Update custom post title with ACF Fields

• Josh White

• March 22, 2022 at 1:16 pm

Hi, I have a custom post type called contacts. Within that post type I have two fields:

1. First Name
2. Last Name

I have also hidden the default title field via:
'supports' => ['author', 'revisions', 'thumbnail'],
and I added a meta box that publishes the permalink after the post is create:

function contacts_metabox_permalink() {
    add_meta_box( 'prfx_meta', ( 'View Contact' ), 'contacts_metabox_permalink_callback', 'contacts', 'normal', 'high' );
}
add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'contacts_metabox_permalink' );

function contacts_metabox_permalink_callback( $post ) {
    echo '<a href="';
    the_permalink();
    echo '" class="button button-small" target="_blank">';
    echo the_permalink();
    echo '</a>';
}

Now, what I am trying to accomplish is to allow the two ACF fields first_name and last_name to be used as the page title, so the final permalink URL would be something like:
/contacts/john-deere

This is a function I have found that works for the most part, however, it is only appending the last name (twice) to the post, like so:
/contacts/deere-deere

function update_contacts_title( $value, $post_id, $field ) {
	
	$first_name = get_field('first_name', $post_id). ' ' . $value;
    $last_name = get_field('last_name', $post_id). ' ' . $value;
    $title = $first_name .' - '. $last_name;

	$slug = sanitize_title( $title );

	$postdata = array(
        'ID'          => $post_id,
        'post_title'  => $title,
        'post_type'   => 'contacts',
        'post_name'   => $slug
);

	wp_update_post( $postdata );
	return $value;
	
}

add_filter('acf/update_value/name=last_name', 'update_contacts_title', 10, 3);

What I am trying to do, is use $title as the final result in the permalink.

• Josh White

• March 22, 2022 at 4:12 pm

Well, one of my issues is that the first_name and last_name fields are within a group! I forgot about that but I’m still having trouble building the function to work as a group.

Any help would be appreciated!

• Josh White

• March 22, 2022 at 4:31 pm

Here’s the answer:

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

if( have_rows('contact_info') ):
    while( have_rows('contact_info') ): the_row(); 

        $first_name = get_sub_field('first_name', $post_id);
        $last_name = get_sub_field('last_name', $post_id);
        $title = $first_name . '-' . $last_name;
        $slug = sanitize_title( $title );

    endwhile;
endif;

    $postdata = array(
        'ID'          => $post_id,
        'post_title'  => $title,
        'post_type'   => 'contacts',
        'post_name'   => $slug
    );

    wp_update_post( $postdata );
    return $value;

}
add_filter('acf/update_value/name=last_name', 'update_contacts_title', 10, 3);

• Josh White

• March 22, 2022 at 4:50 pm

Update:
The above answer will allow you to update previously established posts but not work for new posts, so the following function addresses that and allows for new posts and previous posts to modify the title from acf fields:

function update_contacts_title($post_id) {

if( have_rows('contact_info') ):
    while( have_rows('contact_info') ): the_row(); 

        $first_name = get_sub_field('first_name', $post_id);
        $last_name = get_sub_field('last_name', $post_id);
        $title = $first_name . '-' . $last_name;
        $slug = sanitize_title( $title );

    endwhile;
endif;

    $postdata = array(
        'ID'          => $post_id,
        'post_title'  => $title,
        'post_type'   => 'contacts',
        'post_name'   => $slug
    );

    wp_update_post( $postdata );
    

}
add_filter('acf/save_post', 'update_contacts_title', 10, 3);