Load fields from PHP exported file by default

• wphave

• February 28, 2018 at 2:54 am

Hey,

By default I want to load all fields from the PHP exported file. Because manual synchronization of the updated fields by the user of my themes is too cumbersome. Usually I have a child theme, which is loading the fields from the PHP exported file by default.

This is included in the child theme functions.php and it works fine:
include_once( get_template_directory() . '/inc/acf-field-groups.php' );

BUT, not everyone can read the documentation to find out who should work with the child theme. The reality is, a lot of theme user work with the main theme instead of the child theme.

So I thought I can add a field loading switch like this:

if( ! get_field('mode_custom_fields_json', 'option') ) {
    include_once( get_stylesheet_directory() . '/inc/acf-field-groups.php' );
}

The user must first to activate the field loading from JSON manually. It’s the best way to keep users from manually syncing the fields.

BUT if I added this code above to the main theme functions.php and it dosen’t work 🙁

Without the condition if( ! get_field('mode_custom_fields_json', 'option') ), the fields will loaded from the PHP exported file by default and it works.

Why this is not working with the if condition?

• wphave

• February 28, 2018 at 6:46 am

Ok, I have solved this issue by myself. The reason why the PHP exported file is not loading inside the if condition, I have loaded the JSON files at the same time with the following code:

if ( ! function_exists( 'acf_json_load_point' ) ) :

        function acf_json_load_point( $paths ) {		
            unset($paths[0]); // remove original path (optional)
            $paths[] = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/inc/acf-json'; // append path
            return $paths;
        }

    endif;	

    add_filter('acf/settings/load_json', 'acf_json_load_point');

If I load the “PHP exported file” OR the “JSON files” only, handled by a if condition, everything is fine and it works great 🙂

• wphave

• March 1, 2018 at 3:56 am

Here is my solution:

/*****************************************************************/
/* LOADING SWITCH FOR ACF FIELD GROUPS FROM PHP OR JSON FILE */
/*****************************************************************/

add_filter('acf/settings/load_json', function( $paths ) {
    
    $dev_mode = get_field('mode_custom_fields_json', 'option');
    
    // load basic [ MAIN THEME ] field groups from the [ MAIN THEME JSON ] folder
    $paths = array( get_template_directory() . '/inc/acf-json' );
    
    // load custom additional [ CHILD THEME ] field groups from the [ CHILD THEME JSON ] folder
    if( is_child_theme() && $dev_mode ) {
        $paths[] = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/acf-json';
    }

    // WITHOUT ACTIVATED DEV MODE --> load all fields from PHP file by the [ MAIN THEME ]
    if( ! $dev_mode ) {
        // load all field groups from PHP exported file for theme users
        include_once( get_template_directory() . '/inc/acf-field-groups.php' );
    }

    return $paths;
    
});