Easeful Themes for ACF displays field groups however Advanced Custom Fields stores them — in the database, as local JSON files or registered in PHP — but you can only change a group’s design in its Design tab when ACF lets you edit that group.
How Groups You Can’t Edit Are Displayed #
A field group that has no Design tab settings yet is displayed with the defaults:
- automatic display on, after the post content, on every post matching the group’s location rules;
- the ‘Classic’ theme;
- the fields in their order in ACF, all at ‘Full’ width, none hidden.
That applies to a brand-new group you haven’t saved a design for, and to any group you can’t open in ACF. The shortcode and the template tag work with every group too: copy the group’s key, the group_… value ACF shows for it, into [easeful_themes_for_acf group="group_…"], and add theme="…" to use another theme than ‘Classic’.
How to Design a Local JSON Field Group #
ACF’s local JSON keeps a copy of each field group as a file in your theme’s acf-json folder. When a group exists only as a file, which is common after deploying a site or switching branches, ACF doesn’t show it as editable until you sync it.
- Go to ACF → Field Groups. Groups that exist only as JSON files are listed under ‘Sync available’ at the top of the list.
- Sync the group. It’s now stored in the database as well, and ACF keeps its JSON file up to date whenever you save it.
- Edit the field group, scroll down to its Settings box and switch to the ‘Design’ tab to choose its theme, layout and display settings, then click ‘Save Changes’.
Easeful Themes for ACF stores the design by the group’s key, separately from the group itself, so syncing the group again later, or editing its JSON file, never resets the design.
Because the design is stored in the site’s database and not in the JSON file, it doesn’t travel with the file. When you deploy a local JSON group to another site, set its design there as well, and create or copy over any of your own themes it uses: themes live in the database too. A group whose theme doesn’t exist on that site uses ‘Classic’.
How PHP-Registered Field Groups Work #
A field group registered in code with acf_add_local_field_group() can’t be edited in ACF at all, so it has no Design tab, and it’s displayed with the defaults listed above, including automatic display.
To place it yourself with a different theme, use the shortcode or the template tag with the theme option, for example easeful_themes_for_acf_the_group( 'group_…', null, array( 'theme' => 'minimal' ) ). To give it a full design — field order, widths, hidden fields, or automatic display turned off — create the group in ACF or as local JSON instead, which gives it a Design tab.
