Saving dynamically populated group sub fields

• AlexP

• June 18, 2024 at 10:03 am

I have a custom post type “Client”, and a custom taxonomy “Region”. I would like to set a different “logo weight” value for each client’s region, and store it in a region_weights array.
I created a region_weights ACF field of type “Group”, into which i want to dynamically include the sub fields (1 per region attached to the client).

define('REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY', 'field_6668114add626');

add_filter('acf/prepare_field/key=' . REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY, 'prepare_region_weights_field');

function prepare_region_weights_field($field)
{
    global $post;

    // Only apply this to the 'region_weights' field group
    if ($field['_name'] !== 'region_weights' || $post->post_type !== 'client') {
        return $field;
    }

    // Get the regions associated with this client
    $regions = wp_get_post_terms($post->ID, 'region');

    if (is_wp_error($regions) || empty($regions)) {
        return false; // No regions, no fields to display
    }

    $field_value = get_post_meta($post->ID, REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY, true);

    // Generate a field for each region
    foreach ($regions as $region) {
        $field_name = 'field_region_weights_' . $region->term_id;

        $default_value = isset($field_value[$field_name]) ? $field_value[$field_name] : 0;
        $region_field = array(
            'key' => $field_name,
            'label' => $region->name . ' Logo Weight',
            'name' => $field_name, // Use the correct field name
            'type' => 'select',
            'instructions' => 'How often should the ' . $region->name . ' logo appear?',
            'required' => 0,
            'conditional_logic' => 0,
            'wrapper' => array(
                'width' => '',
                'class' => '',
                'id' => '',
            ),
            'choices' => array(
                0 => 'Logo should not appear',
                1 => 'Logo should appear once in a while',
                2 => 'Logo should appear pretty often',
                3 => 'Logo should appear most often',
            ),
            'default_value' => $default_value,
            'value' => $default_value, // Use the correctly formatted meta key for the value
            '_name' => 'region_weights',
            'parent' => $field['key'],
            '_valid' => 1,
        );
        $field['sub_fields'][] = $region_field;
    }
    // Replace the original field with the generated fields
    return $field;
}

That part works. What does not work is that i cannot save the fields. The update_field function I attached to the ‘acf/save_post’ action hook returns false and I fail to see why. Can you help ?

add_action('save_post', 'save_client_regionWeights');

function save_client_regionWeights($post_id)
{

    // Check if we're saving a 'client' post type
    if (get_post_type($post_id) !== 'client') {
        return;
    }

    // Check user permissions
    if (!current_user_can('edit_post', $post_id)) {
        return;
    }

    // Check if it's an autosave
    if (defined('DOING_AUTOSAVE') && DOING_AUTOSAVE) {
        return;
    }

    // Check if ACF data is being saved
    if (!isset($_POST['acf'])) {
        return;
    }

    if (!isset($_POST['acf'][REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY])) {
        return;
    }

    // Get the regions associated with this client
    $regions = wp_get_post_terms($post_id, 'region');
    if (is_wp_error($regions) || empty($regions)) {
        // No regions, nothing to save
        return;
    }

    // Prepare an array to hold our region weights data
    $region_weights_data = array();

    // Loop through each region and collect the weight data from $_POST
    foreach ($regions as $region) {
        $field_name = 'field_region_weights_' . $region->term_id;
        if (isset($_POST['acf'][REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY][$field_name])) {
            // Add this region's weight to our data array
            $region_weights_data[$field_name] = $_POST['acf'][REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY][$field_name];
        } else {
            // If no weight was set, default to 0
            $region_weights_data[$field_name] = 0;
        }
    }

    // Update the region weights data
    update_field(REGION_WEIGHTS_FIELD_KEY, $region_weights_data, $post_id);
}

If I print the content of $_POST[‘acf’] I get sensible data:

Array
(
    [field_646f1e398ee52] => Client Something
    [field_63c684c9f2e59] => 95926
    [field_63c93f5d38405] => 95921
    [field_65cde112bc88c] => 2
    [field_6668114add626] => Array
        (
            [field_region_weights_315] => 2
        )

)

What am I doing wrong ?