Advanced Custom Fields vs ACF Recent Posts Widget

🚀 All-in-one enhancement suite that improves WordPress & Advanced Custom Fields. This plugin aims to provide a powerful administration framework with a wide range of improvements & optimizations. This plugin requires at least ACF Pro 5.8. If you don’t already own ACF Pro, you should consider it. It’s one of the most powerful WordPress plugin available. ⭐ Highlight 14+ New ACF Fields 10+ ACF Fields Enhanced 4+ New Field Groups Locations Self/Multi/Bidirectional Fields Advanced Fields Validation Flexible Content as Page Builder Optimize metadata with Performance Mode Advanced Front-End Forms Manager ACF Options Pages / Block Types Manager ACF & WordPress Meta Overview WordPress Post Types / Taxonomies Manager WordPress Options Manager WordPress Admin Enhancements WPML & Polylang Multilingual support … And many more features 💎 Pro Highlight 20+ New ACF Fields 10+ ACF Fields Enhanced 20+ New Locations Payment Field with Stripe & PayPal Express Flexible Content Grid System Flexible Content Layouts Locations Rules Templates Manager Builtin Classic Editor Settings UI Screen Layouts Force Json Sync Field Visibility Settings Global Field Conditional Rules … And many more features 🤟 Philosophy Seamless integration No extra menu, ads or notices Built by developers, for developers 🛠️ Links Website Documentation Guides Roadmap GitHub Twitter Twitter (Personal) Slack Community 🧰 Tools FAQ Support Feature Request Reviews Donation 📁 Field Groups Advanced Settings Enable advanced settings for all fields within the Field Group. Auto Sync PHP Automatically synchronize field groups with local PHP files upon field group updates. This feature will create, include and update a local PHP file for each field group. Auto Sync Json Control which field groups you want to synchronize with local Json files. Display warnings if the Json file has been manually deleted. Categories Spice up your field groups with a custom taxonomy and filter field groups by terms. Custom Key Set custom field group key. Example: group_custom_name. Custom Meta Add custom metas (key/value) in the field group administration. Display Title Display an alternative field group title in post edition screen. Field Group UI (PRO) Enable enhancements to the Field Group UI for a better user experience. Force Sync (PRO) Always keep Json files synchronized with the Field Groups in the database. Hide on Screen (FREE / PRO) Hide Gutenberg Block Editor and 10+ more items to hide in the field group settings. Instructions Placement New instruction placements let you display field description “above the fields” or in a “tooltip”. Location: Advanced Post (PRO) A collection of multiple new Field Groups locations allowing developers to target posts with specific conditions (Post author, date, slug, path etc…). Location: Advanced Menu Item (PRO) Target specific “Menu Item Depth” or “Menu Item Type” from the Field Groups Locations rules. Location: Advanced Taxonomy Term (PRO) A collection of multiple new Field Groups locations allowing developers to target taxonomy and terms with specific conditions (Term name, parent, slug etc…). Location: All post types Display field groups on all post types edition screen. Location: Attachment List (PRO) Display field group on attachment admin list screen. Location: Dashboard Widgets (PRO) Display field groups and update ACF Fields from the WP Dashboard. Location: Field Value (PRO) Display a field group based on the field value of an another field group. Location: Post type Archive Add an Archive Option Page under the Post Type admin menu. Display and save any field groups within it. Location: Post type List Display field group on post types admin list screen. Location: Taxonomy List Display field group on taxonomies admin list screen. Location: User List (PRO) Display field group on user admin list screen. Location: Woocommerce (PRO) Display field groups on Woocommerce pages. Location: WP Settings (PRO) Display field groups on WP Settings pages: General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Media and Permalinks. Local Field Groups Display local field groups that are loaded by ACF, but not available in the ACF field group administration. Example: Field groups that are registered in the functions.php file, but not in the ACF UI. Note Add a personal note in the field group administration. Only visible to administrators. Permissions Add permission layer to field groups. Choose which roles can view & edit field groups in the post edition screen. Raw Data Display raw field group data in a modal to check your configuration & settings. ⚙️ Fields Settings Advanced Settings A more sophisticated field settings based on specified location (administration/front-end). Example: Field is required only in front-end. Advanced Validation A more sophisticated validation conditions (AND/OR) with custom error messages based on specified location (administration/front-end). Self/Multi/Bidirectional fields An advanced bidirectional setting (also called post-to-post) is available for the following fields: Relationship, Post object, User & Taxonomy terms. Fields will work bidirectionally and automatically update each others. Works in groups & clones. Field Visibility (PRO) Get quick access to “Field Visibility”, “Label Visibility”, “Instructions Visibility” and “Required Setting” for the following screens: “Everywhere”, “Front-end” and “Administration”. Global Condition (PRO) Enable Global Conditional Logic for a specific field, which can then be used in an another Field Group as condition, both as Field Group Condition and Field Condition. Instruction Placement (PRO) Override a specific field instruction placement to any position: Below labels, below fields, above fields or tooltip. Instruction Read More (PRO) Allow to expand instructions text with a “Read More” link. This feature is useful for lengthy instructions text. Min/Max (PRO) Minimum & maximum items is a global field setting that let you define a specific number of items that can or should be added by the user. Permissions Add permission layer to fields. Choose which roles can view & edit fields in the post edition screen. (can be combined with field groups permissions). Raw data Display raw field data in a modal to check your configuration & settings. Required Message (PRO) This setting allow developers to define a custom error message within the field settings for a more intuitive user experience. 🏷️ Fields Advanced Link Display a modern Link Selection in a modal. Posts, Post Types Archives & terms selection can be filtered in the field administration. Block Editor (PRO) Display an isolated Block Editor field on admin screen (with Classic Editor enabled) or on the front-end. Block Types (PRO) Display an ACF Block Types selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Button Display a custom submit or button. Built-in ajax call setting. Usage example available in the field administration. Checkbox (FREE / PRO) Define grouped choices values using ## Title markup in the field’s choices. Clone Allow users to edit clone fields in a modal. Choose the edit button text, display close button and the modal size. Code Editor Edit code using the native WP Core Codemirror library. Default languages: Text/HTML, Javascript, CSS, PHP mixed/plain. Color Picker (PRO) A collection of advanced settings for the ACF Color Picker. The field can now be displayed as a palette, custom colors can be predefined and RGBA mode is supported. Columns (FREE / PRO) Organize and re-arrange your fields using columns and line-breaks. The field acts like the ACF Accordion/Tab field and allow you to create virtually grouped fields which will be displayed inside columns. Countries (PRO) Display a Country selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Currencies (PRO) Display a Currency selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Date/Timepicker (FREE / PRO) Display a modern UI of the ACF Datepicker field. CSS and icons have been enhanced to fit WordPress admin UI and colors. Date Range Picker (PRO) Display a Date Range Picker. The field support a wide range of customization, such as: Placeholder, Default dates, Range Restriction, Date restriction, No weekends etc. Dynamic Render Display custom HTML/PHP content using a simple named hook. Field Groups (PRO) Display an ACF Field Groups selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Field Types (PRO) Display an ACF Field Types selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Fields (PRO) Display an ACF Fields selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. File (FREE / PRO) Choose the uploader type, enable multi file upload and dropzone. Flexible Content (FREE / PRO) Displayed an enhanced version of the native Flexible Content field. Dozens of new settings and settings were added, allowing developers to create the most advanced page builder and fully control the field’s behavior. Forms Select any dynamic form (format: checkbox, radio or select). Google Map (PRO) A collection of new settings added to the ACF Google Map Field that allow developers to have more control over the field behavior. Google reCaptcha Display a reCaptcha field (compatible v2 & v3). Group Allow users to edit group fields in a modal Choose the edit button text, display close button and the modal size Hidden Input Display a hidden input with custom name/value Image (FREE / PRO) Choose the uploader type, customize the upload folder and set the image as post featured thumbnail Image Selector (PRO) Display an Image Selector field. Image Sizes (PRO) Display an Image Sizes selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Languages (PRO) Display a Language selector as radio, checkbox or select field type, compatible with WPML & Polylang. Menu Locations (PRO) Display a Menu Locations selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Menus (PRO) Display a Menu selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Options Pages (PRO) Display an ACF Options Pages selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Payment (PRO) Display a Payment Field that supports with Stripe & PayPal Express gateways, working on both front-end and back-end. Payment Cart (PRO) Display an optional Payment Cart to easily setup an e-commerce solution. Payment Selector (PRO) Display an optional Payment Selector which let the user switch the payment gateway. Phone Number (PRO) Display a fully customizable international Phone Number field. Post Field (PRO) The Post Field is a new field that allow developers to move native WordPress fields such as Post Title, Date, Status, Visibility, Permalink etc. Post Formats (PRO) Display a Post Format selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Post Object (FREE / PRO) Allow user to enter custom value which will be saved as a new post, or enable the inline post creation/edit. Post Status Select any post status (format: checkbox, radio or select) Post Types Select any post type (format: checkbox, radio or select) Radio (FREE / PRO) Define grouped choices values using ## Title markup in the field’s choices. Relationship (PRO) The Relationship field includes new settings allowing users to create and edit post on-the-fly from the post edit screen. Repeater Add stylised to ‘Add Row’ button, lock rows and remove repeater’s actions. Select (FREE / PRO) Change the default “Select” placeholder text and Search Input placeholder and allow user to enter custom values. Slug A slug text input (ie: my-text-input). Tab (PRO) Disable the last opened tab user preference. Which means that when the user will refresh the page, it will always load the first tab. Taxonomies Select any taxonomy (format: checkbox, radio or select) Taxonomy Terms Select any terms of any taxonomies, allow specific terms, level or childrens (format: checkbox or select). Terms can be loaded & saved for the current post (just like the native ACF Taxonomy field) Templates (PRO) Display an ACF Extended Templates selector as radio, checkbox or select field type. Textarea Switch font family to monospace and allow tab indent. True/False (PRO) Five new styles have been added to the native True/False field. User Roles Select any user role (format: checkbox, radio or select) WYSIWYG Editor (PRO) New settings allowing developers to have more control over the field behavior. 🛠️ Modules Block Types UI (FREE / PRO) The Dynamic Block Types module allows you to register and manage ACF Block Types from your WordPress admin, in ACF > Block Types menu. Pro version allows to sync Json/PHP files. Classic Editor (PRO) ACF Extended is bundled with a custom merged version of the Classic Editor & Disable Gutenberg plugins. Developer Mode (FREE / PRO) The Developer Mode allow you to view all Posts, Terms, Users & Options custom metadata in a readable format. This feature is very useful to check what is actually saved in any WordPress Object. Forms (FREE / PRO) Manage Advanced ACF Forms from the WordPress administration. This module is an enhanced version of the native ACF Form feature. While all native settings can be used, Dynamic Forms adds many new settings and introduce “Actions” for a complete control over the form behavior. Options Pages UI (FREE / PRO) The Dynamic Options Pages module allows you to register and manage ACF Options Pages from your WordPress admin, in ACF > Options Pages menu. Pro version allows to sync Json/PHP files. Performance Mode (FREE / PRO) A unique module that allows developers to optimize database load when dealing with hundreds or thousands of metadata with two different methods: Ultra & Hybrid Engines. Post Types UI (FREE / PRO) The Dynamic Post Types module allows you to register and manage custom post types from your WordPress admin, in Tools > Post Types menu. Pro version allows to sync Json/PHP files. All native post types settings can be set within the UI. ACF Extended also adds more advanced settings allowing to manage posts per page, order etc… Rewrite Rules (PRO) Get an overview of all WordPress permalinks structures and rules. Test URLs, export rules and flush permalinks from the UI. Scripts UI (PRO) Run custom scripts on thousands of posts. Including builtin “Orphan Meta Cleaner”, “Script Launcher” and “Performance Converter” scripts. Settings UI (FREE / PRO) The Settings UI allows developers to get an overview of all ACF and ACF Extended settings values from the ACF > Settings menu. Taxonomies UI (FREE / PRO) The Dynamic Taxonomies module allows you to register and manage custom taxonomies from your WordPress admin, in Tools > Taxonomies menu. Pro version allows to sync Json/PHP files. All native taxonomies settings can be set within the UI. ACF Extended also adds more advanced settings allowing to manage posts per page, order etc… Templates (PRO) Manage default ACF values in an advanced way and sync templates with Json/PHP files. 🖥️ WordPress Ajax Author Box The native WP Author Metabox has been replaced with an Ajax version allowing to manage thousands of users without slowing down the post administration. The new Author box also include an inline search input. Enhanced UI The Taxonomy, User profile & Settings views have been enhanced for a more consistent administration experience, using CSS/JS only. Polylang ACF Extended adds a new layer of compatibility for Polylang. ACF Options Pages and all ACF Extended Modules (Dynamic Post Type, Taxonomy, Options Pages, Block Type) are compatible. Screen Layouts (PRO) Post Edit screens have been enhanced allowing up to 3 columns layout and multiple variations. WPML ACF Extended adds a new layer of compatibility for WPML. ACF Options Pages and all ACF Extended Modules (Dynamic Post Type, Taxonomy, Options Pages, Block …

ACFRPW adds a new widget to the Appearance -> Widgets -> ACF Recent Posts Widget. Most of the fields are quite obvious, you can choose from a set of settings to display the posts from. Each setting alters the amount and type of posts listed in the sidebar. Available Settings The widget supports the following settings: Widget Title Custom Widget container CSS class Option to ignore sticky posts Search keyword query Id based post exclusion Date Display, Date Modified, Relative and Custom Date Format specifiaction Listing posts from specific date period (start and end) Listing posts with specific password, listing password protected posts only or excluding these Post Type selection Post Formats selection Post Statuses selection Listing posts limited to author via author id Order specifiaction (ASC or DESC) Orderby specification (ID, Author, Title, Date, Modified, Random, Comment Count, Menu Order, Meta Value, Meta Value Numeric) Meta Key specifiaction (if Meta Value or Meta Value Numeric were chosen as orderby rule) Meta Comparison selection Meta Value Specification (for the Meta Comparison selection) Category limitation Tag limitation Id based custom taxonomy limitation Operator specifiaction for the above rules Number of posts to show Number of posts to skip Thumbnail display, thumbnail size (width, height), thumbnail alignment, default thumbnail Excerpt display, its word limit, its readmore text (occurs only if the amount of words exceeds the limit) Custom HTML to display before the loop Custom HTML to display after the loop Custom HTML to display before each posts. It supports custom meta keys and ACF fields Custom HTML to display after each posts. It supports custom meta keys and ACF fields Custom HTML to display for no posts found Custom and default CSS Custom HTML templates ACF supported fields The plugin has been tested with ACF 6 (Free and Pro). The plugin supports the following ACF fields: Text Textarea Number Email Password Wysiwg Editor Image File No other fields have been tested and are supported at the moment. Shortcode From version 4.4 the plugin supports shortcode embeds. Given the amount of options and their specific names (as in shortcode attributes) the shorcode builder has been introduced see 7th and 8th screenshots for the reference. You’ll see a popup once clicked on ACFRPW button which gives one an ability to automatically set up the shortcode code for you. The rest follows all of the options specified here. To use the shortcode one needs to have the WordPress editor enabled for the current page / post type. In case it was disabled (say via ACF) the button won’t appear. Creating Custom Templates From version 4.3 the plugin supports custom templates. To make usage of these one needs to make a copy of all the files found in the acf-recent-posts-widget/templates directory and copy them over to the active template directory to acfrpw subdirectory. The approach is similar to the way WooCommerce plugin works and has it’s drawbacks. With every new feature the files may be outdated. Similarly to the widget template files, a separate, custom markup can be created for the shortcode build post listing. Copy the acf-recent-posts-widget/template files to acfrpw-blog directory created inside your active theme directory. Template files There are 3 main template files: loop-after.php (which displays the markup after each of the posts and closes the markup container) loop-before.php (which displays the markup before each of the posts and opens the markup container) loop-inner.php (which is enqueued for each of the posts separatelly and contains the markup of every single post) Usage The usage is quite advanced hence each template file contains a quite detailed documentation on how to use it. First of all the template files mustn’t have the global variables removed. Each of these variables stores the widget settings, which are then used to generate the code. Second of all the variable names are unobvious, loop-inner.php template file contains a list of all the names used, which are then extracted and available as php variables. Different template per widget / sidebar The templates allow one to adjust the markup of each single widget. One needs first to verify the widget id used, which may then be referenced. The variable which stores the widget id is $acf_rpw_args[‘widget_id’]. Dumping the value in the template is the best way to find out which automatic id has been created for your widget. The best way to handle the templates is to learn from their code. My personal suggestion is to copy over the templates to the current theme and work directly on them, doing one change at a time. The templates require learning curve to use and there’s no single answer to everyones problem. Complex usage This section covers plugin complex usage for advanced user willing to have more control over the behavior of the plugin as well as explains uncommon functionalities. Using the HTML textarea fields These sections might not be obvious. The HTML or text before / after the whole loop setting is an area where you can specify custom HTML markup to be added before / after the whole posts list. The HTML or text before / after each post is an area where you can not only specify custom HTML, but you are also given an ability to print any meta key or certain ACF fields (see ACF supported fields) Meta Key Name / ACF Usage These fields need to be wrapped inside the {meta name} or {acf field_name} tags (which are similar to shortcodes). The plugin will then parse these fields and print their according value. Say we have a custom ACF field of type text, for which the Field Name is “text”. To print its value one has to use [acf text] inside the befoe / after each post textarea. A similar solution applies to the meta key. Meta Value Usage The Meta Value field supports an array of elements, so that all of the meta_compare parameters could be used. To do so, please specify the two parameters separated by semicolon, for instance: 1234;12345. The plugin will convert these into an array and apply the proper operation for the two. Whatsmore the [date] shortcode can be used here. It takes the timestamp paramater as an argument, which is required – the possible arguments are the same as for the function described here: http://php.net/manual/pl/function.strtotime.php. For instance [date +1 day] would generate the tomorrow date in “Ymd” format. This can be used with custom meta field date. Plugin Filters The are several filters that can be used to enchance the plugin programatically: ‘acf_rwp_query’ which gives one the ability to filter the query applied to each widget. ‘acp_rwp_before’ which gives on the ability to filter the Front End output of the plugin before each post. There are two hooks attached here already which allow usage of the [acf] and [meta] shortcodes. ‘acp_rwp_after’ which gives on the ability to filter the Front End output of the plugin after each post. There are two hooks attached here already which allow usage of the [acf] and [meta] shortcodes. ‘acf_meta_value’ which filters the meta_value query parameter. Check the acf_widget_widget file for the arguments and use cases. Dependencies ACF (optional) Widget Base Class (included) Shortcode popups generator (included) Other Online Demo Plugin site and Docs Plugin Development Survey Languages Supported English (default) Polish (since May 11 2015) French (since June 29 2015), by wolforg, standalone source Spanish (since July 30 2023)