Advanced Link

An enhanced version of ACF's built-in Link field. Adds a CSS class input and lets you toggle which sub-fields are visible. Can return either an associative array or a ready-to-render HTML <a> tag.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Show Link Text	`true`	Display the “Link Text” input.
Show Open in New Tab	`true`	Display the target=“_blank” checkbox.
Show CSS Class	`false`	Display an optional CSS class input.
Return Format	`array`	`array` · `html_a`

Return values

`return_format: 'array'`

Returns an associative array with all active sub-fields.

$link = get_field('cta_link');
// [
//   'url'    => 'https://example.com/pricing',
//   'title'  => 'See pricing',
//   'target' => '_blank',
//   'class'  => 'btn btn-primary',
// ]

target is '_blank' when checked, or an empty string when unchecked.

`return_format: 'html_a'`

Returns a complete <a> element string. Empty if no URL is set.

$link = get_field('cta_link');
// '<a href="https://example.com/pricing" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">See pricing</a>'
echo $link; // safe to echo — values are escaped internally

Usage

Rendering from the array format

$link = get_field('hero_cta');

if ($link && $link['url']) {
    $target = $link['target'] ? ' target="' . esc_attr($link['target']) . '"' : '';
    $class  = $link['class']  ? ' class="'  . esc_attr($link['class'])  . '"' : '';
    $title  = $link['title']  ?: $link['url'];

    echo '<a href="' . esc_url($link['url']) . '"' . $target . $class . '>';
    echo esc_html($title);
    echo '</a>';
}

Using the HTML return format

$link_html = get_field('card_link');
if ($link_html) {
    echo $link_html; // already escaped
}

Adding extra attributes after the fact

$link = get_field('nav_cta');

if ($link && $link['url']) {
    $classes = array_filter(['btn', 'btn-outline', $link['class'] ?? '']);
    $classes_str = implode(' ', $classes);

    printf(
        '<a href="%s"%s class="%s" aria-label="%s">%s</a>',
        esc_url($link['url']),
        $link['target'] ? ' target="_blank" rel="noopener"' : '',
        esc_attr($classes_str),
        esc_attr($link['title'] ?? ''),
        esc_html($link['title'] ?: 'Learn more')
    );
}

Repeater of links

if (have_rows('footer_links')) {
    echo '<ul class="footer-nav">';
    while (have_rows('footer_links')) {
        the_row();
        $link = get_sub_field('link');
        if ($link && $link['url']) {
            echo '<li><a href="' . esc_url($link['url']) . '">';
            echo esc_html($link['title'] ?: $link['url']);
            echo '</a></li>';
        }
    }
    echo '</ul>';
}