Adding attachment meta fields in WordPress


There are multiple ways to handle this.

1. Simple meta field.

WordPress has these two filter.

  1. attachment_fields_to_edit : Core reference.
  2. attachment_fields_to_save : Core reference.

Using that we can add a custom field to the attachment, That will take care of adding the field all locations.

2. For more complex fields.

If you want more control on the field you can look at https://gist.github.com/thomasgriffin/4953041

That will require different and additional hooks, it would need to handle meta field at different locations like for media edit page ( post.php?post=1&action=edit ) additional code will be needed.

Required hooks:

  1. wp_ajax_save-attachment – To save an attachment meta on ajax request.
  2. print_media_templates – To print media template. See https://gist.github.com/thomasgriffin/4953100
  3. wp_prepare_attachment_for_js – To return our custom field data to the attachment.
  4. wp_enqueue_media to enqueue script.


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