Get Category ID from ACF select menu and use as a variable

• colin

• October 1, 2013 at 7:18 am

hello,

i’m trying to let the user select a category that will be used by the page template to display a list of posts in that category. I would like to let the user select a category, and use the Category ID to use as a variable in a wp_query.

i think it’s got something to do with this ( http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/how-to/how-to-get-values-from-a-taxonomy-term/ ), but i’m not seeing any answers looking at that page :/

here’s my code:

 <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
            
            <?php
    		$myNumber = 0;
            $type = 'models';
			$cat = the_field('list_category',''); 
            //echo $type;
            $args=array(
              //'post_type' => $type,
			  'cat' => $cat,
              'post_status' => 'publish',
              'posts_per_page' => -1,
              'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
              'caller_get_posts'=> 1 );
            
            $my_query = null;
            $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
            if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
              while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>

ACF settings are:
name: list_category
type: taxonomy (is this right?)
taxonomy:categories
field type: check box ( i would have thought a drop menu would make more sense but dont see that option )
return value: term ID

this works except for the fact that it also displays the category number on the page, because it’s a string still i guess.

any help would be appreciated!

• Elliot

• October 1, 2013 at 5:17 pm

Hi @colin

There are a few issues with your above code.

1. Misuse of the the_field function. This should be get_field.
2. The taxonomy field does have a drop-down (single select) mode
3. the param ‘cat’ expects an integer. If you selected checkbox for the field type, you will have an array of ids, not just one.

I would advise you to change the taxonomy field type to a single select, and then fix up the code from point 1.

Good luck

Cheers
E

• colin

• October 2, 2013 at 4:53 am

Hi Elliot,

Thanks for taking the time to help.

1. i did have that, but tried the_ for some reason. i blame 2 and 3
2. aah HA. didn’t realize that was what that meant. it’s crazy obvious now! >.<
3. so, i could have maybe grabbed the first value using $cat[0]; ?

Thanks again – where’s the ‘buy me a pint’ button?

• iosman123

• October 20, 2019 at 11:32 pm

Thanks my issue has been fixed .