadcast plugin individually? I only need this add-on and not any other add-ons for my site.

    Thanks,
    Ashish

    Reply

    1. The add-ons are not sold individually, unfortunately. Your closest bet would be the 3rd party pack.

  4. Hi, I’m having an issue broadcasting gallery images to multiple blogs. Here’s the scenario:

    Primary Blog 1 broadcasted to Blog 2 – Gallery images are sent through and display fine. No problems here.

    Primary Blog 1 broadcasted to Blogs 3 & 4 – Gallery images are sent through to the post type, however they don’t display on the website. I have to manually go into the post and click update, then they display.

    The post type and ACF fields are set up the same on each blog.

    Is there something that would limit gallery images to display on only one blog?

    Cheers,
    Klaye

    Reply

    1. My semi-educated guess is that’s it a PHP timeout. Does the gallery have a ton of images that take a while to get broadcasted to each blog, perhaps?

    2. Thanks Edward, I tried increasing this, but it has no effect.

      Even if I broadcast only to blog 3 or 4, the problem still exists. The images are sent through to the post type, however they don’t display on the website until I manually update the child post.

      What’s interesting also, is that the foreach loop for the gallery images is working, however it returns no images. For example, if there are 10 images in the gallery, blog 2 displays the 10 images fine. However the other blogs create the div structure for the images, it’s just that the image source isn’t added.

      Has ACF gallery broadcasting been tested across multiple blogs like this?

      I’m happy to provide you with access to take a look if you’d like to email me directly.

      Cheers,
      Klaye

    3. I’ll contact you via e-mail where you can show me a debug dump of the post in question.

    4. Problem solved via e-mail. The ACF field groups themselves were not broadcasted (=duplicated). The groups have to be exactly identical for the fields to work the same on all blogs.

  5. Hello,

    We purchase “3rd party pack” for one of our client.
    We use “Post object / relationship” and have an issue with it.
    We have “Locations” posts and “Contacts” posts, that broadcast to different sites.
    For every Contacts post we select Locations as post object.

    There are:
    Location1 for SiteA;
    Location2 for SiteB;
    Contact1 relates to Location1 for SiteA and Location2 for SiteB, so Contact1 relates to both – SiteA and SiteB.

    When we edit Contact1 and select Location1 (as post object), Location2 broadcast to SiteA also, but shouldn’t for us.

    Please let us know, how can we avoid unnecessary broadcast as described above.

    Reply

    1. I’m already confised. This is more easily solved by you contacting me via e-mail and providing me with a debug dump of the post in question.

    1. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that functionality, but just looking at it quickly I’d say that there is no difference, assuming the fields all get the same IDs on each blog (which is what Broadcast uses to decide which fields are equivalent).

  7. Hi I am deciding if Broadcast can fulfil my needs. Your page about custom fields (https://broadcast.plainviewplugins.com/doc/custom-fields/) describes a “custom field protect list” so I can “broadcast custom fields to the child posts only if the field does not already exist on the child.” Is this ‘protect list’ functionality available for broadcasting custom fields created with ACF (PRO)? Thanks.
    Reply

    1. Yepp. The black, white and protect lists all work grandly with the ACF add-on.

  8. Hello,
    Considering purchasing this plugin to solve a particular issue. We are broadcasting posts from parent to child but want to know if this plugin will handle copying over of acf fields, particularly Images? If so how does it handle this? Is media copied over to the child server or does the image URL point to the original?
    Reply

    1. The ACF field groups themselves can be broadcasted, and that’s the first step. When editing posts, the data in the ACF fields is copied and processed. Some fields, like images that use blog-unique IDs, require processing: the old image ID is detected, the images are copied to the child blog and then the ID in the ACF field is updated on each child blog.

  9. No support for Google Maps field? Would I be able to utilize the custom field add-on to share this data between blogs?
    Reply

    1. I was not aware that the field needed any special processing. Is the field not just some gps coordinates that aren’t unique to the blog?

  10. Hi

    When I broadcast radio button and check box fields they are coming through in the child post as text fields.

    Any idea why?

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Was the field group itself also broadcasted and linked? The broadcasting is to ensure that the fields all have the same field keys (unique IDs) on all blogs.

      If so, then there’s something wrong that will require a BC debug text sent to me via e-mail so that I can follow what BC is doing during broadcasting.

  11. Hi – just replying with additional info…

    After further testing, I realise that this issue only occurs if the radio options are shortcodes. If I remove the [] from the shortcode, the broadcast stays as radio buttons, rather than reverting to text.

    This solves the problem for me, because I can add the [] after calling up the custom field value.

    Thanks

    Reply
  12. Hello support,
    Is it possible to broadcast a file which is stored in a post with an ACF field? Do you need the addon for this?
    Best wishes,
    Nico
    Reply

    1. You will require the add-on for this. Normally, all ACF fields are ignored unless the add-on is active.

  13. Hey there! Great plugin! Congrats.

    I would like to ignore one specific ACF field on my broadcasted sites, so I can manage them individually from there and avoid an overwrite when updating the parent.

    Any change?

    Reply

    1. You can use the custom field protect list for that: see Admin > Broadcast > Settings tab > Custom fields subtab.

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