Field groups overview

A field group is a named set of fields plus location rules that say where the set appears: on posts, pages and custom post types, on user profiles, on term screens, on comments, in widgets or on an options page.

What makes Mass Custom Fields different from a classic custom fields plugin is where the values go. Instead of adding one row per value to wp_postmeta, every field group gets one database table and every field becomes one column in it.

What you get

• A visual editor for the fields and the location rules (WPM Fields › Field Groups).
• Edit-screen boxes on posts, users, terms, comments, widgets and options pages, with required fields, validation rules and conditional logic. See Where field groups appear.
• Safe schema changes: renaming a field keeps its data, risky type changes keep a backup column, removed fields never drop data. See Changing a field group safely.
• A Table health panel that compares the definition with the real table. See Table health.
• Query posts by field value with wpmcf_query_posts(). See Query posts by field value.

How the storage works

For a field group with the key product_details the plugin creates the table {prefix}wpmcf_fg_product_details (for example wp_wpmcf_fg_product_details). It contains:

mid and mtype together are unique, so a post has at most one row per group. This also means you can join the table yourself:

SELECT p.post_title, d.price
FROM wp_posts p
JOIN wp_wpmcf_fg_product_details d ON d.mid = p.ID AND d.mtype = 'posts'
WHERE d.price < 100;

Limits worth knowing

Free and Pro

Everything on these pages is available in the free plugin. Three details depend on the plan:

• Advanced field types (Gallery, Flexible content, Clone) need Pro. See Pro field types.
• Location rules for WooCommerce orders need Pro. See Location rules.
• Per-field In translations modes (WPML/Polylang) need Business. See Field settings: display and advanced.

Where to go next