Textarea Control

PHP Field Configuration Reference

Textarea

Use this config when fieldType is textarea.

1) Base Parameters

Parameter	Required	Type	Default	Choices	Description
fieldType	Yes	string	textarea	textarea	Sets control type.
name	Yes	string			Sets control name. Use snake_case.
fieldLabel	Yes	string			Sets control label.
default	No	string			Sets control default value.
required	No	bool	false	true, false	Sets control required.
disabled	No	bool	false	true, false	Sets control disabled.
hideLabelFromVision	No	bool	false	true, false	Sets control hide label from vision.
fieldHelpText	No	string			Sets control help text.
className	No	string			Sets control css class name.
fieldLabelPosition	No	string	top	top, left	Sets control label position.
fieldLabelTextTransform	No	string	uppercase	uppercase, capitalize, lowercase	Sets control label text transform.

2) Textarea Specific Parameters

Parameter	Required	Type	Default	Choices	Description
rows	No	int	4		The number of visible text rows.
placeholder	No	string			Placeholder text for the textarea.

3) PHP Array Schema

Here is an example of how to use the textarea control in a post meta configuration:

[
    'fieldType' => 'textarea',
    'name' => 'post_textarea',
    'fieldLabel' => 'Post Textarea',
    'required' => false,
    'disabled' => false,
    'hideLabelFromVision' => false,
    'fieldHelpText' => 'Enter multi-line text.',
    'className' => 'custom-class',
    'fieldLabelPosition' => 'top',
    'fieldLabelTextTransform' => 'uppercase',
    'rows' => 4,
    'placeholder' => 'Enter text...',
]

3) Hook-Based Example (Post Meta Config)

It is available to use this control in post meta fields, term meta fields and user settings page and options page fields.

Available hooks:

• native_custom_fields_post_meta_fields
• native_custom_fields_term_meta_fields
• native_custom_fields_user_meta_fields
• native_custom_fields_options_page_fields

add_filter( 'native_custom_fields_post_meta_fields', function( array $configs ): array {
    $post_type = 'book';

    if ( ! isset( $configs[ $post_type ] ) || ! is_array( $configs[ $post_type ] ) ) {
        $configs[ $post_type ] = [
            'post_type' => $post_type,
            'sections'  => [],
        ];
    }

    $configs[ $post_type ]['sections'][] = [
        'meta_box_id'       => 'post_options',
        'meta_box_title'    => 'Post Options',
        'meta_box_context'  => 'normal',
        'meta_box_priority' => 'default',
        'fields'            => [
            [
            'fieldType' => 'textarea',
            'name' => 'post_textarea',
            'fieldLabel' => 'Post Textarea',
            'required' => false,
            'disabled' => false,
            'hideLabelFromVision' => false,
            'fieldHelpText' => 'Enter multi-line text.',
            'className' => 'custom-class',
            'fieldLabelPosition' => 'top',
            'fieldLabelTextTransform' => 'uppercase',
            'rows' => 4,
            'placeholder' => 'Enter text...',
            ],
        ],
    ];

    return $configs;
} );

4) Stored Value Type

Field Type	Meta Value Type
textarea	string

5) Sanitization & Allowing HTML

By default, textarea (and code/wysiwyg) values are sanitized with WordPress's sanitize_textarea_field(), which strips all HTML — including HTML comments such as Gutenberg's block markers (<!-- wp:heading -->). This is intentional: NCF does not allow raw HTML in textarea fields out of the box.

If your project needs to store content that includes HTML (e.g. Gutenberg block markup, or Markdown mixed with HTML), use the ncf_sanitize_field_value filter to override NCF's default sanitization for that specific field, without changing NCF's behavior for every other field:

add_filter( 'ncf_sanitize_field_value', function ( $sanitized, $raw_value, $field_type, $field_name ) {
    if ( $field_type === 'textarea' && $field_name === 'post_textarea' ) {
        // $raw_value is the raw, unslashed input — apply your own sanitizer here.
        return wp_kses_post( $raw_value );
    }

    return $sanitized;
}, 10, 4 );

Filter arguments:

Argument	Type	Description
$sanitized	mixed	NCF's default-sanitized value.
$raw_value	mixed	Raw (unslashed) value, prior to sanitization.
$field_type	string	Field type, e.g. text, textarea, code, wysiwyg, number.
$field_name	string	Field name/meta key, so you can target a single field. Empty string if not available in that context (e.g. plain multi-select array items).

This filter runs for every field type, not just textarea — it's a general sanitization override point, so you can also use it to relax/tighten sanitization for text, url, email, etc. Always sanitize/escape $raw_value yourself before returning it; never return it unsanitized.