What is Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)?
Advanced Custom Fields is a WordPress plugin used by many developers.
It’s used for extending WordPress, to create custom options throughout the backend. It allows a developer to set up simplified controls over a website.
Implementing ACF can require knowledge of PHP, though, many site builders, like Elementor and Divi, let you easily call custom fields in their interface. It’s also well-documented with large access to online support.
Advanced Custom Fields has many simple and complex uses. Entire websites and website builders can be made with it too.
Examples uses of ACF
Example 1: Easy-to-Edit Homepage Slider
Many websites and online stores have slideshows on their homepage. By plugging ACF to the data of the slideshow, you can enable site managers to add and edit slides without a developers help. Saving time and money on future edits.
Example 2: Nutrition Facts
Let’s say you have an online store that sells edible products, and you must disclose nutritional information. You can use Advanced Custom Fields to create custom fields. The data can then be placed inside a nutrition table on the front-end.
Example 3: Control elements on pages
You can use simple true/false fields to adjust sections on pages.
Let’s say you wanted a carousel of latest blog posts on most pages, you could create a true/false field to specify whether that page should include a carousel above the footer or not.
Setting up the interface in the back end is easy with ACF, you then have to include some PHP, or not, depending on your software, in order to have the fields to interact with the front end.