Merge an ACF URL and Text field to create a href

• musicandhealth

• July 26, 2019 at 11:54 am

Hi

I am looking to display a block on a web page the content of which will be a news story headline, date and publisher. It’s effectively an aggregated news ticker, the content of which I will curate through posts.

There will be several blocks on a page and the fields they display will be either category or category/tag related with the whole process being driven by the following conditional php statement –

 <?php

$hb1 = in_category( 
           array('News','Features','Tech'), 
           $this->post->ID 
);
$hb2 = in_category( array('Research'), $this->post->ID );
$hb3 = has_tag( 
         array( 'aged care', 'anxiety/stress', 'autism', 'cognitive', 'Dementia', "Parkinson's", 'sleep' , 'well-being' ), 
         $this->post->ID
);

if ( $hb1 )
{
  the_field('media_outlet',     $this->post->ID);
 the_field('media_outlet_url', $this->post->ID);
 the_field('country',   $this->post->ID);
}
else if ( $hb2 && $hb3 )
{
   the_field('media_outlet',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('published_date', $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',        $this->post->ID);
   echo $this->get_category();
  
}
?>

What I would like to do is combine the ACF media-outlet and media_outlet_url so that the media outlet name is displayed on the web page but behind it sits a URL that when clicked opens another browser page and takes the user to the relevant site.

I have tried a number of code versions but each crashes my Newspaper theme. The latest version being –

<?php

$hb1 = in_category( 
           array('News','Features','Tech'), 
           $this->post->ID 
);
$hb2 = in_category( array('Research'), $this->post->ID );
$hb3 = has_tag( 
         array( 'aged care', 'anxiety/stress', 'autism', 'cognitive', 'Dementia', "Parkinson's", 'sleep' , 'well-being' ), 
         $this->post->ID
);
$link = get_field('media_outlet_url');

if ( $hb1 )
{
   <a href="<?php echo $link; ?>">the_field('media_outlet',$this->post->ID);</a>;
   the_field('published_date',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',   $this->post->ID);
}
else if ( $hb2 && $hb3 )
{
   the_field('media_outlet',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('published_date', $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',   $this->post->ID);
  
}
?>
</div>

I created an $link variable that was called a few lines down but didn’t work.

All and any insight appreciated.

Best Wishes

Gary

• John Huebner

• July 26, 2019 at 10:45 pm

$link = get_field('media_outlet_url', $this->post->ID);

if ( $hb1 )
{
   ?>
    <a href="<php echo $link; ?>" target="_blank"><?php 
        the_field('media_outlet',$this->post->ID); ?</a>
   <?php
  /// code continues ...

• musicandhealth

• July 29, 2019 at 2:24 am

Hi John

Thanks for getting back to me. I have tried to implement your suggestion but seem to be missing something – I am newish to php so my skills are improving daily but clearly not good enough to identify the problem.

I implemented this off the back of your suggestion –

<?php

$hb1 = in_category( 
           array('News','Features','Tech'), 
           $this->post->ID 
);

$hb2 = in_category( array('Research'), $this->post->ID );
$hb3 = has_tag( 
         array( 'aged care', 'anxiety/stress', 'autism', 'cognitive', 'Dementia', "Parkinson's", 'sleep' , 'well-being' ), 
         $this->post->ID
);

$link = get_field('media_outlet_url', $this->post->ID);

if ( $hb1 )
{
 ?>
    <a href="<php echo $link; ?>" target="_blank"><?php the_field('media_outlet',$this->post->ID); ?</a>
   
<?php

   the_field('published_date',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',   $this->post->ID);
}

else if ( $hb2 && $hb3 )

{
   the_field('media_outlet',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('published_date', $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',   $this->post->ID);
  
}
?>

But get an error.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Best

G

• musicandhealth

• July 29, 2019 at 5:58 am

Hi John

I’ve now got this to work –

<?php

$hb1 = in_category( 
           array('News','Features','Tech'), 
           $this->post->ID 
);

$hb2 = in_category( array('Research'), $this->post->ID );
$hb3 = has_tag( 
         array( 'aged care', 'anxiety/stress', 'autism', 'cognitive', 'Dementia', "Parkinson's", 'sleep' , 'well-being' ), $this->post->ID
);

if ( $hb1 )
{
$link = get_field('media_outlet_url', $this->post->ID);
$media = get_field ('media_outlet', $this->post->ID);
$country = get_field ('country', $this->post->ID);
$publicationdate = get_field ('publication_date', $this->post->ID);

echo "<a href=$link target="_blank">$media</a>";
echo $publicationdate;
echo $country; 
}

else if ( $hb2 && $hb3 )

{
   the_field('media_outlet',   $this->post->ID);
   the_field('published_date', $this->post->ID);
   the_field('country',        $this->post->ID);
}

?>

Just trying to work out how to get the link to open in a blank page.

Best

G