Adding ACF blocks to a block template

• TomJenkins

• November 1, 2018 at 3:17 am

Hiya

I have been following the code examples on:

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/blob/master/docs/templates.md

To be able to add additional blocks to forma block template. Is there any way to integrate an ACF block into these templates?

My code so far is:

function my_add_template_to_posts() {
	$post_type_object = get_post_type_object( 'page' );
	$post_type_object->template = array(
		array( 'core/paragraph', array(
			'placeholder' => 'Add a root-level paragraph',
		) ),
		array( 'core/columns', array(), array(
			array( 'core/column', array(), array(
				array( 'core/image', array() ),
			) ),
			array( 'core/column', array(), array(
				array( 'core/paragraph', array(
					'placeholder' => 'Add a inner paragraph'
				) ),
			) ),
		) )
	);
	$post_type_object->template_lock = 'all';
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_add_template_to_posts' );

But not sure how to reference a pre made ACF block?

Any help would be grateful

TIA

Tom

• KennethRed

• November 12, 2018 at 7:53 pm

Hi Tom,

I was expirimenting with the same thing as i couldnt find information about this.

But for example:

First You create a custom block via acf_register_block:

acf_register_block(
array(
	'name'              => 'blockname',
	'title'             => __('title'),
	'description'       => __('description')
		
));

Then you can take the name of the acf_block ‘blockname’ and use it as following in your post type template:

	$post_type_object->template = array(
		array( 'acf/blockname', array() ),		
	);

Note: If your blockname contains a space or a underscore, acf renames this to a dash, so ‘block_name’ becomes ‘block-name’.

Hope this helps!

• kkoyan

• February 5, 2020 at 2:07 am

Taking this a bit further, is there a way to add default values in a template?

In the wordpress documentation I see that you can add for some core blocks a placeholder.
https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/developers/block-api/block-templates/
Is there a way to add default content in acf blocks when you define them in the block template?

• jagenda

• May 7, 2020 at 8:34 pm

I second kkoyan’s question. Adding Gutenberg template blocks where the ACF block contents are preselected would be appreciated.

• tlexcellent

• May 8, 2020 at 1:55 am

@jagenda +1

• jonk

• May 11, 2020 at 11:02 pm

+1

I was expecting something like this to work, but computer says no …

array( ‘acf/blockname’, array(
‘header’ => __( ‘You may also like’, ‘td’ ),
) ),

where header is the name of the field.

• ProxxiM

• December 11, 2020 at 12:53 am

+1

It would be very nice to predefine values for blocks in templates.

• ChrisDark

• December 16, 2020 at 11:57 am

+1

It’d saves plenty of times, and give us the real power to use acf blocks as template

• ChrisDark

• December 19, 2020 at 3:24 am

Hey Guys,

This is possible already.

Here is the post about it:
https://support.advancedcustomfields.com/forums/topic/programmatically-set-blocks-initial-value/

And the code which helps you to make better experiences! : )
The magic is that, you need to wrap them with a data []

'template' => [
     ['acf/my-block', [
       'data' => [
        'field_name' => 'the value you want to see by default',
       ]
     ]]
];

I hope it helps you too as well!

I’m stuck with repeater subfields now.
Didn’t find a way to fill them yet.
If any of you able to do that, don’t hesitate to write here about that. 😉

Bests,
Christian

• ProxxiM

• January 8, 2021 at 9:01 pm

Wow, thanks for the tip @chrisdark! 😄

• deejmer

• April 17, 2021 at 5:54 am

Agreed, three cheers to @chrisdark for this. I searched high and low for this data[] tag to set my custom field values. I have to populated cloned field values…did you ever figure out how to tap into a subfield (which I suspect would use similar syntax)?