CFDev — Code-First Custom Meta Fields for WordPress

Declare custom fields in PHP. No admin UI configuration. No database config drift.

English docs · Lire en français

What is CFDev?

CFDev is a WordPress plugin for developers who want to declare custom fields in PHP and never touch the database config again. Post meta, term meta, user meta — everything is registered in code, versioned with your project, and deployed without migration scripts.

What you get out of the box:

• 30+ field types — text, image, file, select, checkboxes, date, wysiwyg, color, gallery, link, and more
• Post, term and user meta — attach meta boxes to any CPT or taxonomy, and field groups to user profiles
• Options pages — global site settings stored in wp_options, with sub-pages, bundles, tabs, and accordion — no ACF Options add-on needed
• Layout containers — group fields into Bundles (repeatable row groups), Tabs, or Accordions for clean, structured edit screens
• Repeatable fields — any field can be made repeatable with AJAX-powered add/remove
• 25+ validation rules — required, min/max, regex, email, URL… enforced server-side, errors survive the redirect
• File cache — resolved field data cached to disk, invalidated on save, ready for high-traffic reads
• Admin helper — a built-in back-office panel to inspect all registered fields, browse cached data, and flush the cache in one click
• REST API — expose any field (including options) via WP REST with a single 'rest' => true flag

register_cfdev_post_type(['book', 'books'], ['public' => true])
    ->addTaxonomy('genre')
    ->addMetaBox('book_details', 'Book Details', [
        ['id' => 'subtitle',  'type' => 'text',    'label' => 'Subtitle',  'required' => true],
        ['id' => 'cover',     'type' => 'image',   'label' => 'Cover Image'],
        ['id' => 'pages',     'type' => 'number',  'label' => 'Page Count'],
        ['id' => 'published', 'type' => 'date',    'label' => 'Published Date'],
    ]);

Requirements

Installation

Option 1 — Upload via WordPress Admin (recommended)

Download the latest cfdev-plugin-x.x.x.zip from GitHub Releases, then upload it via WordPress Admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.

Option 2 — Manual copy

Extract the zip, rename the folder to cfdev-plugin if needed, then copy it to wp-content/plugins/.

⚠️ Some zip extractors rename the folder after the zip filename (e.g. cfdev-plugin-1.0.4). Rename it to cfdev-plugin before copying.

No Composer required. The plugin ships with a built-in PSR-4 autoloader — no vendor/ directory, no build step.

Quick Start

Create a file in your theme (e.g. cfdev-fields.php) and load it, or use functions.php:

add_action('init', static function (): void {

    register_cfdev_post_type('product', ['public' => true])
        ->addMetaBox('product_info', 'Product Info', [
            ['id' => 'price',    'type' => 'number', 'label' => 'Price',    'required' => true],
            ['id' => 'photo',    'type' => 'image',  'label' => 'Photo'],
            ['id' => 'brochure', 'type' => 'file',   'label' => 'Brochure PDF'],
        ]);

});

Read data in your template:

$cache   = new \Weblitzer\CFDev\Cache\CacheManager();
$data    = $cache->post(get_the_ID());
$product = $data['groups']['product_info'] ?? [];

echo esc_html($product['price'] ?? '');
echo '<img src="' . esc_url($product['photo']['medium'] ?? '') . '" alt="' . esc_attr($product['photo']['alt'] ?? '') . '">';

Documentation

English

Français

Translations

The admin interface is fully translated into 10 languages:

🇫🇷 French · 🇪🇸 Spanish · 🇩🇪 German · 🇧🇷 Portuguese (BR)
🇳🇱 Dutch · 🇮🇹 Italian · 🇯🇵 Japanese · 🇨🇳 Chinese (Simplified)
🇷🇺 Russian · 🇵🇱 Polish

Translation files are located in the languages/ directory (.po, .mo, .l10n.php).
To contribute a new locale, copy languages/cfdev.pot and translate it with Loco Translate or Poedit.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later