[Resolved] ACF Fields not returning translated value - custom ajax function

I've finally got a reply from the acfe support - this is their response:

Sorry for the late answer. The problem with WPML is that it is a complex setup which rely on an additional addon (ACFML) to properly handle ACF Fields. So it takes some time to test all use cases to really understand where the problem might come from.

I’ve setup a simple test, with the following setup:

– Post Type: “My Post Type”
– Taxonomy: “Colors”
— Term: “Blue”
— Term: “Green”
— Term: “Red”

Here is the video of my test: hidden link
I found some inconsistencies in both ACF Taxonomy Field and ACFE Taxonomy Terms support with WPML + ACFML.

1. The “ACFE Taxonomy Terms” field cannot be set as “Copy Meta” in the WPML Post Meta settings, and is always reset back to “Do not translate” (video at 01:30). This issue is caused by the ACFML addon.

In fact, the addon only support the following native ACF Fields types: Post Object, Page Link, Relationship, Taxonomy, Gallery, Link. (source code: /acfml/classes/class-wpml-acf-duplicated-post.php:22). When the addon is disabled (video at 06:14), WPML treat ACF Fields (including ACFE Taxonomy Terms field) as any classic post meta, and allow to set the ACFE Taxonomy Terms field as “Copy Meta”, which fix the issue. However, WPML cannot automatically translate the Taxonomy/Taxonomy Terms results anymore.

I didn’t find any way to add a Custom Field Type compatibility for the ACFE Taxonomy Terms, as there is no API available in the ACFML source code.

2. WPML + ACFML don’t properly handle terms displayed in the native ACF Taxonomy & ACFE Taxonomy Terms field when the “Colors” taxonomy is set to “Translate: Use translation if available or fallback to default language”, and using the display setting: “Radio” or “Checkbox” in the field settings. As shown on the video (03:40), both fields will show “No results found”, when it should fallback to terms in default language.

It looks like ACFML only fallback to the Terms in “default language” when the native ACF Taxonomy field is set to display as a “Select” (video at 04:23). But even here, it will only show the pre-selected term before the duplication/translation (in the video it will only show “Red”, and not other “Blue” and “Green” choices). So it seems ACFML only support the ACF Taxonomy Field partially at the moment (when using “Select” display).

My conclusion, in order to maximize compatibility for both issues, would be to set the “Colors” Taxonomy as “Translatable: Only show translated items”, and make sure all terms are correctly translated in all languages.

Then, when translating a post, you’ll have to manually select the correct translated term in the ACFE Taxonomy Terms. Unfortunately, I see no workaround for the “Copy Meta” issue with ACFML at the moment (point 1).

I’ll contact the WPML plugin team to let them know, and hopefully they will be able to provide some API to let third-party plugins such as ACF Extended to get in the ACFML logic and add compatibility for more Field Types.