Custom taxonomy slug not ID (again, i know)

• Headlessbody

• May 18, 2016 at 6:22 am

I swear i’ve googled the last few hours for this, searched this forum, tried a bunch of code snippets, but no luck so far.
I’ve created a custom taxonomy, linked with my custom post but i coudn’t manage to echo the name of the category but only the id.
If i switch from ID term to term object i get the nasty Object of class WP_Term could not be converted to string error.

Any kind soul willing to help me?
Thanks!
Stefano

P.S.:The taxonomy (created with Custom Post Type UI) has these properties:

name: tecnica
label: tecniche
singular_label: tecnica
description: 
public: true
hierarchical: true
show_ui: true
query_var: true
query_var_slug: 
rewrite: true
rewrite_slug: 
rewrite_withfront: true
rewrite_hierarchical: true
show_admin_column: true
show_in_rest: true
show_in_quick_edit: true
rest_base: 

• John Huebner

• May 18, 2016 at 6:38 am

A taxonomy field by default allows multiple terms to be selected, which means that it will return either an array of IDs or an array of terms depending on what you have it set for. Unless you change it to a field type that only allows a single value.

It is best to never assume what is being returned. It could be an array or a single value. The reason for this is that let’s say that you create a taxonomy field that allows multiple selections and you edit a few posts with this setup. If you then go in an change it to only allowing one selection the values in the posts you already edited will still contain arrays unless you go back and edit every post. Meanwhile any new posts you add will have just a single value.

// if you are expecting a single value
$term = get_field('your_taxonomy_field');
if (is_array($term)) {
 $term = $terms[0];
}
echo $term->name;

// if you are expecting an array
$terms = get_field('your_taxonomy_field');
if (!is_array($terms)) {
  $terms = array($terms);
}
foreach ($terms as $term) {
  echo $term->name;
}

If that doesn’t completely answer your question post the code you’re using.

• Headlessbody

• May 18, 2016 at 7:04 am

Wow!
Thanks for the super quick reply!

Unfortunately it didn’t do the magic.
Actually, pretty weird, your code (with the right field name “tecnica”) doesn’t output anything at all!

My code is:

<?php if( get_field('tecnica') ): ?>
<?php $field_name = "text_field"; $field = get_field_object(tecnica); echo $field['label']; ?>:<?php the_field('tecnica'); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

(i need the label too, for possible future translations)

I’ve set it to use radio button, because i need just one category (the tecnique used for a painting,it’s for a painter catalogue).

I’ve tried to set as an html select, or a multiple category,and i get the array, but always with the id.

The code you suggested with the correct field ‘tecnica’ is

$terms = get_field('tecnica');

// if you are expecting a single value
if (is_array($terms)) {
 $term = $terms[0];
}
echo $term->name;

// if you are expecting an array
if (!is_array($terms)) {
  $terms = array($terms);
}
foreach ($terms as $term) {
  echo $term->name;
}

I’m working on Xaamp on my old laptop, PHP Version is 5.6.14…

• John Huebner

• May 18, 2016 at 7:14 am

Can you attach a screen shot of you’re field settings

• Headlessbody

• May 18, 2016 at 7:31 am

• John Huebner

• May 18, 2016 at 9:02 am

The image did not post.

looking at the code you posted, no matter what you’re returning you can’t use
the_field('tecnica')
this will attempt to echo the field contents, since the field contents will be one of 4 things

• A Term ID
• A Term Object
• An Array of Term IDs
• An Array of Term Objects

echoing the value will not produce the results you are expecting.

Please try to repost the field settings or tell me what they are. Is the field you showing, a checkbox, a multi select, a radio or a single select field?

• Headlessbody

• May 18, 2016 at 9:08 am

Now the field is a Term ID, and it works, showing the numeric ID of my taxonomy.
And is a radio field.

Meanwhile i’ve uploaded my work in progress in a live server, with no improvements…

I’ve found this code and it seems to work!

<?php   // Get terms for post
 $terms = get_the_terms( $post->ID , 'tecnica' );
 // Loop over each item since it's an array
 if ( $terms != null ){
 foreach( $terms as $term ) {
 // Print the name method from $term which is an OBJECT
 print $term->name ;
 // Get rid of the other data stored in the object, since it's not needed
 unset($term);
} } ?>

from here, where is also suggested to use wp_get_object_terms( $object_ids, $taxonomies, $args )

I’ve tried on new and old posts, changing the category changes correctly in the front end.

Can we marked this [resolved]?
Thanks again!

• John Huebner

• May 18, 2016 at 9:24 am

The code you posted is not getting the terms from the ACF field but with standard WP functions. You can do it that way.

If you’re using a radio field then it’s returning a single field and if it’s set to return the ID then….

$taxonomy = 'your-taxonomy'; // change this to your taxonomy
$term_id = get_field('tecnica');
$term = get_term_by('id', $term_id, $taxonomy);
echo $term->name;

It would be easier to return the term object, then you can just do

$term = get_term('tecnica');
echo $term->name;

• Headlessbody

• May 18, 2016 at 3:55 pm

yes!
I switched to term object, and it worked as expected, on new posts!

Grazie mille (thanks a lot!)

• sethgitner

• December 15, 2017 at 3:54 pm

I am trying this and getting:

“NOTICE: TRYING TO GET PROPERTY OF NON-OBJECT”

any ideas? i have tried it every which way.

• John Huebner

• December 17, 2017 at 1:58 am

This means that get_term_by() is probably returning false. This means that either the taxonomy or the term does not exist.