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How to Display Meta Box Custom Fields on Your WordPress Frontend

51 threads Sep 9, 2025 Plugin → Meta box

Content

One of the most common questions from users of the Meta Box plugin is how to take the custom data entered in the admin area and display it on the public-facing frontend of a WordPress site. This is a crucial step for making your custom fields useful to visitors.

The Core Issue

The Meta Box plugin is designed to handle the backend interface for creating, editing, and storing custom field data within the WordPress database. By default, its responsibility ends there. Displaying that saved data on your theme's templates is not an automatic process and requires manual integration. This is a common point of confusion, as users often expect the data to appear simply because it's saved in the post editor.

Why This Happens

WordPress themes control the frontend presentation. To show custom meta data, you must explicitly tell your theme where and how to retrieve and display it. This involves using specific PHP functions provided by the Meta Box plugin to fetch the stored values within your theme template files.

How to Display Your Custom Field Values

The most reliable method for displaying your custom field data is by using the helper functions provided by the Meta Box plugin. You will need to edit your theme's template files (e.g., single.php, page.php, or a custom template) to include this code.

Primary Solution: Use the rwmb_meta() Function

The rwmb_meta() function is the standard way to echo a custom field's value. You need to know the ID of the field you want to display.

<?php
// Example: Display a text field with the ID 'secondary_title'
$value = rwmb_meta( 'secondary_title' );
if ( ! empty( $value ) ) {
    echo '<h2>' . $value . '</h2>';
}
?>

Parameters:

  • Field ID: The first and most important parameter is the ID of your custom field.
  • Args: (Optional) An array of additional arguments.
  • Post ID: (Optional) You can specify a particular post ID to get the value from. If omitted, it will automatically use the ID of the current post in the loop.

Important Considerations

  • Child Theme: Always make these changes in a child theme to prevent your modifications from being overwritten when the parent theme is updated.
  • Code Snippets Plugin: If you are uncomfortable editing theme files directly, you can use a plugin like Code Snippets to safely add the necessary PHP code to your site.
  • Documentation: For more advanced usage and examples, referring to the official Meta Box documentation on displaying fields is highly recommended.

By following these steps, you can successfully bridge the gap between the WordPress admin and the frontend, ensuring your custom meta data is visible to your site's visitors.

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