Blocks for ACF Fields vs ACF Recent Posts Widget

Blocks for ACF Fields lets you effortlessly load and display Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) or Secure Custom Fields (SCF) inside the WordPress block editor using a single, flexible block. Whether you’re dealing with text, images, URLs, or complex field types, this plugin makes it simple — all without writing a single line of code. How to Use it Just create your custom fields with the ACF or SCF plugin, then open the WordPress block editor. Add the “ACF Field” block to your page or template, select the field you want to display from the dropdown, and you are done! Your custom field will now appear right inside the editor, exactly where you want it. Want to see it in action? Watch the short demo video below to learn how it works in real time. Features No Code Needed – Display your ACF & SCF fields directly in the editor without building a custom block. One Block for All Fields – Load almost any field type using just a single, versatile block. Smart Field Picker – No need to type field names. Choose from a dropdown that automatically shows only the ACF & SCF fields available for the post, page, or template you’re editing. Flexible Output Control – Style and format your field values directly in the editor, with output that always works correctly regardless of the field’s return setting. Works With Most Field Types – From plain text and numbers to images, links, embeds, dates, and icons — most commonly used ACF/SCF field types render right out of the box. Supports All Field Locations – Works with post fields, options pages, term fields, and user fields. Full Site Editing Ready – Fully compatible with the WordPress Site Editor for building custom templates and theme parts. Dynamic Layouts Ready – Seamlessly works inside Query Loops and reusable patterns for dynamic layouts. In addition to choosing which field to display, you also have control over how it appears. Text-based fields (including multiple-value fields like Select or Checkbox) can be shown as plain text or formatted with typography options. Image fields can be displayed as actual images with the same styling options as core Image blocks. For URL-return fields (such as Link or Post Object), you can render them as clickable buttons that automatically match your theme’s design. Where Your Fields Come From You also have control over where your fields are sourced from, making it easy to connect content dynamically based on the template you’re editing. Post (any post type) – Load fields attached to the post you’re currently editing, whether it’s a post, page, or any custom post type. Option – Pull global option fields, perfect for site-wide settings like logos, contact info, or social links. User – Display fields attached to a user profile. Available when editing author templates, making it easy to showcase author bios, avatars, or custom user data. Taxonomy – Load fields attached to taxonomy terms. Available when editing term archive templates, ideal for creating custom category, tag, or taxonomy layouts. Full documentation and usage guides are available at: https://www.acffieldblocks.com/documentation/ PRO Version – Unlock the Full Power of ACF & SCF Love the free version? PRO works exactly the same way — pick a block, pick a field, and you’re done. Nothing you’ve already learned changes. PRO simply gives you more to pick from: more supported field types, more layout options, and new ways to choose where your content comes from. Sooner or later you’ll hit a field the free version can’t display on its own — a Repeater, a Gallery, a list of related posts, an interactive Map, or a nested Group. Normally that’s where the fun stops and the PHP begins. PRO lets you build all of it right in the editor instead. Here’s what you get: Support for Advanced Field Types (no PHP required) Repeater – Turn repeater rows into a styleable layout you compose right in the editor. Each sub field becomes its own block, styled with the controls you already know. Display rows as a List, Grid, Carousel, Accordion, or Tabs. Gallery – Render gallery fields as a Grid, Masonry, or interactive Carousel, complete with a built-in lightbox and responsive options for different screen sizes. Group – Access and display sub fields inside group fields individually, no matter how deeply nested. 20+ Advanced Display Formats PRO doesn’t just add new field types — it unlocks powerful new ways to render the fields you already have. Post Object & Relationship – Display as dynamic post loops (List, Grid, or Carousel), similar to the Query Loop block, with the ability to load custom fields within each post. Also supports Single Post display — perfect for related posts sections and featured post displays. Taxonomy – Render as term loops (List, Grid, or Carousel) with access to custom fields on each term, plus Single Term display. Ideal for flexible category, tag, or custom taxonomy layouts. User – Display as user loops (List, Grid, or Carousel) with custom fields for each user, plus Single User display. Great for user directories, contributor listings, and team pages. Google Map – Display ACF Google Maps fields as an interactive map with custom markers and styling. Perfect for store locators, event venues, or property listings. Embed Popup – Show an oEmbed or URL field inside a lightbox popup that only loads on click — rich media without slowing your pages down. Dynamic Field Sources Lite blocks always read from the current post, term, user, or an Options Page. PRO frees them: Specific Post / Term / User – Pin a block to an entity you hand-pick at edit time. Build an editorially-chosen “Featured Page” promo or an “About the Founder” panel that lives anywhere and updates from a single source. URL Parameter – Let the URL decide the entity at render time. One /profile/ template can serve every user via ?uid=42, ?uid=99, and so on. Optional Match Rules validate the URL value as a Post ID, Post Slug, User ID, Username, Email, Term ID, or Term Slug — so one template powers profile pages, dynamic landing pages, and review tools without registering a custom route. Block Visibility by ACF / SCF Value Show or hide any block — not just ACF blocks, but every Group, Heading, Cover, and third-party block — based on the value of an ACF or SCF field. Build the rules visually in the block sidebar: pick a field, pick a comparison, give it a value. Combine multiple rules with AND (within a group) and OR (across groups), the same shape ACF’s own conditional logic uses. Rules are evaluated server-side at render time, so hidden blocks emit no HTML at all — no empty wrappers, no client-side flash. In the editor, every block stays visible so you can keep editing. Start with the free version, build what you can, and upgrade only when you hit a wall. PRO is a standalone plugin — installing it automatically deactivates Lite to prevent conflicts, and your existing blocks, content, and field configuration are preserved. Click here to learn more about PRO version

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)