convertACFGroup.php

<?php

// put array in here
$array = array (
    'key' => 'group_54624ad06f391',
    'title' => 'Company List',
    'fields' => array (
        array (
            'key' => 'field_54624aff43237',
            'label' => 'Companies',
            'name' => 'companies',
            'prefix' => '',
            'type' => 'repeater',
            'instructions' => '',
            'required' => 0,
            'conditional_logic' => 0,
            'wrapper' => array (
                'width' => '',
                'class' => '',
                'id' => '',
            ),
            'min' => '',
            'max' => '',
            'layout' => 'table',
            'button_label' => 'Add Row',
            'sub_fields' => array (
                array (
                    'key' => 'field_54624b0d43238',
                    'label' => 'Company Name',
                    'name' => 'company',
                    'prefix' => '',
                    'type' => 'text',
                    'instructions' => '',
                    'required' => 1,
                    'conditional_logic' => 0,
                    'wrapper' => array (
                        'width' => '',
                        'class' => '',
                        'id' => '',
                    ),
                    'default_value' => '',
                    'placeholder' => '',
                    'prepend' => '',
                    'append' => '',
                    'maxlength' => '',
                    'readonly' => 0,
                    'disabled' => 0,
                ),
                array (
                    'key' => 'field_54624b1443239',
                    'label' => 'Sector',
                    'name' => 'sector',
                    'prefix' => '',
                    'type' => 'text',
                    'instructions' => '',
                    'required' => 1,
                    'conditional_logic' => 0,
                    'wrapper' => array (
                        'width' => '',
                        'class' => '',
                        'id' => '',
                    ),
                    'default_value' => '',
                    'placeholder' => '',
                    'prepend' => '',
                    'append' => '',
                    'maxlength' => '',
                    'readonly' => 0,
                    'disabled' => 0,
                ),
                array (
                    'key' => 'field_54624b1a4323a',
                    'label' => 'Bio',
                    'name' => 'bio',
                    'prefix' => '',
                    'type' => 'wysiwyg',
                    'instructions' => '',
                    'required' => 1,
                    'conditional_logic' => 0,
                    'wrapper' => array (
                        'width' => '',
                        'class' => '',
                        'id' => '',
                    ),
                    'default_value' => '',
                    'tabs' => 'all',
                    'toolbar' => 'basic',
                    'media_upload' => 0,
                ),
                array (
                    'key' => 'field_54624b484323c',
                    'label' => 'Logo',
                    'name' => 'logo',
                    'prefix' => '',
                    'type' => 'image',
                    'instructions' => '',
                    'required' => 0,
                    'conditional_logic' => 0,
                    'wrapper' => array (
                        'width' => '',
                        'class' => '',
                        'id' => '',
                    ),
                    'return_format' => 'array',
                    'preview_size' => 'thumbnail',
                    'library' => 'all',
                ),
            ),
        ),
        array (
            'key' => 'field_54624b554323d',
            'label' => 'Filter bar',
            'name' => 'filter_bar',
            'prefix' => '',
            'type' => 'true_false',
            'instructions' => '',
            'required' => 1,
            'conditional_logic' => 0,
            'wrapper' => array (
                'width' => '',
                'class' => '',
                'id' => '',
            ),
            'message' => 'Show Filter Bar',
            'default_value' => 1,
        ),
    ),
    'location' => array (
        array (
            array (
                'param' => 'page_template',
                'operator' => '==',
                'value' => 'template-companylist.php',
            ),
        ),
    ),
    'menu_order' => 0,
    'position' => 'normal',
    'style' => 'default',
    'label_placement' => 'top',
    'instruction_placement' => 'label',
    'hide_on_screen' => '',
);

// put absolute path to theme in here
$themePath = '/Users/jodi/Sites/examplewebsite/wp-content/themes/mytheme/';
$acfJsonPath = $themePath . 'acf-json/';

$output = json_encode($array);
echo '<p>Writing file to ' . $acfJsonPath . $array['key'] . '.json</p>';
$file = file_put_contents( $acfJsonPath . $array['key'] . '.json', $output );

if ($file) {
    echo "<p>". $file . " bytes file created.</p>";
} else {
    '<p>Error, file not created.<';
}

You can use this to convert from the old register_field_group method of defining ACF fields to the new (and much more useful IMO) JSON file method. Paste the contents of a field group into the $array variable, then set the $themePath to the absolute path to your theme.

You have to do this separately for each field group, so it can be slightly laborious if you have many of them. I tried (for 5 minutes) to parse the entire file, but I couldn’t figure out the regex for extracting each array, so I did it the quick and dirty way.

Any way to do this reverse (JSON to PHP)?

@blizzrdof77 I'm not sure, but I'd try running a var_export(json_decode($myJsonFieldDefinition)) - might well work. If not, it might at least be a good start.

I've put together a WordPress plugin which makes this even easier. See my gist acf-php-to-json.php.

Thanks for the inspiration 😃