Show fields in backend by logged in user capability

• rowatt

• November 14, 2013 at 10:09 pm

I see that I can have a group of fields show/not show based on the role of the logged in user.

What is the recommended way to do the same but based on a specific capability instead of a role?

The following seems to work:-

function maybe_hide_field($field)
{
    if( current_user_can('edit_this_field')
        return $field;
    else
        return NULL;
}
add_filter( 'acf/load_field/name=some_field', 'maybe_hide_field' );

but wasn’t sure if returning NULL is acceptable or something that might cause problems for me elsewhere.

Am I safe doing it this way, or would you recommend a different way to programatically hide a field in admin?

• Elliot

• November 17, 2013 at 10:02 am

Hi @rowatt

Your code above is perfectly fine and is a smart way to remove a specific field for a given block of logic.

Instead of doing this field by field, you can also create your own location rules. Location rules are used on a field group to toggle it’s display. Jump over to the docs to see a tutorial on creating your own location rule (one for specific capability)

Thanks
E

• rowatt

• November 18, 2013 at 3:03 am

In this particular instance, just hiding a single field is all I need, but I had completely missed that I can set up custom rules, which will certainly come in useful in other situations.

Thank you!