Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question about ACF Blocks that isn’t covered here? Then make sure to register for the next session of ACF Chat Fridays, or reach out on Twitter.
Are blocks a replacement for metaboxes?
No. Traditional field group meta boxes are still an important part of the content editing and theme development process. ACF will continue to utilize them as a tool for saving content.
Can I make changes to the field group?
Yes. You can make changes to your field group and fields at any time. Making changes like this will not cause damage to existing blocks unless you remove fields and update blocks.
Can I make changes to the template?
Yes. You can make changes to your block template or callback function at any time. ACF Blocks are dynamic and are rendered by the server each time they are loaded. This allows changes to block templates to be applied to all existing block content.
Can I register a block without fields?
Yes. There are many scenarios where a block does not require any fields, such as a “latest post” block where you want to render PHP as a block.
Is ACF Blocks included in the free version?
ACF Blocks is a feature of ACF PRO, which also includes more fields and features to build better WordPress sites, such as the Repeater, Flexible Content, Clone, and Gallery fields, and options pages.
Do I need to write any JavaScript?
No. The ACF Blocks framework is 100% PHP, but you can add JavaScript if your block requires it for added functionality (a carousel slider, for example).
Where is block data saved?
WordPress saves block data as HTML comments in the post_content. ACF Blocks follow suit, saving their data as a JSON object within that HTML comment.
Can I load values from other blocks?
Yes, but we recommend against it for performance reasons. Unlike loading a value from a post or user, block values are saved in the block HTML comment found within the post_content. This prevents the $post_id parameter from working as expected in our template functions. If you really need to, you can load the post_content of a given post, and then parse the blocks using the parse_blocks() function. As mentioned above, we do not recommend doing this as it will degrade site performance due to the large number of queries required.
Do ACF blocks support native components?
Not yet, but we do plan to add support for ACF Blocks rendering your React components in an upcoming release..
What is Gutenberg and what are blocks?
Introduced in WordPress 5.0, the block-based editor “Gutenberg” has transformed the way content is created. Content is now created in the unit of blocks instead of freeform text. Blocks take various forms including Paragraphs, Headings, Media, and Embeds.