SmilingSyntax

<p>Meta Ledger automatically tracks all post meta changes for posts, custom post types, and WooCommerce products. It stores a versioned history, allows field-level diffs, and provides a restore option. Designed for developers, high-performance, and WordPress standards.</p>
<p>Perfect for tracking product prices, custom fields, metadata changes, and any post meta modifications with complete audit trails.</p>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Automatic Tracking</strong>: Hooks into WordPress meta functions to automatically track all meta changes</li>
<li><strong>Version History</strong>: Complete history of all meta changes with timestamps, user information, and action types</li>
<li><strong>Field-Level Diffs</strong>: View side-by-side comparisons of old and new values</li>
<li><strong>Restore Functionality</strong>: Restore any meta field to a previous version with one click</li>
<li><strong>Source Tracking</strong>: See which file and line triggered each meta change, including changes from Meta Ledger UI</li>
<li><strong>Inline Editing</strong>: Edit meta values directly from the admin interface</li>
<li><strong>REST API</strong>: Developer-friendly REST API endpoints for programmatic access</li>
<li><strong>WP-CLI Support</strong>: Command-line tools for viewing and restoring meta versions</li>
<li><strong>Performance Optimized</strong>: Configurable retention policies, batching, and efficient database storage</li>
<li><strong>WooCommerce Compatible</strong>: Works seamlessly with WooCommerce products</li>
</ul>


Meta Ledger – Track, compare, and restore post meta Changes


I've been developing WooCommerce sites for years and debugging meta field problems was always painful - either var_dump everywhere or digging through the database manually.



What I really like:




Source tracking shows exactly which file/line changed the meta (huge for finding rogue plugins)



Side-by-side diff view makes it easy to spot what changed



One-click restore saved me twice already when a bulk edit went wrong



WP-CLI support is a nice touch for staging/production workflows




Clean code, follows WP standards, lightweight. This should be in every developer's toolkit.


Finally a proper way to debug meta field issues.

Automatically track all post meta changes with versioned history, field-level diffs, and restore functionality.

Mohammad Jangda

Joey Kudish

cvernon

stresslimit

<p>An easy way to add custom fields to your object types (post, pages, custom post types, users) & to generate option pages.</p>
<p>The goal of this plugin is to help you rapidly build familiar, intuitive interfaces for your users in a very WordPress-native way.</p>
<p>The custom field panel is nice, but not quite the easiest thing for users to work with. Adding your own metaboxes and fields involves a lot of time and repetitive code that could be better used elsewhere.</p>
<p>This plugin handles all that heavy-lifting for you behind-the-scenes, so that you can focus on more on building out and connecting your data rather than all the minor details. This single piece of code <code>x_add_metadata_field( 'my-field-name', 'post' );</code> generates a metabox with a text field inside it, with the necessary hooks to save the entered values.</p>
<p>The API is similar to that used for registering custom post types and taxonomies so it should be familiar territory.</p>
<p><strong>NOTE</strong>: The plugin now requires WordPress 3.3+ (chiefly for the wysiwyg & datepicker fields)</p>
<p>Like what you see? Want more field types and features added? <a href="mailto:tech@stresslimitdesign.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Get in touch</a> or <a href="https://github.com/jkudish/custom-metadata" rel="nofollow ugc">contribute on github</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>See “Other Notes” section for usage information</em></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<h4>Object Types</h4>
<p>The main idea behind this plugin is to have a single API to work with regardless of the object type. Currently, Custom Metadata Manager works with <code>user</code>, <code>comment</code> and any built-in or custom post types, e.g. <code>post</code>, <code>page</code>, etc.</p>
<h4>Registering your fields</h4>
<p>For the sake of performance (and to avoid potential race conditions), always register your custom fields in the <code>admin_menu</code> hook. This way your front-end doesn’t get bogged down with unnecessary processing and you can be sure that your fields will be registered safely. Here’s a code sample:</p>
<pre><code>add_action( 'admin_menu', 'my_theme_init_custom_fields' );

function my_theme_init_custom_fields() {
    if( function_exists( 'x_add_metadata_field' ) && function_exists( 'x_add_metadata_group' ) ) {
        x_add_metadata_field( 'my_field', array( 'user', 'post' ) );
    }
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Getting the data</h4>
<p>You can get the data as you normally would using the <code>get_metadata</code> function. Custom Metadata manager stores all data using the WordPress metadata APIs using the slug name you provide. That way, even if you decide to deactivate this wonderful plugin, your data is safe and accessible. For options, you can use <code>get_option</code>.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code>$value = get_metadata( 'post', get_the_ID(), 'featured', true ); // Returns post metadata value for the field 'featured'
</code></pre>
<h4>Adding Metadata Groups</h4>
<p>A group is essentially a metabox that groups together multiple fields. Register the group before any fields</p>
<pre><code>x_add_metadata_group( $slug, $object_types, $args );
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Parameters</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>$slug</code> (string) The key under which the metadata will be stored.</li>
<li><code>$object_types</code> (string|array) The object types to which this field should be added. Supported: post, page, any custom post type, user, comment.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Options and Overrides</strong></p>
<pre><code>$args = array(
    'label' => $group_slug, // Label for the group
    'context' => 'normal', // (post only)
    'priority' => 'default', // (post only)
    'autosave' => false, // (post only) Should the group be saved in autosave? NOT IMPLEMENTED YET!
    'exclude' => '', // see below for details
    'include' => '', // see below for details
);
</code></pre>
<h4>Adding Metadata Fields</h4>
<pre><code>x_add_metadata_field( $slug, $object_types, $args );
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Parameters</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>$slug</code> (string) The key under which the metadata will be stored. For post_types, prefix the slug with an underscore (e.g. <code>_hidden</code>) to hide it from the the Custom Fields box.</li>
<li><code>$object_types</code> (string|array) The object types to which this field should be added. Supported: post, page, any custom post type, user, comment.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Options and Overrides</strong></p>
<pre><code>$args = array(
    'group' => '', // The slug of group the field should be added to. This needs to be registered with x_add_metadata_group first.
    'field_type' => 'text', // The type of field; 'text', 'textarea', 'password', 'checkbox', 'radio', 'select', 'upload', 'wysiwyg', 'datepicker', 'taxonomy_select', 'taxonomy_radio'
    'label' => '', // Label for the field
    'description' => '', // Description of the field, displayed below the input
    'values' => array(), // Values for select and radio buttons. Associative array
    'display_callback' => '', // Callback to custom render the field
    'sanitize_callback' => '', // Callback to sanitize data before it's saved
    'display_column' => false, // Add the field to the columns when viewing all posts
    'display_column_callback' => '', // Callback to render output for the custom column
    'required_cap' => '', // The cap required to view and edit the field
    'exclude' => '', // see below for details
    'include' => '', // see below for details
    'multiple' => false, // true or false, can the field be duplicated with a click of a button?
    'readonly' => false, // makes the field be readonly (works with text, textarea, password, upload and datepicker fields)
);
</code></pre>
<h4>Include / Exclude</h4>
<p>You can exclude fields and groups from specific object. For example, with the following, field-1 will show up for all posts except post #123:</p>
<pre><code>$args = array(
    'exclude' => 123
);
x_add_metadata_field( 'field-1', 'post', $args );
</code></pre>
<p>Alternatively, you can limit (“include”) fields and groups to specific objects. The following will ”only” show group-1 to post #456:</p>
<pre><code>$args = array(
    'include' => 123
);
x_add_metadata_group( 'group-1', 'post', $args );
</code></pre>
<p>You can pass in an array of IDs:</p>
<pre><code>$args = array(
    'include' => array( 123, 456, 789 );
);

With multiple object types, you can pass in an associative array:
</code></pre>
<p>$args = array(<br />
    ‘exclude’ => array(<br />
        ‘post’ => 123,<br />
        ‘user’ => array( 123, 456, 789 )<br />
    )<br />
);</p>
<h4>Examples</h4>
<p>For examples, please see the <a href="https://github.com/jkudish/custom-metadata/blob/master/custom_metadata_examples.php" rel="nofollow ugc">custom_metadata_examples.php</a> file included with the plugin. Add a constant to your wp-config.php called <code>CUSTOM_METADATA_MANAGER_DEBUG</code> with a value of <code>true</code> to see it in action:</p>
<pre><code>define( 'CUSTOM_METADATA_MANAGER_DEBUG', true );
</code></pre>
<h4>TODOs</h4>
<p>Stuff we have planned for the future:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ability to clone (multiple) groups of fields</li>
<li>Ability Pass in attributes for built-in fields (e.g. class, data-*, etc.)</li>
<li>Additional field types (multi-select, multi-checkbox)</li>
<li>Limit or exclude groups and fields using a custom callback</li>
<li>Autosave support for fields on post types</li>
<li>Client- and server-side validation support</li>
<li>Add groups and fields to Quick Edit</li>
</ul>


Custom Metadata Manager

An easy way to add custom fields to your object types (post, pages, custom post types, users)

Meta Ledger – Track, compare, and restore post meta Changes vs Custom Metadata Manager