How to create a FAQs page - P5 - Using Meta Box and Breakdance

Having a FAQs page on your site will help the visitors to find the information they want quickly. There’re many ways to create a page for FAQs and in this practice, we’ll share with you one of the most helpful ways by using Meta Box and then use Breakdance to build it.

Table of Contents hide

1. Video Version
2. Before Getting Started
3. Create a New Page
4. Create Custom Fields
5. Create a Global Block
6. Display Q&As on the Page
7. Last Words

This is an example of a FAQs page that I created.

this is an example of the FAQs page

Video Version

Watch this video on YouTube

Before Getting Started

The FAQs page includes several couples of question and answer that are saved in custom fields.

To get started, we need the Meta Box core plugin to have a framework for creating custom fields. It’s free, and you can download it directly from wordpress.org.

For the advanced features from Meta Box, we need some of its extensions:

MB Group: to organize custom fields into pairs for questions and answers;
MB Builder: to have a UI on the backend to easily create custom fields.

They’re all in the Meta Box AIO. If you haven’t had it, you can download and install each one individually.

Finally, Breakdance to build the page. Make sure you activate and update to the latest version to have full integration with Meta Box.

Create a New Page

Go to Pages > Add New to create a new blank page.

Go to Pages > Add New to create a new blank page

It will be our FAQ page.

Create Custom Fields

Go to Meta Box > Custom Fields > Add New. This is the structure of the fields I created:

Name	Field Type	Settings
FAQs Group	Group	Cloneable Collapsible
Questions	Text	-
Answer	Textarea	-

Each question will go along with an answer. So, we add a group to set them in a pair.

Since we may have more than one pair of questions and answers, I set this group cloneable.

Set this group cloneable because we may have more than one pair of questions and answers

Then we’ll have an Add more button like this.

the Add more button

Each pair of question and answer may have long content, or there may be too many pairs, so you should set this group collapsible.

Set this group collapsible

Then they will display in a more succinct way.

The questions and answers display in a more succinct way

And you can add titles for the group as follows. The {#} variable is for numbering the pair and the {question} variable is the ID of the question field to show the question on the title.

add titles for the group

After creating all the fields and having reasonable settings, move to the Settings tab, choose Location as Post type, and select Page. To apply the fields to the page you want, go to the Advanced location rules section below and choose your page. In this case, I chose FAQ.

Set the location of custom fields created in the Settings tab

After publishing, you will see all of the custom fields in the page editor. Just enter some questions and answers. Click Add more to add other pairs.

Enter some questions and answers in the page editor. Click Add more to add other pairs

Create a Global Block

We’ll have more than one pair of questions and answers. So let’s create a global block to display the information and set the layout and style for a pair.

Go to Breakdance > Global Blocks to create a new one.

Go to Breakdance > Global Block to create a new one

Add a Div element to cover the block.

Add a Div element to cover the block

For the content of the question, add a Text element.

For the content of the question, add a Text element

Because the question is saved in the custom field created by Meta Box, we should insert dynamic data from the field to this element through this icon button.

insert dynamic data from the field to the element through the dynamic data icon button

Look for the Meta Box section, then select the name of the field that we use to save the question.

Look for the Meta Box section, then select the name of the field that we use to save the question.

Next, add another Text element for the answer.

add another Text element for the answer

Also insert dynamic data from the Answer field.

Now, you can see a couple of questions and answers displayed.

a couple of questions and answers displayed

You can style this block by changing the settings in the Style tab of each element. And this is the new look of the global block.

the new look of the global block

Display Q&As on the Page

Go back to edit the page in Breakdance. It’s still blank now. We’ll display the questions and answers here.

Go back to edit the page in Breakdance. It’s still blank now

They are in a cloneable group, so add a Repeater Field element.

They are in a cloneable group, so add a Repeater Field element

In the Global Block section of its settings, choose the name of the global block that we’ve just created.

In the Global Block section of its settings, choose the name of the global block that we’ve just created.

Next, go to the Field section. Choose the name of the group field that contains the Question and Answer field.

go to the Field section, choose the name of the group field that contains the Question and Answer field

Now, all the questions and answers are displayed with the style we set in the global block.

all the questions and answers are displayed with the style we set in the global block

You can change the settings of the Repeater Field element to have a better layout. Let’s see the page on frontend. All the questions and answers display adequately.

All the questions and answers display adequately on the frontend

Last Words

It's pretty simple to create a FAQs page by using Meta Box and Breakdance. Give it a try and share the results with us. You can refer this series with other page builders.

If you have any suggestions for future tutorials, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks!

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