Taxonomies vs Custom Fields

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The issue here is that the customer wanted to know if it was better to use taxonomy or custom fields.
Solution:

Generally speaking taxonomies are used if you want to have archive pages, where you can click on the term and then see a list of all the posts that have that term attached to it.

So if this is something that you want then it's better to use custom fields.

This support ticket is created 6 years, 9 months ago. There's a good chance that you are reading advice that it now obsolete.

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Tagged: Setting up custom fields, Setting up custom taxonomy, Types plugin

This topic contains 5 replies, has 3 voices.

Last updated by Vane 6 years, 9 months ago.

Assisted by: Shane.

Author

Posts

April 5, 2018 at 9:42 am #631831

Bob

There have been some topics on this (mostly regarding performance), but it’s unclear to me which approach would serve my needs best.

The client is an employment agency.
In this particular case I need to make up a profile template for temporary workers.
This consists all sorts of fields: Name, address, age, etc. Custom fields…

Now, how to approach the availability?
I need to define options for all days of the week divided in segments: morning, afternoon, evening, night.

Why would I choose one over the other?

April 5, 2018 at 4:00 pm #632015

Bob

After some experimenting I came up with a solution using ACF. See screenshot...
(This also points out a shortcoming in Types. It would be really helpful if there was a possibility to bulk add items to checkboxes and have them arranged in a sensible way.)

Now I would like to know how to make ACF fields searchable by using a view. The page below doesn't help since the ACF doesn't show up in the overview.

https://toolset.com/faq/how-do-i-convert-existing-custom-types-and-fields-to-types-control/

April 5, 2018 at 4:33 pm #632030

Shane

Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)

Hi Bob,

Thank you for contacting our support forum.

Actually the ACF fields should already show up when doing the search.

Just click the New Filter button in your view and search for the field and it should show up there.

Thanks,
Shane

April 6, 2018 at 12:52 pm #632381

Bob

Hi Shane,

Well that's what I thought... but there's nothing there.
Got ACF activated, made a group with custom fields, went over to Views, chose 'new filter'--->'Load non-Types custom fields'.... nothing there.

Should it show the field name in a user friendly format or something like field_59e3c6fc9171a ?

Thanks!

April 6, 2018 at 2:36 pm #632527

Bob

Hi Shane, I found the error... it was human ?
I had my ACF's alright, but Views only shows these when they are actually used in a custom post type.

Thanks and have a nice day!

December 4, 2019 at 8:54 am #1399433

Vane

Hi,

reacting to the problem Solution described above:
"Generally speaking taxonomies are used if you want to have archive pages, where you can click on the term and then see a list of all the posts that have that term attached to it."

I'm also hesitating whether to use custom fields or custom taxonomies (tags). Ideally it would be tags and not CFs ( I want ot create archives etc. ), but it's much more difficult to pass custom taxonomy values to 3rd party plugins, so I might select custom fields.
AFAIK custom fields can also be used in Views, in a View, so I can create an archive-like page with CFs and a View.
Am I correct?