Topic: Formatting an ACF date for a loop item

Eric

January 12, 2026 at 10:52 am

Hello,

In a query,I’m trying to format a date which is an ACF custom field of type “date” to french format. I managed to display the field with the loop item : {{loop_item key:date_debut_evt}}. This custom field is “date_debut_evt”.
I’m using this filter :


add_filter( 'generateblocks_dynamic_tag_output', function( $output, $options ) {
    if ( isset( $options['tag'] ) && $options['tag'] === 'loop_item' 
         && isset( $options['key'] ) && $options['key'] === 'date_debut_evt' ) {
        $datetime = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Ymd', $output );
        return $datetime ? date_i18n( 'j F Y', $datetime->getTimestamp() ) : $output; // "29 avril 2026"
    }
    return $output;
}, 10, 2 );

But I can’t get it to work, the output date is always: 20260429 for example.

Could you help me ?

Eric.

Ying

January 12, 2026 at 11:14 am

Hi there,

Can you try modifying your code to this?

add_filter( 'generateblocks_dynamic_tag_output', function( $output, $options ) {

    if (
        isset( $options['tag'], $options['key'] ) &&
        $options['tag'] === 'loop_item' &&
        $options['key'] === 'date_debut_evt'
    ) {

        // Ensure value is a string like "20260429"
        $raw = trim( (string) $output );

        // Validate format strictly
        $datetime = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Ymd', $raw );

        if ( $datetime instanceof DateTime ) {
            return date_i18n( 'j F Y', $datetime->getTimestamp() );
            // → 29 avril 2026 (if site language = French)
        }
    }

    return $output;

}, 10, 2 );

Let me know if this helps!

Eric

January 14, 2026 at 3:43 am

Hello Ying,

Thanks for that code. I didn’t get a formatted date with it so I put a trace in the filter and it never appeared.

By looking at the trace, I could see that it is not ‘tag’ in the Options array but tag_name.
Now it seems ok, here’s the code :


add_filter( 'generateblocks_dynamic_tag_output', function( $output, $options ) {
    if (
        isset( $options['tag_name'], $options['key'] ) &&
        $options['tag_name'] === 'loop_item' &&
        $options['key'] === 'date_debut_evt'
    ) {
        // Ensure value is a string like "20260429"
        $raw = trim( (string) $output );
	
        // Validate format strictly
        $datetime = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Ymd', $raw );

        if ( $datetime instanceof DateTime ) {
            return date_i18n( 'j F Y', $datetime->getTimestamp() );
            // → 29 avril 2026 (if site language = French)
        }
    }

    return $output;

}, 10, 2 );

Eric.

George

January 14, 2026 at 4:12 am

Hi Eric.

Please, use this code instead:

add_filter( 'generateblocks_dynamic_tag_output', function( $output, $options ) {
    // Check tag_name instead of tag
    $tag_name = $options['tag_name'] ?? '';
    
    if ( 'loop_item' === $tag_name && isset( $options['key'] ) && $options['key'] === 'date_debut_evt' ) {
        $datetime = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Ymd', trim( $output ) );
        if ( $datetime instanceof DateTime ) {
            return date_i18n( 'j F Y', $datetime->getTimestamp() );
        }
    }
    
    return $output;
}, 10, 2 );

Eric
January 14, 2026 at 11:35 pm

Hello George,

Tested and working ok. Thanks.

Eric.
George
January 15, 2026 at 4:46 am

Excellent, no problem!

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Formatting an ACF date for a loop item