ACF PRO 5.8.0 Release Candidate

The first release candidate for ACF PRO 5.8 is now available! 🥳🤩❤! This new version includes all the awesome features first shown in the ACF 5.8 – Introducing ACF Blocks for Gutenberg announcement.

To test ACF PRO 5.8.0-RC1, please login to your store account and click the See all versions link alongside your license. Download, extract and replace ‘advanced-custom-fields-pro’ plugin folder contents.

Think you’ve found a bug? Please post in detail a new support ticket.

What’s new in 5.8

ACF PRO 5.8 introduces a PHP framework to create custom block types for the Gutenberg block based editor. Powered by our custom field API, ACF Blocks makes light work of a difficult task, allowing you to register and render a custom block type without writing a single line of JavaScript.

Recent Updates

The development of ACF Blocks has seen an exciting pace over the past few months with many new features being added thanks to the wonderful feedback you have provided!

You will find more detail about our recent updates in the ACF PRO 5.8.0 Beta1, ACF PRO 5.8.0 Beta2, ACF PRO 5.8.0 Beta3, ACF PRO 5.8.0 Beta4 and ACF PRO 5.8.0 Beta4.1 blog posts.

This latest version is no different, and we have new features to share!

Reusable blocks 🐶🐶

When reusable blocks were first announced, I was excited to see a Gutenberg feature that spoke directly to my inner web developer.

Reusing data and optimizing the publishing experience is something we all do naturally when creating bespoke websites with custom fields. Now, we can continue to provide our authors with a similar workflow for blocks.

This example shows how updating one block will also update the other. This works across multiple pages too, as all reusable blocks link to a single origin of data!

Auto Mode 🍭

Another simple but exciting feature to share is a new mode called “auto”. This mode is defined just like “edit” or “preview” and allows the block to decide which interface to show depending on the block’s state.

When selected, the block will change to “edit” mode, otherwise its preview will be shown. This simulates a more natural Gutenberg editing flow apart from the obvious lack of “inline” components. You can start using “auto” in any existing ACF Block, just change the settings like so.

acf_register_block(array(
    ...
    'mode'  => 'auto',
));

Changelog

Please find the full list of changes below:

• Fixed bug in Relationship field causing page scroll issue when removing an item.
• Optimized various field type update_value() functions.
• Fixed bug causing duplicate meta entries saved when Gutenberg is active.
• Added new “auto” mode.
• Added compatibility with reusable blocks.
• Block preview now updates after changing from “edit” back to “preview”.
• Block preview now updates when changing align setting.
• Javascript assets are now only enqueued if a block is registered.
• Fixed bug corrupting block data when saving from an author role.