Field data type

When defining a custom field, selecting the correct field data type is essential because it determines what kind of data you want to store.

ACF supports a wide variety of field types, including: simple text fields, images, URLs, HTML, rich text, file uploads, number inputs, dropdowns, references and more. Each serves a specific purpose depending on the kind of data you need to capture.

For example:

• Want to upload a product demo video? Use a Media v2 field.

• Need a short description? Use a Single-line text field.

• Referencing another object like a global FAQ? Use a Reference field.

When adding a new field, ACF may restrict its field type to a specific selection. If you have a Shopify Metafield definition in place for the chosen name and namespace combination, this definition will determine your field's type for you, so the Shopify and ACF field definitions are aligned (as they should be).

To help you visualize your options, here’s a preview of the field type selector in ACF:

You can explore all available field types in more detail in our dedicated articles:

Shopify Field typesACF Field types

Having a clear understanding of these types will help you avoid having to restructure data later.

Shopify Native Fields vs. Accentuate Fields: What’s the difference?

In ecommerce, data is power but only if it’s structured the right way.

Whether you’re adding extra product details, building content templates or creating custom workflows, the fields you use will determine how easily (or how painfully) you can manage your data over time.

When working with Accentuate Custom Fields, you’ll often come across two types of fields:

• Shopify native fields

• Accentuate fields

Both play important roles, but they’re not the same.

Let’s break down what each does, why the difference matters and how to decide which one fits your needs.

The evolution of Metafields

In the early days of Shopify Metafields, things were a bit different. Using unstructured metafields was the norm. With these types of Metafields, merchants could store any data they wanted but there were no guardrails.

For instance, if you wanted to showcase burn times for candles, you needed to manually enter data, no matter their format (text, number, etc). This could lead to inconsistencies, as someone may enter “40hrs”, another “about 40 hours” or “40h”.

All of these mean the same thing to a human, but to Shopify, they were completely different inputs. This sometimes led to errors, differences or display issues. It was flexible, sure. On the other hand, sometimes brought challenges.

By building on top of unstructured Metafields, Accentuate introduced predefined ACF field types long before Shopify provided official definitions. That is why all Accentuate fields remain unstructured by design. While these custom definitions served merchants well in the past, most of them are now considered outdated.

Now, the new standard is structured Metafields. Shopify lets you create Metafield definitions to help standardize custom data. Think of these as templates that enforce rules:

• Type of content (text, number, file, reference, etc.)

• Namespace and key (how Shopify organizes custom data)

• Validation rules (what’s allowed and what isn’t)

Using the same example, if you create a Metafield for burn time, Shopify can restrict the input to numbers only. No more "about 40 hours." Just 40.

With native Metafields, Shopify prompts users for the correct type of input, ensuring consistency across all your entries. You’re no longer relying on memory or internal documentation to get it right. Shopify handles the structure for you.

This shift from unstructured to structured data helped merchants stay consistent, avoid errors, and made fields easier to use across products, collections, orders and more.

Which should you use?

At Accentuate, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Both structured and unstructured fields serve important purposes.

Accentuate supports all of Shopify’s native fields and still utilises Accentuate fields since they give you more control over your custom data.

Both approaches have benefits and limitations, it’s all about what fits your store’s needs. Here’s a good rule of thumb:

• Use Accentuate fields when you need advanced field types such as HTML or Media v2, or when you’re managing complex content structures that go beyond Shopify’s native capabilities.

We generally recommend using Shopify's native Metafield definitions when creating new Metafields, as they offer better consistency, validation and integration within Shopify.

In Accentuate, definitions marked with Shopify >> are native and recommended for new fields.

If you’re ever unsure about how to set things up, reach out to our team. We’re happy to help you make the right decision from the start.

Multiple selections or repeatable?

While the two settings can from time to time achieve the same result, it is also relevant to consider when it is right to use one over the other.

Enabling multiple selections for a field is recommended if you need multiple values for just one field. If you have a group of fields that you need multiple values for, making the overall section of the fields repeatable would be the recommended way to go.

In general, we recommend not enabling any settings you won't need. It is much better to keep it simple and build your setup bit by bit once the needs present themselves.