How To Conditionally Show Or Hide Divi Modules Based On Custom Field Values Tutorial by Pee Aye Creative

How To Conditionally Show Or Hide Divi Modules Based On Custom Field Values

Nelson Miller Pee Aye Creative
In this tutorial I will show you how to use an exciting new Divi feature to conditionally show or hide modules based on custom field values!

Join subscribers on our YouTube channel and enjoy other Divi video tutorials!

Enable Custom Fields In Divi

The first step before we can begin using this exciting new feature in Divi is to enable custom fields. Perhaps you already have custom fields set up, that is great! You can skip ahead. I do not want this particular tutorial to become a lesson on using custom fields. If you want a dedicated tutorial on that, you can let me know in the comments. In this tutorial, I’ll quickly explain two types of custom fields.

Built-In Custom Fields

WordPress comes with built-in custom fields by default. However, these are disabled by default, so you may not even know about them! They are also a bit limited in comparison to some plugins like ACF, but they certain work great for basic needs. You can enable these in four basic steps from any page or post.

  1. In the top right corner, click the three dots menu.
  2. Click on “Preferences” at the bottom of the panel.
  3. A popup will appear. Click on “Panels” in the tabs on the left.
  4. Enable the toggle for “Custom Fields.”
how to enable custom fields in Divi

Awesome! Now the custom fields panel will appear below the content editor area on the page like this:

custom fields panel on a Divi page or post

Note that turning this setting on once on any page will enable it on all pages and posts across your site, which is great.

Custom Fields Plugin

If you need a more robust system of custom fields, you will need to install a custom field plugin. Some popular ones include Advanced Custom Fields, Pods, Meta Box, and many more. In my video accompanying this tutorial I show you some examples using ACF, but it really doesn’t matter what method you use. 

popular custom field plugins for Divi

Exploring The New Custom Field Display Conditions In Divi

As I mentioned, the Divi 4.14.3 update brought several new Display Condition features (I also have a feeling more are coming). One of those caught my eye, the one called Custom Field. Why? Because it’s the #1 feature that we all expected in the Display Conditions, and was oddly missing. So it’s a big deal!

The new Custom Field option is easy to locate as soon as you click to add a new condition. In any section, row, or module, click on the Advanced tab and open the Conditions toggle. Next, click the plus icon to “Add Condition.”

add new Divi Display Condition

A new panel will appear with lots of choices. We discussed some of these in our original tutorial overview of the new Divi Display Conditions feature. For this tutorial, select the “Custom Field” option.

choosing custom field from the Divi Display Conditions

Now you will see the panel appear to narrow down your selection of the specific custom field and value that you are wanting to use.

1. Select Custom Field Name

The first dropdown is on “Manual Custom Field Name” by default. Below that is an input field for you to enter the name. What you do here will depend on if you are suing the default custom fields or not. If you are using the built-in WordPress custom fields, I recommend selecting the actual custom field name in that first dropdown (this way you do not need to type it, and you will be more confident that it is properly selected.) If you use Advanced Custom Fields, for example, you need to get the field name and write/paste that in the input field.

The options that appear in the list when you select the first dropdown is going to be totally different for everyone, depending on what custom fields you have set up. Once you make your selection, you can proceed to choosing the condition.

Divi Display Conditions custom field display only if settings

2. Select Condition

The condition dropdown is set to “Is” by default. But you can certainly change that to whatever fits your situation. Take a look at the available options:

  • Is
  • Is Not
  • Contains
  • Does Not Contain
  • Is Any Value
  • Has No Value
  • Is Greater Than
  • Is Less Than
Divi Display Conditions custom field options

A very common use case would be “Is Any Value” and I explain this more in the video. Basically an example would be if I have a Button module with the URL linked to the custom field with dynamic content, I would only want the button to display if there is actually a link. So I would select “Is Any Value” meaning this button will only show if there is a link present to be clickable.

Notice if I select this option then it does not even need to show the last dropdown (which was for selecting the value) because we chose generically if there is a value or not.

Divi Display Conditions custom field option has any value

3. Select Custom Field Value

Depending on your choice of condition in step 2, this option will not appear and you can skip this.

If this option is showing, you will need to select the custom field value. This is similar to the name, with a default “Manual Custom Field Value” option and an input field. But unlike the name, for this I do recommend using the input field.

Conclusion & Use Cases

There’s not much else to say, other than to go play around with this for yourself! I’m sure you will find even more ways to use than what I in the video. Be sure to watch that for several real-world use cases on our new family website: Miller Family Adventure.

Tell Us A Creative Use Case!

Let me know in the comments what use cases you are building with this new feature! I know there are a lot of creative ideas out there!

Subscribe For More Things Like This!

At the start of each month, we send out a recap newsletter from the month before with family news, Divi news, our latest tutorials, and product news. Occasionally, if the news is too exciting to wait, we will send out another email separate from the monthly newsletter. That’s what you get when you subscribe, and of course you can unsubscribe if you are no longer interested!

Blog Post Optin

Please share this post!

Leave A Response!

By commenting you agree to our Blog & YouTube Comments Policy

42 Comments

  1. Ray Gulick

    This does seem pretty powerful, but I can’t figure out how to make custom post type ‘Events’ drop off the list when they are ‘past events’. I’m a fairly experienced developer, but new to Divi.

    I have a custom field, ‘event_enddate’ (Ymd), which I need to compare to ‘today’s date’. With what you’ve explained here I see how to make ‘event_enddate’ part of the equation, but there does not seem to be a way to add today’s date to compare it to: event_enddate is more than today’s date.

    Reply
      • Ray Gulick

        So, is your recommendation that I create a listing template with a custom WP_query, and not use Divi on that page?

        Which, of course, means I’d need to duplicate the header and footer outside of Divi for that page as well?

      • Mark S

        Nelson, Great tutorial. Is there a way to make page content load depending on button click / link value? For instance, click button A and show A content, click B and see B content? I can’t seem to figure this out. Is like a visitor path determines the content without going to a separate page. Thanks.

  2. Cathie Heart

    Finally a conditions field so that ACF can link and hide an entire module, row or section! I’ve been waiting for this and was searching, searching and found your article. Somehow I didn’t put ‘conditional’ with the fact of linking it to custom fields when I saw this new bit show up on the divi interfaces!!

    Now I can do so SO much more.

    Reply
  3. Dorthe <span class="comment-author-role-label"><a href="https://www.peeayecreative.com/product/divi-adventure-club/" class="comment-author-role-link" rel="external nofollow" target="_blank">Divi Adventure Club Member</a></span>

    Hi Nelson
    Thank you so much for this tutorial and all the others. I really like your work!

    I’ve noticed the Gallery on your Adventure page. Would you mind to give me a hint on how that is set up as a gallery from the images uploaded in the custom fields. Did you use a plugin to make the gallery or is it coded or even set up the the conditions function? Hope my question makes sense 🙂

    Reply
    • Hemant Gaba

      Hey Dorthe,

      The gallery is Custom Created using PHP and Advanced Custom Field plugin. If you want to achieve that so here is a hint:
      First, inside the field group that you have created using the ACF plugin, create a field of type group and under that add the subfields with type image. If you want to show 10 images, add 10 subfields and set the output as an array of the group field.

      After that, you need to create a code to loop through that array to display the images, and this code you need to add under the function that will create it a shortcode and that shortcode you need to place inside the code module and you will have your images.

      Reply
      • Gregory

        Please make a tutorial, for all. I understand the Idea, but not to do.
        Thanks.

  4. Fortespy

    let’s assume i have a row with 3 columns, the first column is a sidebar with links.when a link is clicked, i want the content of that link to display in the second column. is it possible using Divi display conditions

    Reply
    • Hemant Gaba

      Hey there,

      I don’t think we can achieve the functionality using the conditions option. To achieve this the Custom Code is required.

      Reply
  5. Pinco Pallino

    First of all, thanks for the detailed post: it exactly cover what Divi doesn’t say much about.
    My question is: does it still work as you described in the post (and the video)?
    I do use ACF to add some extra fields to WordPress user profiles so that I can build a nice author page with Divi theme builder. I’m trying to use the condition based on an ACF field to display a Divi module or row in the page, but it just doesn’t work like your video. Using a condition on a “Manual Custom Field Name”, entering the field name from ACF and using the condition “Is Any Value” just display everything all the time, even when the field is empty (really empty).

    I’m trying to find out if it’s a different behavior because I’m in the author’s page or if something changed in a later release of Divi (I’m on latest version for both Divi and ACF).

    Thanks a lot for all the content you publish!

    Reply
    • Pinco Pallino

      As often, a possible answer comes to mind after posting: the “Manual Custom Field Name” option is connected to the “Post” type of content, therefore I suspect it does work, but only on “Post” type of content, not on WordPress users for which such kind of option doesn’t exist in Divi conditions.

      Reply
  6. joan

    Hello, thank you, it helped me a lot.
    but I have a query, how can I do it when my custom field is a group? how to get to put the value of sub item of the group.

    Reply
    • Hemant Gaba

      Hey Joan,

      We will definitely look into the query and get back to you as soon as we find a ideal solution.

      Reply
  7. Chris

    Hey there, after reading this blog post I was excited to finally have this feature in Divi. But I tried a lot and wrote to the Divi support tree times and finally got a clear answer:

    “It is not feasible to do so using any of the available custom field plugins.
    This blog was not created by the Divi theme; rather, it was authored by an independent author. [I mentioned your article and that you annaunced this feature as running]
    In such case, you may choose to get in touch with the blog’s author for any further information.”

    Now I am wondering, if your article leads into a deadend and it would be good to take it offline until the feature really is implemented?

    Best wishes, Chris

    Reply
  8. Lou Ann

    I have a product with a Buy button. I’d like to change button to Sold for everyone once the client uses WP EasyPay to purchase the product. Is it possible to do this?

    Reply
  9. Patricia

    Hello Nelson, and thank you for sharing all these pecious tutorials !

    Is there a way to hide a WooCommerce “Add to cart button” on an online course page, when a user is already enrolled in this specific course (and of course logged in) ?
    I don’t find the way.
    Thank you if you know.

    Reply
  10. Bill

    Hi Nelson! I added custom fields through the ACF plugin which add social link fields in user profiles.

    I use dynamic URL links in the Social Media Follow Module. This works to display any author’s social media links/icons. However, all icons will display whether or not they have a value. I tried adding the condition: Manual Custom Field Name (Twitter) Is Any Value. That prevents the twitter icon from displaying whether or not it has a value in their user profile. Any ideas?

    Reply
  11. Roel

    Hi Nelson, awesome article. I would like to hide an email optin module based on the language that is selected.
    I am using translatepress. They have this code: [trp_language language=”en_US”] This will only be shown when language is en-US [/trp_language].
    Could you advise on how to use this shortcake with the custom fields?

    Thanks!

    Reply
  12. Rick Elrod

    I formatted a divi builder layout for blog posts to only show restaurant specials if a photo had been added into the custom field since some weeks there is only one special and some weeks there are up to three. Now I want to create a specials page that only shows this weeks specials (just the most recent blog post) but I’m having trouble figuring out how to get it to show the post content from the custom fields especially with them formatted how I set it up on the “All Posts” layout on the divi builder. Would love to hear if you have any suggestions on how to accomplish this.

    Reply
  13. Steffen

    Damn, thank you so much for this article!

    I’m really advanced with Divi and ACF but did not find this solution for weeks. And the simple reason was that I’m using Divi in German and the translation of this part of the module is so kind of wrong that I wasn’t able to guess the original meaning.

    Reply
  14. Mark Hancock <span class="comment-author-role-label"><a href="https://www.peeayecreative.com/product/divi-adventure-club/" class="comment-author-role-link" rel="external nofollow" target="_blank">Divi Adventure Club Member</a></span>

    I know it is not built in but could there be a way to display a module, row, section….depending what they have as a CSS id? I have two forms on 1 page but I only want displayed what they select from a menu ie…. #esp. Thanks! Mark

    Reply
  15. YoDocus

    Hi there.. bit stuck here:
    1. I don’t see the 3 dots at the right top to enable Custom Fields. So what do I do instead to make sure it’s enabled?
    2. I tried to nonetheless add a group (yup.. you have groups now.. didn’t see that in your post) and added a text field in there that’s empty. Then I want to change the visibility of a button and make it depending on the value of the text field. When I open up the condition, my new custom text field didn’t show up in there. What am I missing??

    Thanks!

    Reply
  16. Patrick

    I’m not understanding how to get the custom field to recognize that the ACF custom field I’m asking it to validate the field data on. What is the proper field name? Is it was is shown in an INSPECTOR focus in a browser, cause that field name is completely different than what I named the field in the ACF module. I’ve tried both and it does nothing to recognize the custom field. I’m simply asking it to NOT SHOW a TEXT MODULE if the custom field says N/A as it’s data. It doesn’t do it.

    I don’t have any WP custom fields in use and this wouldn’t help if I can only use the WP custom field. Your comment about it working on a custom plugin like ACF has me puzzled on the proper syntax to make it work. Please help.

    Reply
  17. Rodney Kesselring

    I have been just digging in to Custom fields and I love them! Thanks for the tutorial.

    Problem. When I go to do conditional display in a layout i do not see any of the ACF fields. on the list of standard WP ones. is this perhaps a bug? BTW if i look up and use the manual value it works fine but the divi interface will not show them to be selected.

    Thanks

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

0

Your Cart