Custom Field Columns

Why use Custom Field Column

Custom Fields are a great tool in WordPress that allows you to enhance your Post or User with additional metadata. What Admin Columns allows you to do is display custom field data on your Posts and User list tables within the WordPress admin, making the list table a lot more useful.

Example Usage

This custom post contains listed cars. All visible fields are added with the use of the Custom Field column. The Custom Field column supports multiple field types, such as: prices, checkmarks (Sold column), relational data (Features column), and Images. All custom field columns are  sortable and can be filtered.

How to display a Custom Field on the Posts list table

1. Go to the column settings screen: Dashboard > Settings > Admin Columns.
   
2. Select List Table from the Menu.
3. Click the + Add Column button in the lower right.
   
4. Select Custom Field from the Type dropdown.
   
5. Select your field key from the Field dropdown. All meta keys that are associated with the post type will be available.
   
6. Select your Field Type. This will format the value when displaying it on the list table.
   Some field types have extra settings. In this example, you can set the width and height of the image.
   
7. Click Update to save your columns.
   
8. Click on View to see the added column on the Posts list table.
   
9. The custom field data is now visible on the posts list table.
   
   

Settings for a Custom Field Column

You can customize the displayed output for each type of custom field data. Here is a screenshot of settings for an image field type:

1. Common settings

   All columns have common settings to set their label and width in pixels or percentages.

   Name	Description
   Type	The currently selected column type. Use the dropdown to change it to another column type.
   Label	Change the label of the column header. Use the icon picker if you want an icon as its label.
   Width	Change the width of the column in pixels or percentages.

2. Custom Field settings

   Name	Description
   Field	Select your custom field meta key from the list of available keys.
   Field Type	This determines how your data will be displayed. e.g. text or an image. See all available custom field types.

3. Unique Field Type settings

   Some field types have unique settings that allow you to fine-tune how the content is being displayed. For example, these settings are unique to the image type:

   Name	Description
   Image Size	Set the dimensions of the image that is shown on the list table.
   Link To	Optionally you can link the image to its URL.
   Number of Items	Set a limit on the number of images that are being displayed.
   Before	Adds a prefix to the displayed column value. e.g. $ for prices
   After	Adds a suffix to the displayed column value

4. Additional features

   The Custom Field Column has additional functionality:

   Export	Allows you to export any custom field data from the list table to a CSV file.
   Sorting	Make your custom field data sortable. Sort the content of your columns ascending and descending on the list table.
   Inline Editing	It's like WordPress Quick Edit but better. It is easier to use and it works on custom field data. Inline Editing will be a huge time saver when you are making many changes.
   Bulk Editing	This allows you to select multiple or all posts and make changes to your custom field data in bulk.
   Smart Filtering	Smart Filters are very powerful filters that allow you to filter and search your custom field data very specifically. You can search partial strings or exact matches per custom field.

Available Custom Field Types

Admin Columns allows you to add any custom field data to the post list table in the admin. The Custom Field Column supports a wide range of custom field data types:

Inline- and Bulk-Edit Custom Fields

Read about how to Inline- and Bulk-edit custom fields.

Serialized Data

WordPress will store arrays or objects within a custom field as serialized data. You can display serialized data with the Custom Field column by selecting Multiple values as its Field Type.

An example of an array stored within a custom field:
Array ( [0] => Apple [1] => Banana [2] => Orange );

This will be display by the Custom Field column as: Apple, Banana, Orange

Compatible Custom Field Plugins

We have integrations available for displaying custom field data created with the use of these plugins:

• Advanced Custom Fields
• Pods
• Toolset Types
• Meta Box

Supported List Tables

• Posts
• Pages
• Custom Post Types
• Users
• Taxonomies
• Comments
• Media