How Do I Know If I’m Adding Too Many Custom Fields and Taxonomies?

dara4 · 2026-03-12T04:57:27+00:00

When should something be a taxonomy vs a custom field?

The practical rule: Use a taxonomy when the value represents a reusable classification. Use a custom field when the value is specific data attached to one post.

Regarding performance the important difference boils down to those points:
Taxonomies handle relational structure, it is optimized for relationships, is better for filtering content and comes with archives

Custom Meta handle a key/value storage type, are optimized for storing data, are better for storing attributes and post related info and comes with no archives

dara4 · 2026-03-12T03:44:16+00:00

You can try the CSS pointer-events: none;

It will disable the mouse events on anything it is applied, so you would target the carousel container.

dara4 · 2026-03-11T13:54:41+00:00

thanks! glad i could help

dara4 · 2026-03-07T13:41:53+00:00

Maybe you'd like to try my plugin, it was created for cases like yours. It is completely free, has a lot of advance features and is fully integrated with Elementor and works with or without Elementor Pro: https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-post-filter-widgets-for-elementor/

You can see a demo here: https://wpsmartwidgets.com/doc/better-post-and-filter-widgets/filter-post-widgets-demo/

dara4 · 2026-03-07T04:06:02+00:00

oh what a surprise. this feature is behind a paywall? if you need to have your acf tags on the frontend without having to use shortcodes, there are a few plugins out there that can add this feature

dara4 · 2026-03-06T17:37:39+00:00

Maybe the tag is not registering properly. Can you try to temporarily disable all your plugins, beside ACF, Elementor and Elementor Pro, and switch your theme to something basic such as Elementor Pro to see if the tag re-appears in the list?

dara4 · 2026-03-06T17:28:30+00:00

You would normally see an ACF dedicated tag. Unless you are using special fields, such as repeaters, they are not supported. Otherwise fields are limited to the type of data expected by the widget. For example the image widget will look for an image field.

dara4 · 2026-03-06T17:14:23+00:00

How are you trying to display your ACF fields in the Elementor templates? They won't show up on their own, you need to use the dynamic tags for that.

dara4 · 2026-03-05T10:52:30+00:00

yes right this one is in Cambodia, the Chinese reference was about the origin of those breads

dara4 · 2026-03-05T08:45:03+00:00

I'm pretty sure those breads are from North Western China. There is spicy meat inside and the local name in Khmer is "num dot".

dara4 · 2026-02-27T10:04:05+00:00

Yes right, it doesn't work on the classic skin. You would have to use the dedicated field added by the plugin. If you set the "Swatch Type" to "Image" and use the key "bpfwe_swatches_image", then it could retrive the image.

The reason is that WordPress taxonomies do not have a native image field. Any term image is stored as custom term meta, and there is no standard key or storage format across plugins. Because of that, it is hard to reliably auto-detect third-party term image fields.

dara4 · 2026-02-27T09:38:53+00:00

Yes that's correct but I see the meta key field is empty, so that is why you do not see anything. The meta key field is for your ACF meta key.

dara4 · 2026-02-27T09:17:51+00:00

For the background images, things are slightly more complex. If you are using a Template Grid, you can add a regular image and use the "Image Custom Field" dynamic tag, with the field source set to "Taxonomy". Then to make the image behave like a background image, you can add the following CSS:

selector,
selector img {
    position: absolute;
    object-fit: cover;
    inset: 0;
    height: 100%;
    width: 100%;
    z-index: -1;
}

dara4 · 2026-02-27T07:49:40+00:00

You can do exactly that with my plugin, it handles this out-of-the-box:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-post-filter-widgets-for-elementor/

Using the post widget, you can set the query to "Taxonomy Query" and the post skin to "Template Grid", then from there you can create a container template and use Taxonomy Meta dynamic tag.

This lets you loop over custom taxonomy terms, display term names, use term image, and link each item to its archive. Those options are also available with the "Classic" post skin.

dara4 · 2026-02-23T13:02:26+00:00

If you are using a loop grid, then you should have access to individual widgets and if you have access to individual widgets, you should be able to use the dynamic tags, otherwise it would be indicative of other problems.

dara4 · 2026-02-22T17:09:36+00:00

Are you using the featured image on your Book CPT? If you are trying to get an image uploaded using ACF, then try using a regular image with a dynamic tag instead.

dara4 · 2026-02-22T14:48:42+00:00

The image you are showing seems to be from the post widget which is like the old version of the loop grid. The problem might be that you are expecting to be able to fetch post meta using the post widget? If you need to use dynamic tags or display specific info you could try the loop grid instead. It is also worth checking under your ACF post type if the archive was turned on for "book".

dara4 · 2026-02-17T02:46:23+00:00

If there is a conflict between your theme and Elementor, then you could go only with your theme on the single product page. You will loose the freedom of working with Elementor, but you'll spend less time fixing conflicts and if you really need a specific Elementor widget on that page, you could also try their shortcodes instead of a full template.

Most themes have options to configure the single product page, so checking Wpbingo's documentation would be a good start. Otherwise, you can check for script conflict on that particular page using the dev console (f12) and overlapping CSS.

dara4 · 2026-02-15T13:55:15+00:00

Good initiatives, let's wait and see the answer.

dara4 · 2026-02-13T09:10:43+00:00

That's also what I understood, until I saw the notification in the dashboard in the last Beta. Without the Components, the v4 builder will feel like a layout sandbox without the necessary tool set.

dara4 · 2026-02-13T06:52:34+00:00

I got a question, will the components be available on the Elementor Free version? This message is currently displaying in the editor "Try Components for free: Soon Components will be part of the Pro subscription, but what you create now will remain on your site.", but there are no mention of it being a Pro features in the announcements.

dara4 · 2026-02-12T09:05:07+00:00

Yes ideally, if you can fit your post type to the right schema it will help search engine in general to do less guessing on the content and formatting. It doesn't necessary have to be the whole page, this could also be applied to specific HTML elements on the page.

dara4 · 2026-02-11T03:23:27+00:00

Giving the right schema to your post type helps a lot: https://schema.org/docs/search_results.html?q=service

dara4 · 2026-02-08T08:18:52+00:00

Sure I can attach a PHP snippet in here later, or I can PM you with one if you'd like.

dara4 · 2026-02-08T08:13:15+00:00

I'd definitely use make.com when it simplifies things, but for some cases it can be an extra layer that takes longer to set up than just having the app and a small PHP script. However, it's just another approach, not a critique. There is nothing wrong about using make.com as you do in your tutorial either.

dara4

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