Pass arbitrary values through to a form

When displaying a form, you can pass custom args to both the shortcode and the advanced_form() function. These args and their values are then available inside any custom hooked functions that receive the form’s $args.

To avoid clashes with existing or future core form args, prefix your custom keys with something specific to your project — e.g. xyz_user_name instead of user_name.

Passing values via the shortcode

[advanced_form form="YOUR_FORM_KEY_HERE" xyz_user_name="some value here"]

Shortcode values are static — you can’t pass a dynamic PHP expression.

Passing values via the function

advanced_form( 'YOUR_FORM_KEY_HERE', [
    'xyz_user_name' => wp_get_current_user()->user_login,
] );

The function variant gives you full flexibility — the value can be anything you can compute in PHP.

Reading the values in hooks

Custom args are available wherever the form’s $args are passed, which is the case in most hook callbacks. For example, inside a custom submission handler:

add_action( 'af/form/submission', function ( $form, $fields, $args ) {

    // Only run for a specific form.
    if ( $form['key'] !== 'YOUR_FORM_KEY_HERE' ) {
        return;
    }

    if ( isset( $args['xyz_user_name'] ) ) {
        // Do something with $args['xyz_user_name'] …
    }

}, 10, 3 );

If you’re in a context where the $args aren’t provided directly, you can read them from the global AF instance instead:

add_action( 'some_other_hook', function () {

    // AF()->submission is NULL when not processing a submission — guard for that.
    if ( AF()->submission !== null ) {
        $value = AF()->submission['args']['xyz_user_name'] ?? null;
    }

} );