Reply To: Force default value on existing posts

• johneriksson

• April 19, 2021 at 12:05 am

Hi, thought I should drop my solution to future googlers.
My need was to create meta data for every post written by certain authors so I decided to have a function make that for me.

function function_run_once() {
    $args = array(
        'posts_per_page'   => -1,
        'post_type'        => 'post',
    );
    $authors_to_update = array(x, y, z);
    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
    if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
        while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
            $post_id = get_the_ID();
            $author_id = get_the_author_meta('ID');
            if ( in_array( $author_id, $authors_to_update ) ) {
                add_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta_data_name', meta_data_value, false );
            }
        endwhile;
        wp_reset_postdata();
    endif;
}

// Triggered once
add_action( 'init', 'my_run_only_once' );
function my_run_only_once() {
    if ( did_action( 'init' ) >= 2 )
        return;
    if(!get_option('run_this_function_once')) {
        function_run_once(); // Run the function
        update_option('run_this_function_once', true);
    }
}