How to Send an Email Notification After Updating ACF Fields in WordPress After ACF field updates

Описание: Discover how to ensure that your WordPress email notifications reflect the most recent updates to ACF fields with this step-by-step guide.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/62221356/ asked by the user 'Yorlinq' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10291365/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/62241489/ provided by the user 'Yorlinq' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10291365/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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WordPress Post Update - After ACF Field Updates

When working with WordPress, especially using the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, you might encounter a common roadblock: sending email notifications after updating fields. The problem arises because field updates are saved after post updates, causing the email to send with outdated information. If you've found yourself stuck in this frustrating cycle, don't worry! In this guide, I will walk you through how to adjust your WordPress functions so that your email notifications reflect the latest ACF values.

Understanding the Problem

You may have noticed that when a post is updated, the email notifications sent reflect the previous values of any ACF fields. This occurs because the post is saved, and then field updates happen afterward, leaving you with a lag between the actual post status and the email being sent.

Let's break it down:

Scenario: You change the status of a "booking" in your WordPress site.

Expectation: You want an email to be sent with the updated status.

Reality: The email is sent using the status before the change.

This issue results in emails not containing the most up-to-date information, which can lead to confusion for both administrators and users.

The Solution

To tackle this issue, we need to ensure that the email is sent after all the ACF fields have been updated. Here’s how to correctly set up your function to send emails after the post update is complete.

Step 1: Hook into the Correct Action

We will make use of the acf/save_post action hook. This hook gives us the ability to run code right after ACF saves the post data.

Step 2: Modify the Function to Send Emails

Here’s an improved version of the function that ensures the email notification operates on the latest field values:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Key Changes Made

Post Type Check: Ensure the function only operates on the "booking" post type.

Conditional Email Sending: Only trigger the email if the ACF's send_email field is set to 'yes'.

Dynamic Subject and Body: The email subject and body are pulled dynamically based on the updated status field value.

Final Thoughts

By making these adjustments, your WordPress site will now send email notifications with the correct and most recent ACF field updates. Remember to test the functionality to ensure everything works seamlessly, and feel free to adapt the code to fit your specific needs.

With these steps, you can effectively manage your email notifications in WordPress, ensuring accuracy and enhancing communication with your site's users. Happy coding!