New Module: Advanced Custom Fields

Following several months of developments, we are very pleased to announce the availability of the Advanced Custom Fields module for PrestaShop 1.6 and PrestaShop 1.7. This module is designed for retailers and developers and allows you to add fields to all features of the PrestaShop Back Office.

Why add fields to PrestaShop?

Every retailer is unique and their activities may require them to store information which is not provided for by PrestaShop. Here are several examples:

• In consumer electronics, some retailers retain the serial number of the devices sent to every customer, and so they need to have a field in their Back Office editor.
• For sports equipment sellers, it’s a good idea to retain a buyer’s sports association, and perhaps even their licence number.
• A shoe retailer may wish to add a second description field as a way of storing maintenance advice.

On the product page, you can use the features to record and save any type of information, but this bypass (or rather diversion) has some limitations: you can only enter unformatted text, the field is displayed in the Front office (i.e.: visible to customers), and it’s difficult to get an overall view of the values entered, etc…

Why create a module to add additional fields?

One of the more conventional developments is to add one or more fields to PrestaShop, often to the product page, but occasionally to other features of the PrestaShop data model: order, category, etc…

Needs are always specific and unique, but PrestaShop provides a scalable data model and any need for additional fields therefore translates into a specific development. But the specific development has some limitations: corrective action is needed for every PrestaShop version update, there’s no compatibility with modules, and a developer/agency is needed, etc…

The advanced custom fields module allows you to add a field to a PrestaShop feature (Product, Categories, etc…), select the type (text, formatted text, image, etc…) and then select whether or not this field should be visible to consumers on your store’s Front Office. With this module, you can of course add as many fields as necessary, you can rename and delete, and you get an overall view which allows you to see the value of the field(s) on all PrestaShop features.

Configuration example #1: add “Maintenance advice” to the product page

First of all, create an additional field in rich text and select the Front Office display:

Then, enter the desired text onto each product page:

In the Front Office, a tab is displayed for all products onto which text has been entered in the “Maintenance advice” field.

Configuration example #2: retain a device’s serial number in the order without giving it to the customer

Create an additional field in plain text and choose not to display it in the Front Office:

You can then confidentially save and record the information you want on each order.

For more usage examples or to buy the module, go to our module’s Add-ons page.

As you can see, this module does not meet one specific need. Instead, it’s a tool that developers and retailers can use to customise PrestaShop fields according to their needs. For the time being, this is the very first version of this module, so please feel free to tell us about your needs so that we can create a roadmap of developments and changes.