PostMeta Viewer – Custom Fields Inspector

PostMeta Viewer is an essential utility for WordPress developers who work with custom fields and post meta. Whether you’re using Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Pods, Toolset, or custom-coded meta fields, this plugin provides a clean and developer-friendly interface to explore, search, and analyze meta data across your entire WordPress site.

It is designed strictly as a read-only inspection tool, making it safe for production environments.

Key Features

• Complete Meta Overview
  Browse all posts, pages, and custom post types with total custom field counts.

• Detailed Meta Inspection
  View all meta keys and values for any individual post, taxonomy term, user, or comment.

• Powerful Search & Filtering
  – Search across post titles, content, meta keys, and meta values
  – Filter by post type, post status, and date range
  – Filter by specific meta key existence
  – Filter by meta value type (string, array, JSON, numeric, empty)

• Meta Inspector Everywhere
  – Post edit screen meta box (configurable per post type)
  – Taxonomy term edit screens (categories, tags, custom taxonomies)
  – User profile edit screens
  – Comment edit screen

• Developer-Friendly Data Display
  – Proper formatting for serialized, array, and JSON meta values
  – One‑click “beautify” toggle to expand complex data structures
  – Dark‑style pre‑formatted output for readability

• Post Statistics
  Quick insights into total posts and filtered results.

• Extensive Settings Page
  – Choose which roles can access the inspector
  – Toggle visibility on post types, taxonomies, users, and comments
  – Hide internal meta keys (those starting with an underscore)
  – Adjust items per page

• Responsive Admin UI
  Works smoothly across all screen sizes.

Ideal For

• ACF Developers – Debug and verify stored ACF field data
• Plugin Developers – Inspect custom meta added by plugins
• Theme Developers – Validate custom field implementations
• Site Debugging – Identify and resolve metadata issues
• Migration Projects – Analyze existing meta structures
• Learning WordPress – Understand how post meta works internally

Usage

Getting Started

1. After activation, go to PostMeta Viewer (top-level menu)
2. View a list of all posts along with their custom field counts
3. Use search and filter options to narrow results
4. Click View Details to inspect meta for a specific post

Using Search & Filters

1. Search Box – Search across post titles, content, meta keys, and values
2. Post Type Filter – Filter posts, pages, or custom post types
3. Meta Key Filter – Filter by existing meta keys
4. Date Range – Filter posts by creation date
5. Post Status – Published, draft, pending, etc.
6. Value Type Filter – String, array, JSON, numeric, or empty
7. Click Apply Filters to update results

Viewing Meta Details

1. Click View Details from the main list
2. View a table of all meta keys and values
3. Serialized and complex data is displayed in a readable, beautified format
4. Use Back to List to return

Inspecting Meta on Other Screens

1. Post Edit Screen – The Custom Fields Inspector meta box appears below the content editor (for enabled post types)
2. Taxonomy Term Edit Screen – A similar box appears on category, tag, and custom taxonomy edit pages
3. User Profile Edit Screen – The inspector is shown on user profile pages
4. Comment Edit Screen – The inspector is shown on the single comment edit page

All boxes respect the role and visibility settings.

Configuring the Plugin

1. Go to PostMeta Viewer → Settings
2. Adjust:
   • Items Per Page – number of posts shown in the main list
   • Access Roles – checkboxes for every registered user role; only checked roles can view post, term, user, and comment meta data (Administrator is always enabled and cannot be unchecked, to prevent accidental lockout)
   • Hide Internal Keys – toggle visibility of meta keys starting with _
   • Enabled Post Types – checkboxes for every public post type, controlling which post-type edit screens show the Custom Fields Inspector meta box
   • Inspector Locations – enable/disable meta boxes on taxonomies, users, and comments
3. Save your changes

License

This plugin is licensed under the GPL v2 or later.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.