ACF Custom Validation Ignored

I have added a custom validation as a code snippet using code snippets plugin. The validation works fine when fields group are attached to a page or custom post type. However, when using the same field group on elementor using acf frontend then the validation is being ignored.

Background:
using facetwp user post type. it basically creates a hidden custom post type for users so users can be queried as a post type. Very handy for creating users list in elementor

Using acf to create a repeater field

Using a custom validation to ensure unique entries in the repeater based on the first field in the repeater group. The code was found on acf forum

The main function is here:

add_filter(‘acf/validate_value/type=repeater’, ‘grly_acf_validate_repeater’, 10, 4);

function grly_acf_validate_repeater($valid, $value, $field, $input) {

if (!$valid || !$field[‘preventduplicates’]) {
return $valid;
}

// get list of array indexes from $input
// [ <= this fixes my IDE, it has problems with unmatched brackets
preg_match_all(‘/\[([^\]]+)\]/’, $input, $matches);
if (!count($matches[1])) {
// this should actually never happen
return $valid;
}
$matches = $matches[1];

// walk the acf input to find the repeater and current row
$array = $_POST[‘acf’];

$field_key = false;
$field_value = false;

for ($i = 0; $i < count($matches); $i++) {
if (isset($array[$matches[$i]])) {

$field_key = $matches[$i];
$field_value = $array[$matches[$i]];

if ($field_key == $field[‘key’]) {
break;
}
$array = $field_value;

}
}

$used = [];
foreach ($field_value as $index => $row) {
$first_entry = reset($row); // Extracts the first entry in the object for that row;
if ($first_entry) {
if (!in_array($first_entry, $used)) {
$used[] = $first_entry;
} else {
$valid = ‘The value ‘ . $first_entry . ‘ is used more than once. The first field in this repeater must be unique across the repeater.’;
break;
}
}
}

return $valid;
}
… then I’ve added a ‘prevent duplicates’ field to all repeaters so that it can be toggled on and off:

add_action(‘acf/render_field_settings/type=repeater’, ‘add_no_duplicates_field_to_repeater’);
function add_no_duplicates_field_to_repeater($field) {
acf_render_field_setting($field, [
‘label’ => __(‘Prevent duplicates?’, ‘acf’),
‘instructions’ => ‘Prevents rows being saved where the first value is the same as that in another row’,
‘type’ => ‘radio’,
‘name’ => ‘preventduplicates’,
‘choices’ => array(
1 => __(“Yes”, ‘acf’),
0 => __(“No”, ‘acf’),
),
‘default_value’ => 0,
‘layout’ => ‘horizontal’,
]);

}`

Source: https://support.advancedcustomfields.com/forums/topic/avoid-duplicate-content-on-repeater-field/