Meta Box Group

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Overview

The Meta Box Group extensions helps you to organizing custom fields into repeatable and collapsible groups. You can use this extension to group similar fields into one group to create hierarchy. You can clone the whole group, or sub-group. There’s no limitation on the nesting level.

meta box group example

For more information, please see the extension page.

Installation

Before installing the extension, you need to install Meta Box plugin first.

  1. Go to Plugins → Add New and search for Meta Box
  2. Click Install Now button to install the plugin
  3. After installing, click Activate Plugin to activate the plugin

The extension is just a WordPress plugin, you can install it like a normal WordPress plugin.

  1. Go to Plugins, click Add new, then click Upload plugin.
  2. Choose the .zip file you downloaded and click Install now
  3. After finishing upload, click Activate to finish.

Tutorial

If this is the first time you use Meta Box Group, please follow the beginner tutorial here:

How to Create a Group of Custom Fields with Meta Box Group

The documentation below is like a detailed reference that you can use anytime you want to look for something in Meta Box Group.

Settings

Make sure you know how to create meta boxes and fields before continuing!

The Meta Box Group adds a new field type group. This field type has following settings:

Name Description
name Field name (label), same like other normal fields. Optional.
id Field ID, will be used to store custom field values of all sub-field.
type Must be group
fields Array of sub-fields. Each sub-field is declared as a normal field.
clone Is the group clonable?
sort_clone Can clones be sorted? true or false. If true, you can drag and drop group clones to reorder them.
collapsible Make group collapsible? true or false. Default false. Optional.
save_state Whether or not save the collapse/expand state? true or false. Default false. Optional.
default_state Is the group collapsed or expanded by default (when page loads)? collapsed or expanded (default).
group_title The title of collapsible group. See section collapsible groups for details.

So, to add a group, you need to add a field with type group and list of sub-fields in its fields attribute, like this:

$meta_boxes[] = array(
    'title'  => 'Meta Box Title',
    'fields' => array(
        array(
            'name'   => 'Group', // Optional
            'id'     => 'group_id',
            'type'   => 'group',
            // List of sub-fields
            'fields' => array(
                array(
                    'name' => 'Text',
                    'id'   => 'text',
                    'type' => 'text',
                ),
                // Other sub-fields here
            ),
        ),
    ),
);

Sample code

The code below creates a group for tracks in an album, each track is a group and is clonable (see screenshot below):

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', 'meta_box_group_demo_register' );
function meta_box_group_demo_register( $meta_boxes ) {
    $meta_boxes[] = array(
        'title'  => 'Album Tracks',
        'fields' => array(
            array(
                'id'     => 'standard',
                // Group field
                'type'   => 'group',
                // Clone whole group?
                'clone'  => true,
                // Drag and drop clones to reorder them?
                'sort_clone' => true,
                // Sub-fields
                'fields' => array(
                    array(
                        'name' => 'Track name',
                        'id'   => 'text',
                        'type' => 'text',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'name' => 'Release Date',
                        'id'   => 'date',
                        'type' => 'date',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'name'    => 'Genre',
                        'id'      => 'genre',
                        'type'    => 'select_advanced',
                        'options' => array(
                            'pop'  => 'Pop',
                            'rock' => 'Rock',
                        ),
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        ),
    );
    return $meta_boxes;
}

Here is how it appears:

clone group (repeater)

Multi-level nested groups

Since version 1.1, the Meta Box Group extension supports multi-level nested groups. To add nested groups to a group, simply register a new field with type group and add subfields to it. Here is an example:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', 'demo_nested_groups' );
function demo_nested_groups( $meta_boxes ) {
    $meta_boxes[] = array(
        'title'  => 'Multi-level nested groups',
        'fields' => array(
            array(
                'id'     => 'group',
                'type'   => 'group',
                'clone'  => true,
                'fields' => array(
                    // Normal field (cloned)
                    array(
                        'name'  => 'Text',
                        'id'    => 'text',
                        'type'  => 'text',
                        'clone' => true,
                    ),
                    // Nested group level 2
                    array(
                        'name'   => 'Sub group',
                        'id'     => 'sub_group',
                        'type'   => 'group',
                        'clone'  => true,
                        'fields' => array(
                            // Normal field (cloned)
                            array(
                                'name'  => 'Sub text',
                                'id'    => 'sub_text',
                                'type'  => 'text',
                                'clone' => true,
                            ),
                        ),
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        ),
    );
    return $meta_boxes;
}

Result:

multi-level nested groups

Collapsible Groups

To make a group collapsible, you need to set the settings 'collapsible' => true. The collapsible group also has the following settings:

Name Description
save_state Whether or not save the collapse/expand state? true or false. Default false. Optional.
default_state Is the group collapsed or expanded by default (when page loads)? collapsed or expanded (default).
group_title The title of collapsible group.

Since version 1.3.0, we have imporved the group_title settings so it is able to show static text, the group index (if group is cloneable), sub-field value or any combination of them. To do that, simply set a group_title as a text and use the following format:

'group_title' => 'Static text {#} {sub_field_1} {sub_field_2}',

To specify the group index, use {#}. To specify a sub field value, use {sub_field_id}. You can add as many sub fields as you want. The order of elements in the group title is not important. You can mix them in any way.

This is an example of a collapsible group:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', function ( $meta_boxes ) {
    $meta_boxes[] = array(
        'title'      => 'Company Branches',
        'post_types' => 'page',
        'fields'     => array(
            array(
                'id'          => 'g1',
                'name'        => 'Branches',
                'type'        => 'group',
                'clone'       => true,
                'sort_clone'  => true,
                'collapsible' => true,
                'group_title' => array( 'field' => 'name' ), // ID of the subfield
                'save_state' => true,

                'fields' => array(
                    array(
                        'name' => 'Name',
                        'id'   => 'name',
                        'type' => 'text',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'name' => 'Address',
                        'id'   => 'address',
                        'type' => 'text',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'id'          => 'contacts',
                        'type'        => 'group',
                        'clone'       => true,
                        'collapsible' => true,
                        'save_state'  => true,
                        'group_title' => '{person}',
                        'fields'      => array(
                            array(
                                'id'   => 'person',
                                'type' => 'text',
                                'name' => 'Person',
                            ),
                            array(
                                'id'   => 'phone',
                                'type' => 'text',
                                'name' => 'Phone',
                            ),
                        ),
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        ),
    );

    return $meta_boxes;
} );

Getting sub-field value

To get sub-field value, you need to get meta value of the group. This is done with following code:

$group_value = rwmb_meta( 'group_id' );

The returned value is associated array of sub-fields’ values with keys are sub-fields IDs, like this:

array(
    'sub_field_1_key' => 'sub_field_1_value',
    'sub_field_2_key' => 'sub_field_2_value',
    'sub_field_3_key' => 'sub_field_3_value',
    //...
)

So, to get value of a sub-field, use the following code:

$value = isset( $group_value[$sub_field_key] ) ? $group_value[$sub_field_key] : '';
echo $value; // Display sub-field value

If the group is cloneable, then the value returned by rwmb_meta is array of group values, each group value is an array of sub-fields’ values:

array(
    array(
        'sub_field_1_key' => 'sub_field_1_value',
        'sub_field_2_key' => 'sub_field_2_value',
        'sub_field_3_key' => 'sub_field_3_value',
        //...
    ),
    array(
        'sub_field_1_key' => 'sub_field_1_value',
        'sub_field_2_key' => 'sub_field_2_value',
        'sub_field_3_key' => 'sub_field_3_value',
        //...
    ),
    //...
)

To output values of cloneable groups, use the following code:

$group_values = rwmb_meta( 'group_id' );
if ( ! empty( $group_values ) ) {
    foreach ( $group_values as $group_value ) {
        $value = isset( $group_value[$sub_field_key] ) ? $group_value[$sub_field_key] : '';
        echo $value; // Display sub-field value
    }
}

Special fields

The helper function returns only raw data of group’s value, e.g. it does exactly what get_post_meta( $post_id, 'group_id', true ); does. It doesn’t return meaningful information for images, file, etc. To do that, please add a small piece of code as follow:

$group = rwmb_meta( 'group_id' );
$image_ids = $group['image_key'] ?? : [];
foreach ( $image_ids as $image_id ) {
	$image = RWMB_Image_Field::file_info( $image_id, ['size' => 'thumbnail'] );
	echo '<img src="' . $image['url'] . '">';
}

These are some helper functions that you can use to retrieve more info:

Field type Helper function(s)
image, image_advanced, plupload_image, thickbox_image wp_get_attachment_image_src()
  wp_get_attachment_image_url()
  RWMB_Image_Field::file_info( $image_id, $args ); (where $args is an array and accepts only size attribute)
file, file_advanced get_attached_file()
  RWMB_File_Field::file_info( $image_id );
oembed RWMB_OEmbed_Field::get_embed( $url );
taxonomy, taxonomy_advanced get_term()
user get_userdata()
post get_post()

Read more on how field values are saved into the database.

Example

This sample code registers a group of fields: contact name, contact email, contact phone number:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', 'prefix_register_contacts' );
function prefix_register_contacts( $meta_boxes ) {
    $meta_boxes[] = array(
        'title' => 'Contacts',
        'post_types' => 'post',
        'fields' => array(
            array(
                'id' => 'contacts',
                'type' => 'group',
                'clone' => true,
                'fields' => array(
                    array(
                        'id' => 'name',
                        'type' => 'text',
                        'name' => 'Name',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'id' => 'email',
                        'type' => 'text',
                        'name' => 'Email',
                    ),
                    array(
                        'id' => 'phone',
                        'type' => 'text',
                        'name' => 'Phone',
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        ),
    );
    return $meta_boxes;
}

In the single.php, you can add the following code to display contacts:

$contacts = rwmb_meta( 'contacts' );
if ( ! empty( $contacts ) ) {
    foreach ( $contacts as $contact ) {
        echo '<div class="contact">';
        echo '<h4>', 'Contact info', '</h4>';
        echo '<p><label>', 'Name:', '<label> ', $contact['name'], '</p>';
        echo '<p><label>', 'Email:', '<label> ', $contact['email'], '</p>';
        echo '<p><label>', 'Phone number:', '<label> ', $contact['phone'], '</p>';
        echo '</div>';
    }
}

This is another more advanced example with nested group:

Group field declaration:

array(
    'id'     => 'sector',
    'type'   => 'group',
    'clone'  => true,
    'fields' => array(
        array(
            'name' => 'Title',
            'id'   => 'sector-title',
            'type' => 'text',
        ),
        // Group nested
        array(
            'id'     => 'sector-object',
            'type'   => 'group',
            'clone'  => true,
            'fields' => array(
                array(
                    'name' => 'Images',
                    'id'   => 'sector-object-img',
                    'type' => 'image_advanced',
                ),
                array(
                    'name' => 'Description',
                    'id'   => 'sector-object-description',
                    'type' => 'textarea',
                ),
            ),
        ),
    ),
),

How to get value and output in the frontend:

// Requires PHP 7+.
$sectors = rwmb_meta( 'sector' );
$sectors = $sectors ?? [];
foreach ( $sectors as $sector ) {
    echo $sector['sector-title'] ?? '';

    $objects = $sector['sector-object'] ?? [];
    foreach ( $objects as $object ) {
        $imgs = $object['sector-object-img'] ?? : [];
        foreach ( $imgs as $img ) {
            echo '<img src="' . wp_get_attachment_image_url( $img, 'your_image_size' ) . '">';
        }
        echo $object['sector-object-description'] ?? '';
    }
}

Outputing group in a page builder

If you want to output a group in a page builder like Beaver Builder or Elementor, please understand that there’s no way to output each sub-field in a group as a element in these page builders.

In order to display group value, the recommended way is creating a shortcode to display the group. Then you can insert the shortcode anywhere with the page builder.

Here is an example of a custom shortcode for a group with 3 fields: title (text), images (image_advanced) and description (wysiwyg). You can use it as a start:

// Requires PHP 7+.
add_shortcode( 'my_group', function() {
	$group = rwmb_meta( 'group_field_id' );
	if ( empty( $group ) ) {
		return '';
	}
	
	$output = '';
	
	// Sub-field title.
	$title = $group['title'] ?? '';
	$output .= '<h3 class="my-title">' . $title . '</h3>';
	
	// Sub-field image_advanced.
	$image_ids = $group['images'] ?? [];
	if ( $image_ids ) {
		$output .= '<div class="my-images">';
		foreach ( $image_ids as $image_id ) {
			$image = RWMB_Image_Field::file_info( $image_id, ['size' => 'my-image-size'] );
			$output .= '<img src="' . $image['url'] . '">';
		}
		$output .= '</div>';
	}
	
	// Sub-field description.
	$desc = $group['desc'] ?? '';
	$output .= '<div class="my-description">' . wpautop( $desc ). '</div>';
	
	return $output;
} );

// Usage: put [my_group] into your post content or page builder modules.

Setting default group values

There are 2 ways to set default group values: per sub-field or for the whole group.

Setting default values for each sub-fields is very simple. Just set its value via std parameter for each sub-field and done.

Example:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', function( $meta_boxes ) {
	$meta_boxes[] = [
		'title' => 'Test Group Default Value',
		'fields' => [
			[
				'type' => 'group',
				'id'   => 'group',
				'fields' => [
					[
						'type' => 'text',
						'id' => 'name',
						'name' => 'Name',
						'std' => 'My Name', // THIS
					],
					[
						'type' => 'email',
						'id' => 'email',
						'name' => 'Email',
						'std' => 'myemail@domain.com', // THIS
					],
				],
			]
		],
	];
	return $meta_boxes;
} );

Result:

default sub-field value

However, doing that way makes you type quite a lot. And you hardly see the data of the whole group. To avoid this problem, Meta Box Group provides a better way to set default value for the whole group.

The idea is very simple, just use the same std parameter for the group (not for sub-fields). And set its value an array of sub-field default values.

For example: with a group of 2 fields above, we can default the default value like this:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', function( $meta_boxes ) {
	$meta_boxes[] = [
		'title' => 'Test Meta Box',
		'fields' => [
			[
				'type' => 'group',
				'id'   => 'group',
				'fields' => [
					[
						'type' => 'text',
						'id' => 'name',
						'name' => 'Name',
					],
					[
						'type' => 'email',
						'id' => 'email',
						'name' => 'Email',
					],
				],
				
				// THIS
				'std' => [
					'name' => 'My name',
					'email' => 'myemail@domain.com',
				],
			]
		],
	];
	return $meta_boxes;
} );

If the group is cloneable, the std value should be an array of clone values. Each clone value is an array of sub-field values. Like this:

add_filter( 'rwmb_meta_boxes', function( $meta_boxes ) {
	$meta_boxes[] = [
		'title' => 'Test Meta Box',
		'fields' => [
			[
				'type' => 'group',
				'id'   => 'group',
				'name' => 'Group',
				'clone' => true,
				'collapsible' => true,
				'group_title' => '{name}',
				'fields' => [
					[
						'type' => 'text',
						'id' => 'name',
						'name' => 'Name',
					],
					[
						'type' => 'email',
						'id' => 'email',
						'name' => 'Email',
					],
				],
				'std' => [
					// Value for the 1st clone
					[
						'name' => 'Name 1',
						'email' => 'email1@domain.com',
					],

					// Value for the 2nd clone
					[
						'name' => 'Name 2',
						'email' => 'email2@domain.com',
					]
				],
			]
		],
	];
	return $meta_boxes;
} );

And here is the result:

default group value

See this video for demonstration:

Changing clone button text

Since Meta Box version 4.11, you can change the clone button text by using add_button parameter for fields, like below:

array(
    'type' => 'group',
    'name' => 'Tracks',
    'id' => 'tracks',
    'add_button' => 'Add another track',
    'fields' => array(
        // Sub-fields here.
    ),
),

If you’re using Meta Box prior to 4.11, you can use a filter to change the add clone button text. There are 3 filters that you can use:

rwmb_add_clone_button_text
rwmb_group_clone_button_text
rwmb_{$field_id}_add_clone_button_text

Each filter receives 2 parameters: $text - the clone button text and $field - the group field parameters.

To use the filter, add the following code to your theme functions.php file or inside your plugin:

add_filter( 'rwmb_tracks_add_clone_button_text', 'prefix_tracks_add_clone_button_text', 10, 2 );
function prefix_group_add_clone_button_text( $text, $field ) {
    return 'Add another track';
}

Known issues

  • When cloning fields or groups, id attribute of inputs are adjusted. In multi-level nested groups, they’re changed without any rule. So please don’t rely on them to perform custom JavaScript actions.
  • If you have a wysiwyg field in a cloneable group, please set its ID not ended with _{number} (e.g. _12). This format is reserved by the clone script to update the editor ID/name. Please just change the ID to another format.

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