README

A modern, developer-friendly WordPress meta box builder with 30+ field types, a visual admin UI, nested/repeatable groups, conditional logic, REST API, Gutenberg sidebar, WP-CLI, and more.

Installation

composer require emneslab/custom-meta-box-builder

Note: This package uses composer/installers with type wordpress-plugin. In a standard WordPress setup it installs to wp-content/plugins/. In Bedrock it installs to web/app/plugins/.

Activate the plugin:

wp plugin activate custom-meta-box-builder

Requirements

PHP 8.1+
WordPress 6.0+

Quick Start

Register a meta box via PHP

add_custom_meta_box('cmb-book-details', 'Book Details', ['post', 'page'], [
    ['id' => 'book_title',   'type' => 'text',     'label' => 'Book Title', 'required' => true],
    ['id' => 'book_summary', 'type' => 'textarea', 'label' => 'Summary'],
    ['id' => 'book_genre',   'type' => 'select',   'label' => 'Genre', 'options' => [
        'fiction'     => 'Fiction',
        'non_fiction' => 'Non-Fiction',
        'sci_fi'     => 'Science Fiction',
    ]],
    ['id' => 'book_price', 'type' => 'number', 'label' => 'Price'],
], 'normal', 'high');

Retrieve saved data

// Using the public API
$title = cmb_get_field('book_title');
cmb_the_field('book_title'); // echoes escaped value

// Or standard WordPress
$title = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'book_title', true);

Visual Admin Builder

Navigate to CMB Builder in the WordPress admin to create field groups without code. The builder includes:

Drag-and-drop field ordering
Live PHP code generation
Template code snippets (Result tab)
Import/Export (JSON)

Features

30+ field types — text, textarea, number, select, checkbox, radio, file, image, gallery, color, date, time, range, toggle, password, post, user, taxonomy, group, flexible content, message, divider, and more
Repeatable fields — any field can be made repeatable
Nested groups — unlimited depth group-in-group nesting
Drag-and-drop — sortable repeater rows
Tabs — organize fields into tabbed sections
Conditional logic — show/hide fields based on other field values (AND/OR)
Validation — required, email, url, min, max, numeric, pattern rules
Flexible layouts — horizontal, inline, responsive width classes (25%–100%)
Taxonomy meta — add fields to category/tag edit screens
User profile meta — add fields to user profile pages
Options pages — create admin settings pages
REST API — expose fields via show_in_rest
Gutenberg sidebar — display fields in block editor sidebar
WP-CLI — wp cmb list, wp cmb get, wp cmb set
Frontend forms — cmb_render_form() / cmb_the_form()
Gutenberg blocks — cmb_register_block() API
WPGraphQL — auto-register fields in GraphQL schema
Import/Export — JSON configurations
Multi-language — per-locale field values
Bulk operations — batch meta updates
Extensible — create custom field types by extending AbstractField

Field Types

Category	Types
Basic	Text, Textarea, Number, Email, URL, Password, Hidden
Content	WYSIWYG
Choice	Select, Radio, Checkbox, Checkbox List, Toggle, Button Group
Date & Color	Date, Time, Color
Media	File, Image, Gallery
Relational	Post, Taxonomy, User
Layout	Group, Flexible Content, Message, Divider
Special	Link, oEmbed, Range

Extending

Create a custom field type:

namespace MyPlugin\Fields;

use CMB\Core\Contracts\Abstracts\AbstractField;

class RatingField extends AbstractField {
    public function render(): void {
        $value = $this->getValue();
        printf(
            '<input type="range" name="%s" value="%s" min="1" max="5" step="1">',
            esc_attr($this->getNameAttribute()),
            esc_attr($value)
        );
    }

    public function sanitize(mixed $value): mixed {
        return max(1, min(5, (int) $value));
    }
}

use CMB\Core\FieldFactory;

FieldFactory::registerType('rating', \MyPlugin\Fields\RatingField::class);

Hooks

All hooks fire with the cmbbuilder_ prefix (legacy cmb_ prefix is deprecated):

Hook	Type	Description
`cmbbuilder_before_render_field`	Action	Before a field renders
`cmbbuilder_after_render_field`	Action	After a field renders
`cmbbuilder_before_save_field`	Action	Before a field value is saved
`cmbbuilder_after_save_field`	Action	After a field value is saved
`cmbbuilder_sanitize_{type}`	Filter	Custom sanitization per field type
`cmbbuilder_field_config`	Filter	Modify field config before rendering
`cmbbuilder_meta_box_config`	Filter	Modify meta box config at registration
`cmbbuilder_admin_box_saved`	Action	After an admin UI field group is saved

Documentation

See the docs/ directory:

Testing

composer install
composer test

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

emneslab / custom-meta-box-builder

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