Meta Box Show Hide

Meta Box Show Hide is an official extension of the Meta Box ecosystem, designed for WordPress developers to dynamically control the visibility of meta boxes in the admin panel. Instead of displaying all custom fields on every editing screen, this tool allows you to define conditional rules that show or hide meta boxes based on the context of the content being edited.

The extension works via JavaScript, meaning elements are shown or hidden instantly without needing to reload the page. Developers don't need to rewrite their meta box definitions: they simply add conditions to each meta box indicating where it should be shown or hidden, and the rest is managed automatically. This eliminates the need to write custom PHP code for visibility checks.

The available conditions include page templates, post formats, categories, hierarchical custom taxonomies, the main page, and input values. For example, it's possible to show a meta box only when a specific value is selected in a dropdown menu, or hide it when a checkbox is ticked. Additionally, conditions can be combined using the logical operators AND and OR, allowing you to create visibility rules as complex as needed.

Since version 1.3.0, the extension offers full support for Gutenberg, WordPress's block editor. All rules work correctly in both the classic editor and the block editor, ensuring a consistent experience regardless of the editing environment used by the content team.

This extension is aimed at developers and administrators of WordPress sites that manage sites with multiple content types and templates. By automatically hiding fields that don't apply to a specific page, format, or category, you achieve a cleaner and more intuitive editing interface, reducing confusion for the editorial team and speeding up the content publishing workflow.

It's important to note that this extension works with complete meta boxes, not individual fields. If you need to control the visibility of specific fields or apply more advanced rules, Meta Box offers the Conditional Logic extension as a complement for more complex use cases.