How to initiate Theme Setting on theme activate without having to click "Update"

• paulgc34

• September 23, 2015 at 4:42 pm

I have a theme settings page and I would like to have these settings to automatically use the default settings I have specified but it does not do this unless the user clicks on Theme Settings then clicking on Update.

Is there a way to use these settings when the theme is activated for the first time without making the user click on Theme Settings -> Update?

• John Huebner

• September 24, 2015 at 6:40 am

There are two choices. What I would call easy and difficult.

First the difficult:
Register a theme activation hook https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_activation_hook. In your activation function insert the needed data into the database by way of update_field() http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/update_field/

Then the easy and the way that I prefer to do things:
(Actually, I only use the get_post_meta() and get_option() WP functions in my themes so that they won’t crash a site should ACF get deactivated, but that’s another story)

Set the default value in the theme file

// with ACF, longhand
$value = 'the default_value';
$option = get_field('my_field_name', 'option');
if ($option) {
  $value = $option.
}

// with get_option
$value = get_option('options_'.'my_field_name', $default_value);

• paulgc34

• September 24, 2015 at 6:44 am

Ok, thank you John. I will try your “easier method” first.