Repeater update_field

• tringwebdesign

• July 9, 2017 at 8:12 am

$i = 1;
foreach ($wpbb_xml_params->features->children() as $second_gen) {
    $feature_value = (string)$second_gen;
    $value[$i] = array( 'sub_field_' . $i => $feature_value );
    $i++;
}
update_field( 'field_59606db8525db', $value, $wpbb_job_post_id );

I’ve no idea why this isn’t working. It creates 5 rows but doesn’t fill with values. I struggle with the repeater field in the past. My features array looks like below, it’s from an XML file and i’m using SimpleXML to traverse it all.

    <features>
        <feature>1st Floor Maisonette</feature>
        <feature>2 Double Bedrooms</feature>
        <feature>No Onward Chain</feature>
        <feature>Share of Freehold</feature>
        <feature>Private Rear Garden</feature>
    </features>

And this is my field setup for features:

        array (
            'key' => 'field_59606db8525db',
            'label' => 'Features',
            'name' => 'features',
            'type' => 'repeater',
            'instructions' => '',
            'required' => 0,
            'conditional_logic' => 0,
            'wrapper' => array (
                'width' => '',
                'class' => '',
                'id' => '',
            ),
            'collapsed' => '',
            'min' => 0,
            'max' => 0,
            'layout' => 'table',
            'button_label' => 'Add Row',
            'sub_fields' => array (
                array (
                    'key' => 'field_59606dc9525dc',
                    'label' => 'Feature',
                    'name' => 'feature',
                    'type' => 'text',
                    'instructions' => '',
                    'required' => 0,
                    'conditional_logic' => 0,
                    'wrapper' => array (
                        'width' => '',
                        'class' => '',
                        'id' => '',
                    ),
                    'default_value' => '',
                    'placeholder' => '',
                    'prepend' => '',
                    'append' => '',
                    'maxlength' => '',
                    'readonly' => 0,
                    'disabled' => 0,
                ),
            ),
        ),

• John Huebner

• July 9, 2017 at 10:58 am

the array for your repeater should look like this

$value = array(
  // nested for each row
  array(
    // field key => value pairs
    'field_59606dc9525dc' => 'value for row 1'
  ),
  array(
    // field key => value pairs
    'field_59606dc9525dc' => 'value for row 2'
  ),
);

I think that this will do it

foreach ($wpbb_xml_params->features->children() as $second_gen) {
    $feature_value = (string)$second_gen;
    $value[] = array( 'field_59606dc9525dc' => $feature_value );
}
update_field( 'field_59606db8525db', $value, $wpbb_job_post_id );

• tringwebdesign

• July 9, 2017 at 2:58 pm

Thank you! It works perfectly. I do find the update_field() documentation for repeater fields confusing…

// save a repeater field value
$field_key = "field_12345678";
$value = array(
    array(
        "sub_field_1"	=> "Foo",
        "sub_field_2"	=> "Bar"
    )
);
update_field( $field_key, $value, $post_id );

• John Huebner

• July 9, 2017 at 11:26 pm

I think that sub_field_1 and sub_field_2 in that example are supposed to represent the field names of the sub fields, but using the field keys is always the better option when using update_field(). The second example in the same code for flex fields better illustrates the way the value array needs to be for repeaters, with the exception of the acf_fc_layout index. Repeaters and flex fields work the same way with the exception of the layout name.

• mabuli

• January 26, 2020 at 4:05 am

I am having a little bit of trouble getting this to work, I have similar issue but maybe I am missing something. I have frontend jquery repeater field with name arrays which I try to populate. The rows are formed in the ACF but no value is stored.

Below is the code.

 
// Work Experience
        $job_title = $_POST['job_title'];

        foreach($job_title as $i => $jt ):
            // Job title
            // $job_title = $_POST['job_title'];
            // Reference
            $reference = $_POST['reference'];
            // Reference_contact
            $reference_contact = $_POST['reference_contact'];
            // Work Experience Textarea
            $work_experience_textarea = $_POST['work_experience_textarea'];

            echo $jt;
            echo $reference[$i];
            echo $reference_contact[$i];
            echo $work_experience_textarea[$i];

            $value_work_experience[$i] = array(
                array(
                    "field_5ddda6cf10b45" => $jt,
                    "field_5ddda6db10b46" => $reference[$i],
                    "field_5ddda6f310b47" => $reference_contact[$i],
                    "field_5ddda70010b48" => $work_experience_textarea[$i]
                ),
            );
        endforeach;
update_field( $field_key_work_experience, $value_work_experience, $post_id ); // work experience

• John Huebner

• January 26, 2020 at 8:40 am

You do not need the nested array in your case because you are using [] which creates the first level of the nesting for each row.

// Work Experience
        $job_title = $_POST['job_title'];

        foreach($job_title as $i => $jt ):
            // Job title
            // $job_title = $_POST['job_title'];
            // Reference
            $reference = $_POST['reference'];
            // Reference_contact
            $reference_contact = $_POST['reference_contact'];
            // Work Experience Textarea
            $work_experience_textarea = $_POST['work_experience_textarea'];

            echo $jt;
            echo $reference[$i];
            echo $reference_contact[$i];
            echo $work_experience_textarea[$i];

            $value_work_experience[$i] = array(
                    "field_5ddda6cf10b45" => $jt,
                    "field_5ddda6db10b46" => $reference[$i],
                    "field_5ddda6f310b47" => $reference_contact[$i],
                    "field_5ddda70010b48" => $work_experience_textarea[$i]
            );
        endforeach;
update_field( $field_key_work_experience, $value_work_experience, $post_id ); // work experience

• mabuli

• January 26, 2020 at 10:24 pm

Hi John,

thanks for the answer, it works!

• AmosERay

• January 23, 2021 at 5:18 pm

I’ve got the sub fields in the first repeater posting fine. But, I can’t quite figure out how to get the nested repeater working properly.

Here’s the code I have so far:

$event_field_key = ‘field_535e6b9ffe3da’;

$events[] = array(
‘start-date’ => $startDate,
‘end-date’ => $endDate,
‘notes’ => $_POST[‘p’.$p.’-notes’],
‘start-end-times’ => array(
‘start-time’ => ’09:00′, // would be dynamic
‘end-time’ => ’17:00′ // would be dynamic
)
);

update_field($event_field_key, $events, $post_id);
I’m not sure if I can just nest another array in there, or if I need to do something else.