Automatically Sync ACF Fields on dev environments

functions.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name:  ACF Auto Sync
Plugin URI:
Description:  Plugin that automatically syncs the database with local json
Version:      1.0
Author:       Noah Duncan <[email protected]> 
Updated by:   Alfredo Navas <[email protected]>
 */

/**
 * Function that will update ACF fields via JSON file update.  
 * It would be better to hook into ACF's own update function.
 */

function sync_acf_fields() {
    error_log('syncing acf fields');

    // vars
    $groups = acf_get_field_groups();
    $sync     = array();

    // bail early if no field groups
    if( empty( $groups ) )
        return;

    // find JSON field groups which have not yet been imported
    foreach( $groups as $group ) {

        // vars
        $local         = acf_maybe_get( $group, 'local', false );
        $modified     = acf_maybe_get( $group, 'modified', 0 );
        $private     = acf_maybe_get( $group, 'private', false );

        // ignore DB / PHP / private field groups
        if( $local !== 'json' || $private ) {

            // do nothing

        } elseif( ! $group[ 'ID' ] ) {

            $sync[ $group[ 'key' ] ] = $group;

        } elseif( $modified && $modified > get_post_modified_time( 'U', true, $group[ 'ID' ], true ) ) {

            $sync[ $group[ 'key' ] ]  = $group;
        }
    }

    // bail if no sync needed
    if( empty( $sync ) )
        return;

    if( ! empty( $sync ) ) { //if( ! empty( $keys ) ) {

        // vars
        $new_ids = array();

        foreach( $sync as $key => $v ) { //foreach( $keys as $key ) {

            // append fields
            if( acf_have_local_fields( $key ) ) {

                $sync[ $key ][ 'fields' ] = acf_get_local_fields( $key );

            }
            // import
            $field_group = acf_import_field_group( $sync[ $key ] );
        }
    }
}

add_action( 'admin_init', 'sync_acf_fields' );