Reply To: Can I get wp_postmeta.meta_id ?

• John Huebner

• May 20, 2021 at 9:36 pm

I do this in Javascript.

The first thing that I do is to create a text field and then add https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/acf-prepare_field/ to make the field readonly.

(function($){
  if (typeof acf != 'undefined') {
    acf.add_action('ready append', function($el) {
      
      // generate ID values
      var ids = [];
      // use the field key of your text sub field
      var fields = $('[data-key="field_5dd6ea9c6325c"] .acf-input input').not('.clones [data-key="field_5dd6ea9c6325c"] .acf-input input');
      if (fields.length) {
        var prefix = 'pnl-';
        // I also have my scripts localized with this object
        // it contains the post ID
        // so that I am sure the ID is unique on every post
        if (typeof(theme_admin_values['post']['id']) != 'undefined') {
          prefix += theme_admin_values['post']['id']+'-';
        }
        for (i=0; i<fields.length; i++) {
          var field = $(fields[i]);
          var value = field.val();
          if (value == '' || panel_ids.indexOf(value) != -1) {
            value = prefix+acf.uniqid();
            field.val(value);
            field.trigger('change');
          }
          panel_ids.push(value);
        }
      }
      // end generate ID values
      
    }); // end acf.add_action
  } // end if acf definded
})(jQuery);

I do this for several fields, each has it’s own prefix. No, they are not pretty ID values, but I know they are not going to change. This script is a little slow because every field is checked every time a new row is added. I haven’t worked out how to only work on new rows without looking at the existing ones.