How to use custom fields with Posts Table Pro
Our Posts Table Pro plugin fully supports custom fields. You can create custom fields for your posts, pages or any other post type (e.g. documents or events) and display them as columns in a table.
Why use custom fields?
Custom fields are an opportunity to show extra data about the information that you display using Posts Table Pro. You should use them for information that it would not be appropriate to store in any of the fields that come with WordPress itself (e.g. the post content or excerpt). For example:
- If you're selling events then you can use custom fields to store the start and end date.
- Maybe you're listing products and want to add the price.
- You can use custom fields to add extra links or buttons, for example to download a PDF document.
- You can also use custom fields to add embedded content such as audio or video players.
Please note that custom fields are designed to store unique data, and are not designed to be filterable. If you want to store extra information that your users can filter by, then we recommend using custom taxonomies instead. That's because you can filter by custom taxonomy in WordPress but not custom field.
How to create WordPress custom fields
You need to install a WordPress custom field plugin in order to create your custom fields.
We recommend using Easy Post Types and Fields plugin to add custom fields to your posts, pages, or any other post type (e.g. documents or events). It's the easiest way to create custom fields and display them seamlessly with Posts Table Pro.
We also guarantee compatibility between Posts Table Pro and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and Advanced Custom Fields Pro. You can use the official ACF documentation to create your custom fields.
We have also tested Posts Table Pro with other custom fields plugins including Pods and Toolset.
These are our recommendations on which custom field plugin to use. This depends on exactly what you need to create:
- (Primary recommendation) Creating custom post types, fields, and taxonomies - Easy Post Types and Fields.
- Custom fields only - Advanced Custom Fields.
- Custom post types, fields, and taxonomies - Pods or Toolset.
Tip: When you create your custom fields, make sure you add them to the post type that you are displaying with Posts Table Pro (e.g. posts, pages, events, documents, etc.). This is essential to make the custom field appear on the Add/Edit screen for the correct post type. For example, if you are using Posts Table Pro to list documents then you must add the custom fields to the 'documents' post type.
Showing custom fields in the table
Once you have created your custom field, use these instructions to display it as a column in the table.
You can create as many custom fields as you like, and list each one as a separate column.
Displaying shortcodes in custom fields
If you are adding shortcodes to a custom field - for example, to insert a button or embedded audio player - then you must enable the 'Shortcodes' option in Posts Table Pro. This tells the plugin to display the content of the shortcode correctly in the table.