Filter render_field not used to render a field

• ewijdemans

• February 9, 2017 at 1:10 am

Hi,

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not possible to insert HTML before and after a rendered field with the filter ‘acf/render_field’, as stated here.

This is due to the fact that ACF itself does not use that filter to render the field so it doesn’t matter if you use a lower and/or higher priority in the filter call. Please refer to the file “core/field.php”, line 174.
It is, however, possible with the filter ‘acf/render_field/type={type}’ as ACF itself uses that filter to render the field.

Could you please look into this? Thanks.

• John Huebner

• February 9, 2017 at 4:50 am

acf/render_field is run on all field types and then specific field types

in /api/api-field.php on line 381.

// create field specific html
do_action( "acf/render_field", $field );
do_action( "acf/render_field/type={$field['type']}", $field );

No, ACF does not use the filter, it does the actions

• ewijdemans

• February 9, 2017 at 8:12 pm

Hi John,

I’ve seen both actions in the api/api-field.php file.

The thing is that I’m not able to insert HTML before and after all fields with the action ‘acf/render_field’. The documentation states that it is possible with that filter but because fields are created internally with the action ‘acf/render_field/type={$type}‘ in file “core/field.php”, line 174, it’s only possible with the filter ‘acf/render_field/type={$type}‘.

• John Huebner

• February 9, 2017 at 11:57 pm

What types of fields are you unable to add content to?

I just tried this with many types of fields and the text is displayed before every field I tried it on.

add_action('acf/render_field', 'test_render_field', 1);
function test_render_field($field) {
	?><p>This is a Test</p><?php 
}

• ewijdemans

• February 10, 2017 at 7:15 am

I think you’re missing my point. Did you try to add content before and after every field?

• John Huebner

• February 10, 2017 at 7:49 am

Yes, I did. I have many fields and field groups on a test site. I added the code exactly as I posted it to the functions.php file on the test site and that content <p>This is a Test</p> appeared before every field on the site.

• John Huebner

• February 10, 2017 at 8:01 am

K, I get it now. Sometimes it takes me a while but I’ll get there.

Would have helped me to understand if you’d said something like, I can add content before but I can’t add it after. You may have understood what you meant, but I did not. I read it as “I can’t add content using acf/render_field. I can only add content for specific field types.”

• John Huebner

• February 10, 2017 at 8:13 am

This has been reported to the developer.

• ewijdemans

• February 10, 2017 at 8:14 am

No problem. Glad you’ve found it. I’ll gladly hear from you.

• Andrija

• January 26, 2018 at 12:06 pm

I just used this code and can confirm the behavior (most likely a bug):

function test__before__render_field( $field ){
	echo '<p>This is the Before test</p>';
}
add_action( 'acf/render_field', 'test__before__render_field', 9, 1 );

function test__after__render_field( $field ){
	echo '<p>This is the After test</p>';
}
add_action( 'acf/render_field/type=text', 'test__after__render_field', 10, 1 );

Notice that the last action (after) is hooked to a field type.

If I just put ‘acf/render_field’ there, both actions appear before my text field, even if I set priority 999 instead of 10.

But if the field type is defined, it all works as in the docs: priority < 10 hooks before rendering the fields and priority >= 10 hooks after.

@ewijdemans I hope I have helped you solve your issue, at least until @hube2 doesn’t bring it to developer’s attention.

(Tested using ACF Pro 5.6.7)

edit: after reading the OP one more time, I realized that it’s clear from the beginning that field type is working properly 🙂

• John Huebner

• January 26, 2018 at 11:44 pm

This is an old one and you should probably submit it to the developer here https://support.advancedcustomfields.com/new-ticket/, I reported it to him when a year ago, but he does get busy with other things that need to be done.

@andrija findings are correct. For specific field types it works correctly. When applying it to every field with the generic hook content only gets added before. From what I remember, this has something to do with the JavaScript rendering of the field.