CiviCRM Profile Sync enables integration between CiviCRM Entities and WordPress Entities with data synced via Advanced Custom Fields.
Please be aware that ACF integration is still in development and, although it is limited in its coverage of the entities that can be linked, it is fairly comprehensive in its mapping of the built-in CiviCRM Custom Field Types with their corresponding ACF Field Types.
So if, for example, you want to display (or create) a Contact Type on your WordPress site with ACF Fields that contain synced CiviCRM data, read on.
In general, think of what this plugin does as a way to make data in CiviCRM visible in WordPress via ACF Fields. It is therefore recommended that you configure CiviCRM the way you want it first - so, for example, you should create your Contact Types, Custom Groups and Custom Fields before implementing links between Entities and Fields because (although CiviCRM allows you to alter your setup at any time) CiviCRM Profile Sync may not recognised your changes and may not automatically sync the structural changes to WordPress or ACF.
In addition, given that this plugin is still at an early stage of development, it is highly recommended that you try it out on a test site to gain familiarity with how it works. Test early, test often and make backups. Okay, now that we're clear about that, onwards...
At present the CiviCRM Profile Sync plugin allows you to specify links between:
- CiviCRM Contacts and WordPress Users
- CiviCRM Contact Types and WordPress Custom Post Types
- CiviCRM Events and Event Organiser Events
- CiviCRM Activity Types and WordPress Custom Post Types
- All CiviCRM Participants and a WordPress Custom Post Type
- CiviCRM Participant Roles and WordPress Custom Post Types
- CiviCRM Groups and WordPress Custom Taxonomy
- More entity links to follow...
CiviCRM and CiviCRM Profile Sync between them already support syncing of built-in WordPress User Fields with their equivalent CiviCRM Contact Fields even when ACF is not installed. With ACF installed, this plugin enables syncing of Custom Fields on CiviCRM Contacts with ACF Fields attached to the WordPress User Profiles.
Note: CiviCRM Profile Sync currently only supports the "User Form = Add/Edit" Location Rule on ACF Field Groups.
To link these together, in CiviCRM go to Administer → Customize Data and Screens → Contact Types and edit a Contact Type. You will see a dropdown that allows you to choose a WordPress Post Type to link to the Contact Type you are editing. Choose one and save the Contact Type.
From now on, each time you create a Contact of the Contact Type that you have linked, a new WordPress Post will be created. The "Display Name" of the Contact will become the WordPress Post Title. And - in the reverse direction - each time you create a WordPress Post which is of the Post Type you have linked to a Contact Type, a new Contact will be created with their "Display Name" set to the Title of the new Post.
If you want to make the same kind of links between Events in WordPress and CiviCRM, this plugin is compatible with CiviCRM Event Organiser and enables integration of Custom Fields on CiviCRM Events with ACF Fields attached to the Event Organiser "Event" Post Type.
Important note: Please make sure you have CiviCRM Event Organiser version 0.6.2 or greater.
To link these together, in CiviCRM go to Administer → Customize Data and Screens → Activity Types and edit an Activity Type. You will see a dropdown that allows you to choose a WordPress Post Type to link to the Activity Type you are editing. Choose one and save the Activity Type.
From now on, each time you create an Activity of the Activity Type that you have linked, a new WordPress Post will be created. The "Subject" of the Activity will become the WordPress Post Title. And - in the reverse direction - each time you create a WordPress Post which is of the Post Type you have linked to an Activity Type, a new Activity will be created with their "Subject" set to the Title of the new Post.
CiviCRM Profile Sync provides a WordPress Custom Post Type to sync all Participants with. To enable this feature, in CiviCRM go to Administer → CiviEvent → CiviEvent Component Settings and check the box labelled Enable the "Participant" Custom Post Type. This will also enable a Custom Taxonomy on the "Participant" Custom Post Type which is kept in sync with the Participant Roles in CiviCRM. The Custom Post Type is pre-configured with the relevant ACF Fields.
To add Custom Fields that are assigned to all Participants (and/or assigned to Participants in specific CiviEvents), create an ACF Field Group and add a Location Rule that targets Post Type - is equal to - Participant. You can then add the Fields you need and map them to the CiviCRM Custom Fields.
To add Custom Fields that are assigned to Participants with a particular Participant Role, create an ACF Field Group and add two Location Rules: one that targets Post Type - is equal to - Participant and another that targets Post Taxonomy - is equal to - Your Target Participant Role. You can then add the Fields you need and map them to the CiviCRM Custom Fields.
Note: When properly configured, The ACF Fields assigned to the two Field Groups above will appear and disappear dynamically depending on the options chosen in the "Participant Data" and "Participant Roles" meta boxes.
To link these together, in CiviCRM go to Administer → CiviEvent → Participant Roles and edit a Participant Role. You will see a dropdown that allows you to choose a WordPress Post Type to link to the Participant Role you are editing. Choose one and save the Participant Role.
From now on, each time you create a Participant of the Participant Role that you have linked, a new WordPress Post will be created. The "Display Name" of the Participant will become the WordPress Post Title. And - in the reverse direction - each time you create a WordPress Post which is of the Post Type you have linked to a Participant Role, a new Participant will be created with their "Display Name" set to the Title of the new Post.
Note: Unlike the "All CiviCRM Participants and a WordPress Custom Post Type" functionality, you will have to configure the WordPress Custom Post Type, WordPress Taxonomies, ACF Field Groups and ACF Fields yourself.
CiviCRM Groups can be mapped to WordPress custom taxonomy terms.
When adding/editing a custom taxonomy in the WordPress UI you'll see a dropdown for selecting a CiviCRM Group: CiviCRM Group for ACF Integration.
Once the link between a Contact Type and a Post Type has been made, go to the edit screen of an ACF Field Group. Create a Location Rule that places it on the edit screen of your linked Post Type. Now you can edit your ACF Fields themselves to integrate them with the Contact's data fields. These are split into two kinds:
- "Contact Fields" are those fields that are associated with a Contact by default, e.g. "First Name", "Last Name", "Gender", "Date of Birth" etc
- "Custom Fields" are part of a Custom Group that has been associated with a Contact Type (or other CiviCRM Entity), e.g. "Most Important Issue", "Marital Status" and "Marriage Date" in the "Constituent Information" Custom Group that is part of the CiviCRM sample data. These Fields are listed under the name of Custom Group to which they belong.
ACF Fields of type Select, Radio Button and Checkbox will have their CiviCRM values ported across to the ACF Field "choices" when the Field Group is saved. To link to a Multi-Select CiviCRM Field, you must enable "Select multiple values?" in the ACF Field's settings. If you make changes to the Option Values for a CiviCRM Custom Field mapped to one of these ACF Field Types, you will have to re-save the ACF Field Group(s) that contain the mapped ACF Fields.
Please note that in order to link some kinds of Fields, you may have to save the ACF Field Group before the CiviCRM Field selector shows up and populates correctly. In particular, this applies to:
- "Text" Fields - because ACF does not AJAX-refresh the Field Settings when this Field Type is chosen
- "Multi-Select" Fields - because these map to vanilla ACF "Select" Fields where "Select multiple values?" is checked and, again, there's no AJAX-refresh when the settings are modified
- "Auto-complete" Fields - because these also map to vanilla ACF "Select" Fields where "Stylised UI" and "Use AJAX to lazy load choices?" are checked and, here too, there's no AJAX-refresh
In each of these cases, choose the ACF Field Type, modify the Field Settings as required, save the Field Group, then re-edit the Field. The "CiviCRM Field" setting should then appear and populate appropriately.
The following are the Contact Fields and the kind of ACF Field needed to map them to CiviCRM:
- Prefix & Suffix - ACF Select
- First Name, Middle Name, Last Name - ACF Text
- Email - ACF Email
- Website - ACF Link
- Address - ACF CiviCRM Address (see "Custom ACF Fields" below)
- Address as Map - ACF Google Map (only available in ACF Pro)
- Gender - ACF Radio Button
- Date of Birth & Date of Death - ACF Date Picker
- Deceased - ACF True/False
- Job Title, Source & Nickname - ACF Text
- Employer - ACF CiviCRM Contact Reference (see "Custom ACF Fields" below)
- Phone - ACF CiviCRM Phone (see "Custom ACF Fields" below)
- Instant Messenger - ACF CiviCRM Instant Messenger (see "Custom ACF Fields" below)
- Contact Image - ACF Image
When you select a Field Type for an ACF Field, the "CiviCRM Field" dropdown in the ACF Field's Settings will only show you those CiviCRM Contact Fields which can be mapped to this type of ACF Field.
The following are the Contact "Communication Preferences" Fields and the kind of ACF Field needed to map them to CiviCRM:
- Do not phone - ACF True/False
- Do not email - ACF True/False
- Do not mail - ACF True/False
- Do not sms - ACF True/False
- Do not trade - ACF True/False
- Preferred Communication Method - ACF Checkbox
- Preferred Language - ACF Select
- Email Format - ACF Select
- Communication Style - ACF Select or ACF Radio
The following are the Participant Fields and the kind of ACF Field needed to map them to CiviCRM:
- Registration Date - ACF Date Time Picker
- Event - ACF CiviCRM Event Reference
- Status ID - ACF Select
- Contact - ACF CiviCRM Contact Existing/New
- Source - ACF Text
When you select a Field Type for an ACF Field, the "CiviCRM Field" dropdown in the ACF Field's Settings will only show you those CiviCRM Participant Fields which can be mapped to this type of ACF Field.
When creating a Custom Field in CiviCRM, you need to specify the kind of Data Type that it is - e.g. "Alphanumeric", "Integer", "Number", etc - followed by the Field Type - e.g. "Text", "Select", "Radio", etc. The Field Type pretty much corresponds to the kind of ACF Field that will map to the Custom Field. When you select a Field Type for an ACF Field, the "CiviCRM Field" dropdown in the ACF Field's Settings will only show you those CiviCRM Custom Fields which can be mapped to this type of ACF Field.
The CiviCRM Profile Sync plugin also provides a number of custom ACF Fields which you will see as choices in the "Field Type" dropdown when you add a new ACF Field to a Field Group. These are:
Populates with the numeric ID of the synced CiviCRM Contact.
Syncs with either a CiviCRM "Contact Reference" Custom Field or the "Current Employer" Contact Field.
Syncs between the ACF Field and a CiviCRM Relationship.
Syncs between the ACF Field and a CiviCRM Yes/No Custom Field. This Field Type is necessary because a CiviCRM Yes/No Custom Field is actually a Yes/No/Unknown field and the ACF True-False Field does not allow Unknown.
NOTE: Requires ACF Pro. Syncs with all the CiviCRM "Address" Contact Fields. Use the supplied template functions to display particular Addresses in your templates. Here are some examples:
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All Addresses as list:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong>
<?php echo cwps_get_addresses( 'address_field' ); ?></p>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'Primary Address:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong>
<?php echo cwps_get_primary_address( 'address_field' ); ?></p>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'Main Address:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong>
<?php echo cwps_get_address_by_type_id( 'address_field', 3 ); ?></p>Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration Address functions are still supported.
You can also display Addresses using the Shortcake-compatible [cwps_address] Shortcode. The available attributes are:
field(required) The ACF Field selector.location_type(optional) The desired Addresses Location Type ID.post_id(optional) If omitted, defaults to the current Post ID when used in The Loop. Ifpost_idis specified, Addresses will be retrieved from the ACF Field attached to the Post with that ID.
Some examples might be:
- All Addresses in the current Post:
[cwps_address field="addresses" /] - Home Address as
<address>element from the Post with ID2319:[cwps_address field="addresses" location_type="1" post_id="2319"]
You can narrow down what you display with two other Shortcodes: [cwps_city] and [cwps_state] both of which take the same attributes as [cwps_address]. Some examples might be:
-
Home City from the Post with ID
2319:[cwps_city field="addresses" location_type="1" post_id="2319"] -
Home State from the current Post:
[cwps_state field="addresses" location_type="1"]
Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration [cai_address], [cai_city] and [cai_state] Shortcodes are still supported.
Populates with the name of the City in the synced CiviCRM Address. You can specify either the "Primary Address" or select an Address of a particular "Location Type".
Populates with the name of the State in the synced CiviCRM Address. You can specify either the "Primary Address" or select an Address of a particular "Location Type".
Populates with the name of the Country in the synced CiviCRM Address. You can specify either the "Primary Address" or select an Address of a particular "Location Type".
NOTE: Requires ACF Pro. Syncs with all the CiviCRM "Phone" Contact Fields. Use the supplied template functions to display particular Phone Numbers in your templates. Here are some examples:
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'Primary Phone Number:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong> <?php echo cwps_get_primary_phone_number( 'phone_numbers' ); ?></p>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All Numbers as list:', 'your-slug' ). ' '; ?></strong></p>
<?php echo cwps_get_phone_numbers( 'phone_numbers' ); ?>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All Home Phone Numbers as list:', 'your-slug' ). ' '; ?></strong></p>
<?php echo cwps_get_phone_numbers_by_type_ids( 'phone_numbers', 1 ); ?>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All Home Phone Numbers as string:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong><br />
<?php echo cwps_get_phone_numbers_by_type_ids( 'phone_numbers', 1, null, 'commas' );
?></p>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'Voicemail:', 'your-slug' ). ' '; ?></strong>
<?php echo cwps_get_phone_numbers_by_type_ids( 'phone_numbers', 0, 5, 'commas' );
?></p>Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration Phone functions are still supported.
You can also display Phone Numbers using the Shortcake-compatible [cwps_phone] Shortcode. The available attributes are:
field(required) The ACF Field selector.location_type(optional) The desired Phone Location Type ID.phone_type(optional) The desired Phone Type ID.style(optional - default islist) Choosinglistwill display the Phone Numbers in an unordered list. Choosingcommaswill display the Phone Numbers as a comma-separated string, but when there is only one Phone Number it will not have a trailing comma.post_id(optional) If omitted, defaults to the current Post ID when used in The Loop. Ifpost_idis specified, Phone Records will be retrieved from the ACF Field attached to the Post with that ID.
Some examples might be:
- All Phone Numbers in the current Post as list:
[cwps_phone field="phone_numbers" style="list" post_id="2319" /] - All Home Phone Numbers as string from the Post with ID
2319:[cwps_phone field="phone_numbers" location_type="1" style="commas" post_id="2319"]
Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration [cai_phone] Shortcode is still supported.
NOTE: Requires ACF Pro. Syncs with all the CiviCRM "Instant Messenger" Contact Fields. As with the "CiviCRM Phone" Field, use the supplied template functions to display particular Instant Messenger Records in your templates. Here are some examples:
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'Primary IM:', 'your-slug' ); ?></strong> <?php echo cwps_get_primary_im( 'instant_messenger' ); ?></p>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All IMs as list:', 'your-slug' ). ' '; ?></strong></p>
<?php echo cwps_get_ims( 'instant_messenger' ); ?>
<p><strong><?php esc_html_e( 'All Skype IMs as list:', 'your-slug' ). ' '; ?></strong></p>
<?php echo cwps_get_ims_by_type_ids( 'instant_messenger', null, 6, 'list' ); ?>Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration Instant Messenger functions are still supported.
You can also display Instant Messenger Records using the Shortcake-compatible [cwps_im] Shortcode. The available attributes are:
field(required) The ACF Field selector.location_type(optional) The desired Instant Messenger Location Type ID.im_type(optional) The desired Instant Messenger Provider ID.style(optional - default islist) Choosinglistwill display the Instant Messenger Records in an unordered list. Choosingcommaswill display the Instant Messenger Records as a comma-separated string, but when there is only one Record it will not have a trailing comma.post_id(optional) If omitted, defaults to the current Post ID when used in The Loop. Ifpost_idis specified, Instant Messenger Records will be retrieved from the ACF Field attached to the Post with that ID.
Some examples might be:
- All Instant Messenger Records from the current Post as list:
[cwps_im field="instant_messenger" style="list" /] - All Home Instant Messenger Records as string from the Post with ID
2319:[cwps_im field="instant_messenger" location_type="1" style="commas" post_id="2319"]
Note: the legacy CiviCRM ACF Integration [cai_im] Shortcode is still supported.
Syncs between the ACF Field and the Creator of a CiviCRM Activity.
Syncs between the ACF Field and the Targets of a CiviCRM Activity.
Syncs between the ACF Field and the Assignee of a CiviCRM Activity.
Syncs between the ACF Field and the CiviCRM Event for a Participant.
Syncs between the ACF Field and the CiviCRM Contact for a Participant.
Wholesale changes via the CiviCRM Contact Edit screen should be fully supported. However, there's a lot going on when Contacts are saved that way, so please open an issue if you find anything that needs fixing.
If you alter the settings of a CiviCRM Custom Field then the ACF Field(s) that are mapped to it will not automatically pick up those changes. For the time being, you will need to manually check that the settings on both sides are what you would expect them to be.
The "Multi-Select" option is not supported in CiviCRM 5.34 due to a bug that is fixed in CiviCRM 5.35.
There is no mapping between the CiviCRM "File" and the ACF "File" Field Types yet. This will be released when this commit becomes available in distributed versions of CiviCRM.
There are oddities in CiviCRM's relationships, particularly the "Employer Of" relationship - which is both a "Relationship" and a "Contact Field". The ID of a Contact's "Current Employer" may be present in the current_employer field when retrieved via the CiviCRM API and can be set by populating the employer_id field.
The "Current Employer" can be mapped using an ACF Select Field, but sync will only take place when the ACF Field's value is changed or when the "Current Employer" field on the Contact is changed. It will not sync when the "Employer Of"/"Employee Of" Relationship is edited.
CiviCRM's Relationships can be time-limited and the "Inactive Relationships" list on a Contact's Relationships tab shows both relationships that are Disabled and those that have a past End Date. An ACF Field mapped to such a Relationship will only update when the "Disable expired relationships" Scheduled Job runs and sets the Relationship's is_active property.
These work when using the "Select" option in CiviCRM, however the "choices" in the ACF Field are dependent upon the Countries and State/Provinces that have been enabled in CiviCRM. If you change these settings, you will have to re-save the ACF Field Groups that contain the Fields that are mapped to them.
Note: The "Multi-Select" option is not supported in CiviCRM 5.34 due to a bug that is fixed in CiviCRM 5.35.
Since CiviCRM Contacts do not have a WYSIWYG field attached to them by default, there are (as yet) no options for syncing the Post Content to a Contact. To do something equivalent, use an ACF Field of type "Wysiwyg Editor" and map it to a CiviCRM Custom Field of type "Note/RichTextEditor". You can use the setting of an ACF Field Group to hide the Content Editor.
Unless you disable the CiviCRM Shortcode on a Post Type (via the settings page in CiviCRM Admin Utilities) then the CiviCRM Stylesheets load on the edit screen for that Post Type and interfere with the styling of ACF Select2 elements. It seems unlikely that the CiviCRM Shortcode would be useful in the Post Content of a linked Post Type, so disable it unless it's absolutely necessary.
Many thanks to:
- Ryan Waterbury of One Dog Solutions for funding the initial development of this functionality.
- Tadpole Collective for funding the integration of CiviCRM Groups with WordPress Terms and the development of ACF Integration settings page where entities can be synced.