Do you want to add extra profile fields for users to fill in when they register on your WordPress website?
Maybe you want to allow users to submit their social media profiles. Or you might want them to submit their business phone number when registering. This can all be done by adding additional profile fields.
In this article, we will show how to easily add additional user profile fields in WordPress registration forms.
Why Add Additional User Profile Fields in WordPress Registration?
By adding more user profile fields to your WordPress website’s registration form, you can collect extra information from users to improve your marketing campaigns, personalize content, or simply learn more about your audience.
For example, you can ask your users to provide their phone numbers or social media profiles when registering on your WordPress site.
All of these extra fields can be handy if you run a membership website or allow users to sign up as subscribers to your blog. They can also be helpful if you want to store extra contact information for the other writers on your multi-author blog.
That being said, let’s see how to easily add additional user profile fields in WordPress. For this tutorial, we will be discussing two methods, and you can use the links below to jump to the method of your choice:
Method 1: Add Custom User Profile Fields Using Advanced Custom Fields (Recommended)
The best way to add extra user profile fields in WordPress is to use the Advanced Custom Fields plugin. It lets you choose from multiple fields and customize them to fit your needs.
Upon activation, you need to head to the ACF » Field Groups page from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘+ Add Field Group’ button.
This will take you to a new page where you can start by typing a name for the field group.
Keep in mind that this will be the name of the entire field group and not the individual user’s field.
After that, scroll down to the ‘Fields’ section and choose a field type from the dropdown menu.
For example, if you want users to provide their phone number upon registration, then you can choose the ‘Number’ option. Alternatively, if you want users to provide their social media profiles, then you can pick the ‘Text’ option.
Once you have done that, just type the name of your field into the ‘Field Label’ option. For instance, if you want users to provide their Twitter handle before registering, then you can enter that into the field.
The plugin will then automatically generate a field name according to your label name.
Next, you must switch to the ‘Validation’ tab from the top. From here, you can make the field required by toggling on the switch. This way, users won’t be able to register on your WordPress site without filling in the additional field.
After that, you can even set a character limit for your custom field.
Now, switch to the ‘Presentation’ tab from the top.
Once you are there, you can add placeholder text, instructions, and wrapper attributes for your additional user profile field.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Settings’ section and make sure that the ‘Location Rules’ tab is selected. From here, you must set up conditional logic for your custom field so that it will only be displayed for your WordPress site registration.
To do this, select the ‘User Form’ option from the dropdown menu in the left corner of the screen. After that, choose the ‘Register’ option from the dropdown menu in the right corner.
Finally, click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top of the screen to store your settings.
If you want to add another additional field, then you can also click the ‘+ Add Field’ button.
Now visit your user registration page to view the additional user profile field in action.
This is how it looked on our demo website.
Method 2: Add Additional User Profile Fields With Profile Extra Fields (Easy & Simple)
This method allows you to quickly and easily add extra fields to user profiles and user registration forms in WordPress. It is a little less flexible, but it gets the job done.
Once the plugin is activated, it’s time to create some additional user profile fields to use on your registration forms.
We are going to create a phone number field as an example, but you can add as many of these fields as you want.
First, visit the Profile Extra Fields » Add New page from the WordPress admin sidebar. From here, type the name of the field next to the ‘Name’ option.
For example, if you are creating a field for users to submit their phone number, then you can type ‘Phone Number’ as the field name.
After that, select a field type from the dropdown menu. If you are adding a social media profile field, then you can use the ‘Text Field’ option.
However, if you want a field for phone numbers, then you need to select that option from the dropdown menu.
After that, you can also type a pattern for your phone number field or add a description for it.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Field Properties’ section and check the boxes for the user roles that you want this field to be displayed for.
For instance, if you want this field to be displayed for all the authors registering on your WordPress site, then you can check the box next to this user role.
You can choose as many user roles as you want.
Next, you can also check the ‘Required’ box if you don’t want users to register without filling in this field in the form. Make sure that the ‘Always Show in User Registration Form’ box is checked so that your user field will be displayed in the form.
Finally, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Now, you will need to go into your WordPress dashboard to change some settings for new registrations.
Head to the Settings » General page in your WordPress admin area and then check the membership box so that anyone can register on your website.
Next, you need to make sure that the default role is set to the role which you have added extra fields for. After that, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
This way, you can control the level of access new users have, and this will force the registration form to show the fields you selected earlier in this tutorial.
Here’s what the default registration form looked like on our demo website.
Bonus: Make a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress
The methods in this tutorial have shown you how to add extra user profile fields to the default WordPress registration form.
However, if you would like to create a custom user registration form in WordPress, then you can also easily do that by using the WPForms plugin.
It is the best WordPress form plugin that allows you to design your own user registration form using drag and drop. It also integrates seamlessly with plugins like Advanced Custom Fields, so you can easily insert additional user profile fields.
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Are you looking to make the most of custom fields on your WordPress website?
Custom fields are a handy WordPress feature that allows you to add extra data and information to your WordPress posts and pages. A lot of popular WordPress plugins and themes use custom fields to store important data.
In this article, we will show you how to use WordPress custom fields with some tips, tricks, and hacks.
Since this is a long article, we have added a table of contents for easier navigation. Just use the quick links below to jump to the section you want to read:
The second part is the information about that content. For example, the title, author, date, time, and more. This information is called metadata.
A WordPress website automatically adds all the required metadata to each post or page you create. You can also create and store your own metadata by using custom fields.
By default, the custom fields option is hidden on the post edit screen. To view it, you need to click on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the screen and select ‘Preferences’ from the menu.
This will open a popup where you need to switch to the ‘Panels’ tab and then enable the ‘Custom fields’ option.
After that, simply click on the ‘Enable & Reload’ button to reload the post editor.
The post editor will reload, and you will be able to see the Custom Fields panel below the content editor.
Custom fields can be used to add any information related to the post, page, or other content type. This meta information can then be displayed in your theme.
However, to do that, you will need to edit your WordPress theme files.
Note: This tutorial is recommended for users who are already familiar with editing theme files. It is also helpful for aspiring WordPress developers who want to learn how to properly use custom fields in their own themes or plugins.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to add and use custom fields in WordPress.
Adding Custom Fields in WordPress
First, you need to open a post or page in the block editor so that you can add custom fields. Then, you must go to the Custom Fields meta box.
Next, you need to provide a Name for your custom field and then enter its Value. Click on the ‘Add Custom Field’ button to save it.
The field will be stored and displayed in the Custom Fields meta box like this:
You can edit this custom field any time you want and then just click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes. You can also delete it if you don’t want to use it anymore.
Now, you need to save your post to store your custom field settings.
Displaying Custom Fields in WordPress Themes
To display your custom field on your website, you will need to edit your WordPress theme files and code snippets.
We don’t recommend directly editing the theme files because the slightest mistake can break your website. An easier way to do this is by using WPCode.
It is the best code snippet plugin for WordPress that lets you add custom code and manage snippets from your WordPress dashboard.
Upon activation, you will need to go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet from the WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
Now you need to copy this code to add to your theme files:
From here, you can scroll down to the Insertion section.
Here, you can select where the code will run. By default, WPCode will Auto Insert the code and run it everywhere on your website.
However, you can change this and select where you would like the custom field to appear.
For example, we will choose the ‘Page Specific’ tab and select the ‘Insert Before Post’ option. This way, the custom field will appear at the beginning of the blog post.
You can now save your changes and visit the post where you added the custom field to see it in action.
You can use this custom field in all your other WordPress blog posts as well.
You can also easily adjust the custom field for different blog posts. Simply create a new post or edit an existing one.
Then, go to the Custom Fields meta box and select your custom field from the dropdown menu and enter its Value.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Add Custom Field’ button to save your changes and then publish or update your post.
Troubleshooting: Can’t Find Custom Field in Dropdown on Post Edit Screen
By default, WordPress only loads 30 custom fields in the dropdown menu on the post edit screen.
If you are using WordPress themes and plugins that already use custom fields, then those might appear first in the dropdown menu, and you won’t be able to see your newly-created custom field.
To fix this issue, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or by using WPCode (recommended):
Upon activation, you need to visit the ACF » Field Groups page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.
A field group is like a container with a set of custom fields. It allows you to add multiple panels of custom fields.
Now, you need to provide a title for your field group and click the ‘+ Add Field’ button in the top-right corner.
You can now select a field type.
Advanced Custom Fields allows you to create all sorts of fields, including text, image upload, number, dropdown, checkboxes, and more.
Next, you can scroll down to see other options for that particular field, like field name, field label, and default value. You can change them to your own requirements.
You can also add multiple fields to your field group if you want. Once you are finished, just click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Next, edit a post or create a new one, and you will see a new panel with your WordPress custom fields below the content editor.
How to Hide Empty Custom Fields With Conditional Statements
So far, we have covered how to create a custom field and display it in your theme.
Now let’s see how to check that the custom field is not empty before displaying it. To do that, we will modify our code to first check if the field has data in it:
Don’t forget to replace Mood with your own custom field name.
Adding Multiple Values to a Custom Field
Custom fields can be reused in the same post to add multiple values. You just need to select the field again and add another value to the ‘Value’ box.
However, the code we have used in the above examples will only be able to show a single value.
To display all values of a custom field, we need to modify the code and make it return the data in an array. You will need to add the following code to your theme file:
Again, don’t forget to replace Mood with your own custom field name.
In this example, you will notice that we have changed the last parameter of get_post_meta function to false. This parameter defines whether the function should return a single value or not. Setting it to false allows it to return the data as an array, which we then displayed in a foreach loop.
How to Search Posts by Custom Field in WordPress
WordPress’s default search doesn’t work with any custom fields on your website. It only uses the content to find the post you or your visitors are looking for on your site.
However, SearchWP changes that by improving your WordPress search. It’s the best WordPress search plugin that goes beyond using the post content and indexes everything, including WordPress custom fields, PDF documents, custom tables, text, files, and more.
You can adjust the search algorithm without editing code using SearchWP. Simply install the plugin and then head over to SearchWP » Algorithm from your WordPress admin area.
After that, you need to go to the ‘Engines’ tab and then adjust the Attribute Relevance slider. This will change the importance given to each attribute during a search.
For instance, you can set the Custom Fields slider to maximum and adjust sliders for other attributes accordingly. This way, SearchWP will give preference to data in custom fields when searching for content in WordPress.
Another advantage of using SearchWP is that works with some of the most popular custom field plugins, including Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Meta Box, and Pods.
WordPress allows you to display posts with custom keys and their values. For example, if you are trying to create a custom archive page to display all posts with specific custom keys, then you can use the WP_Query class to query posts matching those fields.
You can use the following code as a starting point:
$args = array(
'meta_key' => 'Mood',
'meta_value' => 'Happy'
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
<?php
// the query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args ); ?>
<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : ?>
<!-- the loop -->
<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<!-- end of the loop -->
<!-- pagination here -->
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
<?php else : ?>
<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
Don’t forget to replace meta_key and meta_value parameters with your own values.
How to Add Guest Author Name Using Custom Fields
Do you want to add a guest post but don’t want to add a new user profile just for that post? An easier method is adding a guest author name as a custom field.
To do this, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode (recommended):
This code hooks a function to the_author and get_the_author_display_namefilters in WordPress.
The function first checks for the guest author’s name. If it exists, then it replaces the author’s name with the guest author’s name.
Now you will need to edit the post where you want to display the guest author’s name. Go to the Custom Fields meta box, add your guest author name, and finally click on the ‘Add Custom Field’ button.
How to Display Contributors to an Article Using Custom Fields
On many popular blogs and news sites, many authors contribute to writing a single article. However, WordPress only allows a single author to be associated with a post.
Another method is adding contributors as a custom field.
First, you need to edit the post where you want to display co-authors or contributors. Then, scroll down to the Custom Fields meta box and add author names as co-author custom fields.
Now, you need to add this code to your theme files where you want to show co-authors:
One way to do this is by using custom fields. Just edit the post or page where you want to show a different sidebar and then add the sidebar as a custom field.
Now you need to edit your WordPress theme file, such as single.php, where you want to display a custom sidebar. You will be looking for the following code:
This code simply looks for the sidebar custom field and then displays it in your theme. For example, if you add webpage as your sidebar custom field, then the code will look for a sidebar-webpage.php file to display.
You will need to create the sidebar-webpage.php file in your theme folder. You can copy the code from your theme’s sidebar.php file as a starting point.
Manipulating RSS feed Content With Custom Fields
Want to display additional metadata or content to your RSS feed users? Using custom fields you can manipulate your WordPress RSS feed and add custom content into your feeds.
First, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode (recommended):
Now, just create a custom field called ‘coolcustom’ and add any value you like. You can use it to display advertisements, images, text, or anything you want.
How to Manipulate RSS Feed Title With Custom Fields
Sometimes you may want to add extra text to a post title for RSS feed users. For example, this can be handy if you are publishing a sponsored post or a guest post.
First, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode to add the custom code snippet without breaking your website:
Next, you need to edit the post where you want to display the extra text in the title field.
Then, add guest_post and sponsored_post as custom fields.
If either of these two custom fields is found with a value “true”, then the code will add the appropriate text before the title. This technique can be used in many ways to fit whatever you like.
How to Set Expiration Date for Posts in WordPress Using Custom Fields
Want to set an expiration date for some posts on your WordPress site? This comes in handy when you want to publish content only for a specific period like running surveys or limited-time offers.
One way to do this is by manually removing the post content or by using a plugin like Post Expirator.
Another option is using custom fields to automatically expire posts after a specific time. You will need to edit your theme files and modify the WordPress loop like this:
<?php
if (have_posts()) :
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
$expirationtime = get_post_meta($post->ID, "expiration", false);
if( count( $expirationtime ) != '' ) {
if (is_array($expirationtime)) {
$expirestring = implode($expirationtime);
}
$secondsbetween = strtotime($expirestring)-time();
if ( $secondsbetween >= 0 ) {
echo 'This post will expire on ' .$expirestring.'';
the_content();
} else {
echo "Sorry this post expired!"
}
} else {
the_content();
}
endwhile;
endif;
?>
Note: You will need to edit this code to match your theme.
After adding this code, you can add the expiration custom field to the post you want to expire. Make sure you add the time in this format mm/dd/yyyy 00:00:00.
How to Style Individual Posts Using Custom Fields
Want to change the look of an individual post using CSS? WordPress automatically assigns each post its own class, which you can use to add custom CSS.
However, by using custom fields, you can add your own custom classes and then use them to style posts differently.
First, you need to edit a post that you would like to style differently. Go to the Custom Fields box and add the post-class custom field.
Next, you need to edit your WordPress theme files and add this code at the beginning of the WordPress loop:
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