Have your WordPress forms, videos, or iFrames stopped working?
Here’s a Comprehensive Guide to getting them fixed.
Are you encountering issues with your WordPress embeds that use Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)? Don’t worry; you’re not alone!
This guide will help you understand and fix common ACF issues, ensuring your website runs smoothly. Need help straight away? Get in touch today
Understanding the Problem
ACF is a powerful plugin that allows the customisation of WordPress content.
However, conflicts can arise, particularly with embedded items in forms. Identifying these conflicts is the first step in resolving them.
Symptoms of the Issue
If your forms, videos, iframes or other embedded code items don’t behave as expected, you might notice errors, odd-looking code, missing data, or crashes.
Such issues can significantly impact your website’s usability and frustrate your visitors.
Steps to Diagnose the Issue
Diagnosing ACF issues involves careful testing, examining error logs, and using debugging tools. By isolating the problem, you can pinpoint the root cause more effectively.
Solutions to Resolve the Issue
We’ll explore various methods to fix ACF problems:
- Updating ACF plugin: Keeping your ACF plugin and related dependencies up-to-date can often resolve compatibility issues.
- Adjusting ACF Field Settings: Tweaking ACF field settings, especially those related to embedded items, can help mitigate conflicts.
- Customising Theme or Plugin Code: Customising code might be necessary for more complex issues. We’ll provide tips and precautions for safely modifying your site’s code.
It can be a Quick Fix
We can achieve this with our Quick Fix offering.
Testing and Verifying the Solution
After implementing fixes, thorough testing is crucial. Verify that your forms behave correctly across different browsers and devices, and don’t forget to gather user feedback.
Preventative Measures and Best Practices
To prevent future ACF headaches, we recommend a proactive approach to maintenance, such as ensuring regular updates and best practices for managing WordPress plugins and themes are applied. We also share helpful tips and hints on our blog.
The technical aspects.
Note that this section goes into a lot more technical detail about the issue.
The recent Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) 6.2.5 update has introduced essential security fixes, particularly regarding the handling of unsafe HTML.
This update is critical for ensuring the safety of your WordPress site but may also cause problems its if not managed properly.
Here’s how we can assist you in getting your site sorted:
Understanding the Update
ACF 6.2.5 addresses a vulnerability that allowed users with the role of contributor or higher to insert potentially malicious HTML through custom fields.
This update introduces the escaping of HTML output to prevent such security risks.
Future updates (ACF 6.2.7) will extend these changes to additional functions like the_field() and the_sub_field().
Potential Issues and Impacts
- Breaking Changes: If your site uses shortcodes to display HTML (scripts, iframes, video embeds etc.), this update could disrupt functionality.
- Admin Notices: The update triggers notices in the admin panel, indicating fields affected by the new escaping rules.
- HTML Handling: Ensuring custom fields that need to output raw HTML continue to function as intended.
Our Support Services
- Compatibility Checks and Testing
- We perform comprehensive testing on your WordPress site to identify and resolve issues arising from the new HTML escaping.
- Ensure all custom fields, mainly those outputting raw HTML, are correctly configured.
- Custom Code Adjustments
- Update your codebase to use safe methods for outputting HTML, such as
echo get_field()with appropriate escaping. - Implement necessary filters to allow specific fields to bypass HTML escaping where needed.
- Update your codebase to use safe methods for outputting HTML, such as
- Admin Notice Management
- Configure your WordPress admin to manage or suppress unnecessary notices while keeping essential alerts active.
- Provide training and documentation on interpreting and handling admin notices related to ACF updates.
- Security Best Practices
- Ensure that only trusted users have access to fields that can output raw HTML to enhance your site’s security.
- Regularly update plugins and themes to incorporate the latest security patches and improvements.
- Ongoing Support and Monitoring
- Provide continuous monitoring to ensure your site remains secure and functional post-update.
- Offer timely support for any issues that arise from future ACF updates or other security patches.
We can help you manage the transition to ACF 6.2.5 and beyond, ensuring your site remains secure and operational.
Our expert team is ready to assist with any challenges, providing peace of mind and technical expertise.
For more detailed information on the ACF 6.2.5 security release, you can visit the official ACF blog.
Conclusion
In conclusion, addressing ACF issues promptly is key to maintaining a seamless user experience on your WordPress site.
By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can confidently tackle ACF problems.
