Repeater Fields — Adding Multiple Rows (PRO)

Repeater fields are one of the most popular features in Field Forge PRO. They solve a fundamental content management problem: how do you handle a list of items when you do not know in advance how many items there will be? Instead of creating rigid fields like “Team Member 1 Name,” “Team Member 2 Name,” “Team Member 3 Name” (and hoping you never need a fourth), a Repeater lets editors add as many rows as they need. Each row has the same set of sub-fields, and editors can add, remove, and reorder rows freely.

Think of a Repeater as a mini spreadsheet embedded in your post editor. You define the columns once (the sub-fields), and editors add as many rows as their content requires.

When to Use a Repeater

Repeaters are the right choice any time you have a list of similar items where the number of items varies. Here are detailed real-world scenarios:

Step-by-Step: Building an FAQ Repeater

Let’s build a complete FAQ section that a content manager can use on any page. This is one of the most common Repeater use cases, and it demonstrates every feature you need to understand.

1. Go to Field Forge > New Field Group
2. Enter the title: Page FAQ Section
3. Click Add Field and choose Repeater from the field type grid (it is under “Compound Fields” and has a PRO badge)
4. Configure the Repeater:

– Name: faq_items

– Instructions: Add questions and answers for this page’s FAQ section. Drag rows to reorder. The first FAQ appears at the top of the section on the website.

– Minimum Rows: 1 (every FAQ section should have at least one question)

– Maximum Rows: 30 (prevents accidentally creating an excessively long list)

– Layout: Block (best for rows with a Textarea sub-field — gives the answer field room to breathe)

– Button Label: “Add FAQ” (customizes the Add Row button text to be more descriptive)

1. Now add sub-fields inside the Repeater:

– Label: Question

– Name: question

– Required: Yes

– Placeholder: “What is your refund policy?”

– Wrapper Width: 100%

– Click Add Sub Field, choose Textarea:

– Label: Answer

– Name: answer

– Required: Yes

– Rows: 4

– Placeholder: “Write a clear, helpful answer…”

– Wrapper Width: 100%

1. Set the location rule: Post Type is equal to Page (or whichever post type needs FAQs)
2. Click Save Field Group

[Screenshot: the Repeater field configuration in the field group editor, showing “FAQ Items” with two sub-fields (Question and Answer), minimum 1 row, maximum 30 rows, Block layout]

How Editors Use the FAQ Repeater

When a content manager opens a page that has the FAQ Repeater:

1. They see the “Page FAQ Section” metabox with one empty FAQ row (because Minimum Rows is 1)
2. They type a question in the Question field: “What is included in the free trial?”
3. They type the answer in the Answer field: “The free trial includes full access to all features for 14 days. No credit card required.”
4. They click the Add FAQ button to add another row
5. They fill in the second question and answer
6. They keep adding rows until all FAQs are entered
7. To reorder questions, they grab the drag handle on any row and move it up or down
8. To remove a question, they click the X button on that row’s header
9. They click Update to save

Repeater Display Modes

When setting up a Repeater, you choose how rows appear in the editor. The right choice depends on how many sub-fields each row has and how complex the data is.

Setting Row Limits

You can control how many rows editors can add:

• Minimum Rows: Ensures editors provide at least a certain number of entries. Set to 1 for FAQs (every FAQ section should have at least one question), or 3 for pricing tables (most pricing pages show three tiers).
• Maximum Rows: Caps the list to prevent editors from adding an unreasonable number of rows. Set to 10 for team members on a small company site, or 50 for a large FAQ.
• No limits: Leave both blank to allow any number of rows. This is fine for most use cases.

Nesting Repeaters Inside Repeaters

Repeaters can be nested for complex data structures. Use this sparingly — deeply nested data can be confusing for editors — but it is powerful when you need it.

A university site needs to display course modules, where each module contains multiple lessons:

• Modules (outer Repeater)

– Module Description (textarea)

– Lessons (inner Repeater)

– Lesson Title (text)

– Lesson Duration (text, e.g., “45 minutes”)

– Lesson Video URL (url)

– Lesson Materials (file)

Editors first add modules, then within each module, they add lessons. Each module can have a different number of lessons.

Collapsed Row Labels

When using Block or Row display mode, each row shows a header bar that you can click to expand or collapse. By default, the header shows “Row 1,” “Row 2,” etc. You can make this more useful by choosing which sub-field value appears in the header.

In the Repeater settings, set Collapsed Row Title to one of your sub-fields (e.g., the Question field for an FAQ). Now instead of “Row 1,” “Row 2,” the headers show “What is your refund policy?”, “How do I cancel my subscription?” — making it much easier for editors to find the row they need.

> What happens without PRO: Repeater fields require the PRO plan. On the free plan, if you need a list of items, you would have to create individual numbered fields — “Team Member 1 Name,” “Team Member 1 Title,” “Team Member 2 Name,” “Team Member 2 Title” — which is rigid, wasteful, and hard to maintain. The PRO Repeater is strongly recommended for any list-based content.

> Tip: When building a Repeater, always fill in a few test rows yourself before handing it to your content team. This helps you spot issues with the sub-field order, wrapper widths, and display mode before editors encounter them.

> Common mistake: Setting the display mode to Table when the Repeater has a Textarea or WYSIWYG sub-field. Table mode shows everything in a tight grid, and large text fields get squeezed into tiny columns. Use Block mode instead when sub-fields include any multi-line content.

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