Bricks builder and Carbon Fields

How To
1

Hi All,

As a newcomer to bricks, I have a question I’d like to ask :slight_smile:

Does anyone ever use Brick with Carbon Fields? GitHub - htmlburger/carbon-fields: WordPress Custom Fields Library ✨

I did a few Gutenberg sites with carbon fields before and the experience & performance were great.
It is the only free alternative I found that offers comparable features to ACF Pro. eg: repeaters, dynamic sections (complex fields), custom blocks, options page, etc. Basically a good alternative for sites that can’t afford/dont want ACF pro subscription.

I am aware that it’s not officially supported by bricks, and with the nature of page builder, declaring custom fields via PHP code may be not popular.

But wondering if it has been done before. I’m curious to find out if carbon field integration is challenging or feasible/worth trying.
I guess I need to write something like a custom data provider?

Thanks!

1 Like
2

Hi

Very interesting. Never heard of Carbon Fields, but sounds like a good free solution.

I think all you would need is a code element with

<?php
echo carbon_get_the_post_meta( 'field-name-here' ); 
?>

and I guess Bricks would show the value in the front-end.

You could even try

{echo:carbon_get_the_post_meta( ‘field-name-here’ )}

Within a dynamic field and see if Bricks shows the value.

Cheers

Patric

3

Thanks Patric,
That’s interesting, i’ll play around with it when i got chance and see how it works with more complex data like repeater :slight_smile:

4

Just did quick POC and turn out integration is easy :slight_smile:
Outputting fields is just like @Patric 's code above.

For repeater, we can create new bricks query type like in this thread.

With above i can easily create dynamic sections system… similar to ACF pro’s Flexible content

I’d like to share the example:
Here i have 2 type of sections: hero banner and content.

Carbon fields fields setup:

<?php
use Carbon_Fields\Container;
use Carbon_Fields\Field;

add_action( 'carbon_fields_register_fields', 'crb_attach_post_meta' );
function crb_attach_post_meta() {
    Container::make( 'post_meta', 'Sections' )
        ->where( 'post_type', '=', 'page' )
        ->add_fields( array(
          Field::make( 'complex', 'crb_sections' )
            ->add_fields( 'hero_banner', array(
                Field::make( 'text', 'title', __( 'Title' ) ),
                Field::make( 'image', 'image', __( 'Image' ) )
            ) )
            ->add_fields( 'content', array(
                Field::make( 'text', 'title', __( 'Title' ) )
            ) )
        ));
}

*with carbon fields, fields declaration is via code. but you can see the syntax is very elegant.

Then create new bricks query type and its output

// add query type
add_filter( 'bricks/setup/control_options', function( $control_options ) {
    $control_options['queryTypes']['carbon_fields_sections'] = esc_html__( 'Carbon Fields Sections', 'my-plugin' );
    return $control_options;
} );

// output the sections data
add_filter( 'bricks/query/run', function( $results, $query_obj ) {
    if ( $query_obj->object_type !== 'carbon_fields_sections' ) {
        return $results;
    }

    return carbon_get_the_post_meta('crb_sections');  
}, 10, 2 );

// helper for get the field value
function get_section_object_property( $name ) {
    $loop_object = \Bricks\Query::get_loop_object();
    if ( ! $loop_object ) return false;
    if ( ! is_array( $loop_object ) ) return false;
    if ( ! array_key_exists( $name, $loop_object ) ) return false;
    return $loop_object[$name];
}

Then in bricks:

image
image899×960 54.6 KB

and then in editor, author can just manage sections

image
image1271×623 49.4 KB

I like this method because it can provide good separation between content and layout/design.
so the author can avoid repetitive duplication of blocks, and just manage content without risking messing up with the layout & style.
At least until bricks provide proper components system

Thanks

2 Likes
5

Looks like a good and affordable alternative to ACF.

Well done!

1 Like