get_field inside an acf/load_value function

• Cormac

• May 18, 2018 at 5:50 am

I have around 20 fields in a CPT. I’d like to fill them with data from fields in another post type.

The straightforward case is like this:

function load_my_values( $value ) {
		$new_value = get_field( 'other_field', $POST_ID) );
		return $new_value;
};
add_filter( 'acf/load_value/name=example_field', 'load_my_values' );

But this has 2 problems: I don’t have access to $POST_ID (probably can be worked out), and I need to write 20 functions and 20 add_filter lines (and more to come in future).

So I thought to write a general function like this:

function load_my_values( $value, $post_id, $field ) {

  // There's a 'post_selection' field in the current CPT that contains the id of 
  // the other CPT post. And the value is already saved - no ajax stuff needed. 
  $other_cpt_id = get_field( 'post_selection' );
  
  switch ( $field['name'] ) {
			case 'example_field':
				$new_value = get_field( 'other_field', 'posttype_' . $other_cpt_id );
				break;
      case 'another_example_field':
  			$new_value = get_field( 'other_other_field', 'posttype_' . $other_cpt_id );
  			break;
      // etc
		}
		return $new_value;
};
add_filter( 'acf/load_value', 'load_my_values', 10, 3 );

This crashes my server. I believe it’s because using get_field calls the filter recursively.

Is there a way around this? Some way to skip acf/load_value while inside my function?

• John Huebner

• May 21, 2018 at 10:19 pm

Yes, you are creating an infinite loop because this $other_cpt_id = get_field( 'post_selection' ); causes your filter to be called every time your filter runs.

At the beginning of your filter add

remove_filter( 'acf/load_value', 'load_my_values', 10, 3 );

and then at the end of your filter re-add

add_filter( 'acf/load_value', 'load_my_values', 10, 3 );

• Cormac

• May 23, 2018 at 8:09 am

Thanks! Your solution would be ideal for most people.

Unfortunately, remove_action isn’t available to me, because I’m using Tom McFarlin’s WordPress Plugin Boilerplate. (add_action/filter become methods, no equivalent for remove). Adding a remove_action has been discussed for several years but not implemented.

This fork of WPPB adds a remove method.

However in the end, I implemented a separate filter just for post title, on wp_insert_post_data, which sets a value for $data['post_title'].