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Pre-Populated Custom Field Manager/Plugin? WordPress

  • SOLVED

Ok, I'll try to make this as brief, yet descriptive, as possible.

I'm new to WP first and foremost.

I've got a database of DVD reviews that's working as I want in my new WP site. But when I add new reviews, I have to manually use the custom fields that were ported over from my old site.

Essentially I just want/need a way so that these fields are already "there" when I add a new review. I have fields for Director, Running Time, Rating, etc. So it's physically possible for me to manually select a field from the dropdown menu and add this information, but it would be nice if when I added a new review, that custom field was already there and I could just enter the information via a text field, dropdown menu (for rating and so forth) or by selecting checkboxes.

I'm 99.9% sure this is possible, but I don't know enough about Wordpress and plugins to make this happen.

I've attached two screen shots. The first is what a pre-existing review looks like with the custom fields at the bottom.

The next is what my screen looks like when I try and add a new review.

I don't care if you want to add some custom code to the site or if there's a plugin that will make this work. I've downloaded about half a dozen plugins so far, but can't seem to get them to work the way I want them to.

As long as it works - that's all I care about.

This is my first post here, so not really sure how this site works. I guess I'll find out though.

Answers (2)

2012-02-07

Giri answers:

Hello foulmouthedleon,

Please try magic fields plugin.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/magic-fields-2/

It has all the features you wanted. I already tried many custom fields plugin. Magic fields 2 is the best i've tried so far. Please try it.


Giri comments:

Here are the steps :

Dashboard -> Magic fields -> Posts (Edit fields/groups ) -> Create a field -> Fill the necessary details -> Save

Do the above steps for all fields


Giri comments:

Here is the sample interface screenshot
http://s.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/magic-fields-2/screenshot-1.jpg?r=501790


Giri comments:

Let me show you an example:

To create a custom field called "Award" follow this steps.

Dashboard -> Magic fields -> Posts (Edit fields/groups ) -> Create a field ->

Label: Award
Name: award (No capital letters)
Help Text: Please enter award details
Type of custom filed : Textbox
Required? : If yes check it
Can be duplicated? : I think this field doesn't require duplication. So don't check it.

Then save custom field.

If you click "Posts -> Add new" You can see your field at the bottom.


foulmouthedleon comments:

This looks like it'll do the trick for me. One quick question...

I've already got nearly 7000 reviews in my database. As you can see from my screen shot, a field is called "AuthorEmail" but the Magic Fields won't let me enter that in, instead it's got to be "authoremail".

I really don't want to go back and retroactively change all 7000 of my old custom fields. What options do I have? Or are "AuthorEmail" and "authoremail" the same (I have no idea if case matters or not).


Giri comments:

Hello foulmouthedleon,
Don't worry about that.

You don't have to change anything. You can able to display magic field values by using the following code. You should include it in your template (single.php) file

<?php echo get('award'); ?>

You can use the following code instead of above code if you don't want to display empty custom fields :

<?php
if (function_exists('get'))
{
$award = get('award');
if ($award)
{
echo $award;
}
}
?>


Hope that helps.




Giri comments:

Please note, You need to insert code in the template for each and every custom field. I given the above code by taking you 'award' custom field sample. 'award' is the value which you give for custom field "name".

Take a look at this screenshot
http://s.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/magic-fields-2/screenshot-1.jpg?r=501790

Here name is textfield1.

So you should duplicate the above code and replace all 'award' values with 'textfield1'

I mean like this

<?php

if (function_exists('get'))

{

$textfield1 = get('textfield1');

if ($textfield1)

{

echo $textfield1;

}

}

?>


Your existing 7000 reviews will use existing default custom fields.
Your new posts will use magic fields


Giri comments:

And one more point: As i mentioned earlier you cannot use capital letters while filling name. Thats why you couldn't enter "AuthorEmail"


foulmouthedleon comments:

Ok, that does make sense but if I add the code "award" in my template.php file as you mention, will that affect the other reviews that use something like "awards"?

What I mean to say is that if I go forward using these "new" values instead of my older, established ones, will it affect the way my pages are shown? I use widgets to display the custom fields from my existing reviews, but don't know what I'll need to do if those custom field names are changed by using this plugin.

Does that make sense?


Giri comments:

No it will not affect others


Giri comments:

If you are really afraid then give unique "name" while filling values. I mean like 'mfaward'.
That name field is only for template functions. So you can give any name


foulmouthedleon comments:

Ok. I'm not really sure how this is going to work, but I'll give it a try.

Can I just give you access to my site and you can see what I'm talking about?


Giri comments:

Sure. send me the login details via PM


foulmouthedleon comments:

Actually MagicFields "broke" my site. I was getting a white screen, but when I removed the directory, all is back to normal.

Has this issue been reported by anyone else?


Giri comments:

No, I'm using magic fields for more than 6 months. I never experienced that problem. Let me see whats wrong


Giri comments:

I just logged in to your site. I see this error in plugins page

<blockquote>The plugin magic-fields-2/main.php has been deactivated due to an error: Plugin file does not exist.</blockquote>


Giri comments:

Hi let me install it and try again.


Giri comments:

Hi i just installed magic fields 2 plugin. Please don't remove it


Giri comments:

Hi there is no problem with that plugin. Everything looks fine. If you get white screen please reload the page. I see you configured everything correctly in the dashboard. Now add the template code. You site will be fine. I can't access front end. I see server error. Could you please fix it and give access to front end?


foulmouthedleon comments:

That's the same screen I was seeing before I removed the plugin. I can't even get into the back end.

All I know is that when I removed that plugin, my site worked and now it's back and I see a white screen. There's got to be a correlation between the two.


Giri comments:

Could you please tell me where you see white screen? Did you refresh that page?

2012-02-07

She Codes answers:

Hi!

You could create a predefined set of meta-boxes, to be displayed on every review (admin) page using this plugin: http://www.farinspace.com/wpalchemy-metabox/

Please, see my screenshot to get a feel of how this would look.

Unfortunately, it cannot be installed as a plugin, but you have to be able to edit your template files.


She Codes comments:

I could assist you in installing the plugin using FTP