ACF URL field not linking properly

The ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) plugin in WordPress allows you to create custom fields for your posts, pages, and other content types. One of the field types provided by ACF is the URL field, which allows you to store URLs in your custom fields. However, sometimes the URL field may not link properly when displayed on the front-end of your website.

To fix this issue, you can use the esc_url() function provided by WordPress. This function ensures that the URL is properly formatted and safe for output. You can use it to sanitize the URL value retrieved from the ACF URL field before displaying it.

Here’s an example code snippet that demonstrates how to use esc_url() to fix the ACF URL field not linking properly:

<?php
// Retrieve the URL value from the ACF URL field
$url = get_field('your_acf_url_field');

// Sanitize the URL using esc_url()
$sanitized_url = esc_url($url);

// Display the sanitized URL
echo '<a href="' . $sanitized_url . '">Visit Website</a>';
?>

In the code snippet above, get_field('your_acf_url_field') retrieves the URL value from the ACF URL field. Then, esc_url() is used to sanitize the URL and store it in the $sanitized_url variable. Finally, the sanitized URL is displayed as a link using the <a> HTML tag.

By using esc_url() to sanitize the URL value, you ensure that it is properly formatted and safe for output, resolving any issues with the ACF URL field not linking properly.

Examples

Example 1: Fixing ACF URL field linking issue with wp_make_link_relative()

This example demonstrates how to fix the issue where the ACF URL field does not link properly by using the wp_make_link_relative() function.

function wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking( $url ) {
    return wp_make_link_relative( $url );
}
add_filter( 'acf/format_value/type=url', 'wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking' );

In this code example, we define a custom function wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking() that takes the URL value as a parameter and uses the wp_make_link_relative() function to make the URL relative. We then add a filter acf/format_value/type=url to apply this function whenever an ACF URL field value is formatted.

Example 2: Fixing ACF URL field linking issue with parse_url()

This example demonstrates an alternative approach to fix the ACF URL field linking issue by using the parse_url() function.

function wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking( $url ) {
    $parsed_url = parse_url( $url );
    return $parsed_url['path'];
}
add_filter( 'acf/format_value/type=url', 'wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking' );

In this code example, we define the wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking() function that takes the URL value as a parameter. We use the parse_url() function to parse the URL and retrieve the path component. This ensures that only the path is returned, fixing the linking issue. The function is then added as a filter to the acf/format_value/type=url hook.

Example 3: Fixing ACF URL field linking issue with str_replace()

This example demonstrates another approach to fix the ACF URL field linking issue by using the str_replace() function.

function wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking( $url ) {
    $home_url = home_url();
    $relative_url = str_replace( $home_url, '', $url );
    return $relative_url;
}
add_filter( 'acf/format_value/type=url', 'wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking' );

In this code example, we define the wpsnippets_fix_acf_url_field_linking() function that takes the URL value as a parameter. We retrieve the home URL using home_url() and then use str_replace() to replace the home URL with an empty string, effectively making the URL relative. Finally, we add the function as a filter to the acf/format_value/type=url hook.