Check if value already exist

• warry

• January 2, 2016 at 1:53 am

Hi everyone, I’m new using ACF and PHP, I have readed the doc but can’t seems to find what i’m looking for.

I have created a custom field for video URL, what I would like to do is when the user type the URL, the URL is checked in the database and if there is already a post using it, it add a little message underneath saying there is already a post with this video.

Thanks a lot for your time.

• John Huebner

• January 4, 2016 at 3:05 am

This could be done, but not directly, it will take a little work. What you’d need to do is set up an acf/validate_value filter outlined here http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/acf-validate_value/

In the filter you can then do a query of all of the posts to see if there is another post with the same field value and return an error. Something along the lines of:

add_filter('acf/validate_value/name=field_name', 
            'validate_field_name_filter, 10, 4)
function validate_field_name_filter($valid, $value, $field, $input) {
  if (!$valid || $value == '') {
    return $valid;
  }
  // query posts for the same value
  // for more info see
  // http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
  global $post; 
  $args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',  // or your post
    'post__not_in' => array($post->ID), // do not check this post
    'meta_query' => array(
      array(
        'key' => 'field_name',
        'value' => $value
      )
    )
  );
  $query = new WP_Query($args);
  if (count($query->posts)) {
    // found at least one post that
    // already has $value
    $valid = 'There is already a post using this video';
  }
  return $valid;
}

• warry

• January 5, 2016 at 1:21 am

It worked great ! Thanks a lot !
Here is my code if it can help someone else :

The name of my field is : lien_video
Name of my custom posts : videos

<?php 
add_filter('acf/validate_value/name=lien_video', 'validate_lien_video_filter', 10, 4);

function validate_lien_video_filter($valid, $value, $field, $input) {
  if (!$valid || $value == '') {
    return $valid;
  }
  // query posts for the same value
  // for more info see
  // http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
  global $post; 
  $args = array(
    'post_type' => 'videos',  // or your post
    'post__not_in' => array($post->ID), // do not check this post
    'meta_query' => array(
      array(
        'key' => 'lien_video',
        'value' => $value
      )
    )
  );
  $query = new WP_Query($args);
  if (count($query->posts)) {
    // found at least one post that
    // already has $value
    $valid = 'There is already a post using this video';
  }
  return $valid;
}

?>

• d7o_ae

• July 5, 2021 at 7:57 am

@warry
your code helps me a lot!
it works very well when user tries to add (publish) new post with same value, it gives him the error message that I wrote, the problem happens when the user tries to update other fields at the same post and save, this gives a duplicate error (but in fact it’s not duplicated, the value is exist in only current post, not in the others)

so, I tried to use get_the_id(); function to ignore current post ID from being checked, but it doesnt work, my code as follows, my field named as “important_estate_clients_mobile” and CPT named “important_clients”:

// check if mobile field value is already exist
add_filter('acf/validate_value/name=important_estate_clients_mobile', 'validate_important_clients', 10, 4);

function validate_important_clients($valid, $value, $field, $input) {
  if (!$valid || $value == '') {
    return $valid;
  }
  // query posts for the same value
  // http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
  global $post; 
   $current_post_id = get_the_id();
  $args = array(
    'post_type' => 'important_clients',  // or your post
    'post__not_in' => array($current_post_id), // do not check this post
    'meta_query' => array(
      array(
        'key' => 'important_estate_clients_mobile',
        'value' => $value
      )
    )
  );
  $query = new WP_Query($args);
  if (count($query->posts)) {
    // found at least one post that
    // already has $value
    $valid = 'رقم العميل هذا مدخل من قبل';
  }
  return $valid;
}