Advanced Sites Deserve Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields by developer Elliot Condon has changed the way we think about WordPress. No longer are we required to tediously program custom meta boxes nor deliver a list of custom field values for customers to use on their new WordPress sites. With premium add-ons like Repeater and Options Page, creating carousels, global site settings, and more is a snap.

This talk will cover the benefits of Advanced Custom Fields, as well as strategies for designing a client site around ACF. The wrapper functions from Using Advanced Custom Fields for WordPress will be covered (ensuring the site doesn’t break if ACF is ever deactivated) as will the exports tools from Using WordPress Advanced Custom Fields Exports. Perhaps most importantly, the talk will cover when it’s appropriate or not appropriate to use ACF and some of the inherent risks (e.g. overusing ACF to reinvent the way that WordPress handles content, thus making it extremely difficult to change themes later without heavy customization and/or re-entering content).