Custom fields are a standard way to assign custom metadata to WordPress posts and pages. For over a decade, Advanced Custom Fields has been the undisputed go-to solution for developers and content creators looking for simplicity and flexibility. Features like Field Groups, Conditional Logic, Repeater Fields, Relationship Fields, and more recently Custom ACF Blocks make the plugin an invaluable tool for many freelancers and agencies. Today, over 4.5 million websites use ACF to extend WordPress.
Today, the next generation of ACF will be deployed. As of version 6.1, you can not only add custom fields using plugins, but also add and configure custom post types and custom taxonomies.
what this means
When extending WordPress, there is a common structure in how you model your website or application data. It often consists of three parts and looks like the following table. This shows what’s going on inside WordPress core and what it looks like when you extend WordPress with a fork.
![](https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/acf_cpts_tax_table@3x-1024x358.png)
The post types, metadata, and taxonomies for example 1 and example 2 are included by default with WordPress. If you’ve written blog posts in WordPress, these will be familiar. Examples 3 and 4 show custom implementations where a developer extends WordPress to facilitate these for his website or application he is building. Examples include his website for ‘book reviews’ and ‘car listings’.
Until today, Advanced Custom Fields only dealt with metadata (very nice addition). Version 6.1 can now handle all three layers. These three configuration layers are often referred to as content modeling and are so widely implemented across sites built with ACF that it makes sense to incorporate these features into the core plugin.
By bringing these features together, site developers can now minimize the number of plugins they need to rely on when building their content model.
Benefits for Headless WordPress Developers
Another very exciting element of these new features is the API improvements behind the scenes. Developers love ACF for its beautiful balance between flexibility and structure, and is often used for headless WordPress applications.
I often see sites hosted on Atlas using ACF as their content modeling tool. These updates allow headless WordPress developers to further advance ACF as a standardized foundation for headless projects.
Improved discovery of in-app features
In software, users often don’t know that a feature exists until they need it and go looking for it. This can mean users miss out on value. our recent “7 things you didn’t know you could do with ACFA session with DE{CODE} was proof of this with ACF. We presented a roster of features, tips, and tricks that highlight the value unrealized by many long-term ACF users.
With 6.1, we’re starting to introduce UI improvements that facilitate native, contextual discovery. For example, when a user selects a field type, they can optionally “browse fields” to open a modal with much more context than a simple dropdown list.
![](https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/6.1-internal-3-1024x728.png)
![](https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/6.1-internal-4-1024x821.png)
free as beer
You might think that these new features are only available in ACF PRO. Well you would be wrong!Custom taxonomies and post type registration can be done in both free PRO version of ACF.
At WP Engine, we are committed to enabling the widest possible range of WordPress professionals to build great sites. We are very excited to bring the value of these new features to all ACF users for both traditional and headless projects.
Level up your ACF skills
ACF is at the heart of so many ways to build with WordPress and our developer advocacy team invests more and more in events and content to help our customers succeed.To grow as a WordPress professional If so, check out the builder community. A lot of ACF goodness awaits you!