Moving meta field data with update_field or add_row

• kram08980

• February 18, 2023 at 3:10 pm

Hi!

I’m not an expert, I’m sorry if I’m missing something important here.

I have a Relationship field (actually several of them), that is a list of post IDs. It’s called ‘Sponsors’.

Now, we need the option to choose if each post is going to be linked or not.

Then, I have created a new Repeater field called ‘Sponsors v2’. And each row has two fields, ‘organization’ and ‘linked’.

In order to move the date, I tried it with add_row. But comparing the outcome in the database, it doesn’t match.

The Relationship field has a value that is an array:

sponsors = a:2:{i:0;s:3:"310";i:1;s:2:"86";}

But when manually updating the new Repeater field, it creates several independent values…

sponsors-v2 = 2,
sponsors-v2_0_organization = 310,
sponsors-v2_0_linked = 0,
sponsors-v2_0_organization = 86,
sponsors-v2_0_linked = 0,

I’m confused because reading the documentation I understand that I should use add_row, but it’s creating an array, instead of the data structure above.

I ended up doing this in development, and seems to work well:

function science_update_logos () {

    $activities = get_posts([
        'post_type' => 'scc_cpt_activity',
        'nopaging' => true,
    ]);

    foreach ($activities as $activity) {

        $activity_id = $activity->ID;
        
        // Sponsors
        // ====================================
        $sponsors = get_field( 'sponsors', $activity_id );
        $sponsors_amount = intval(count($sponsors));
        update_field('sponsors-v2', $sponsors_amount, $activity_id);
        $index_sponsors = 0;

        foreach ($sponsors as $organization_id) {
            $sponsor_organization = 'sponsors-v2_'.$index_sponsors.'_organization';
            $sponsor_linked = 'sponsors-v2_'.$index_sponsors.'_linked';

            update_field($sponsor_organization, $organization_id, $activity_id);
            update_field($sponsor_linked, '0', $activity_id);

            $index_sponsors++;
        };

        // Next field
        // ====================================
        ...

    }

};

science_update_logos();

I’m scared I’m going to destroy the production site… It should be applied to different fields and around 200 posts. Am I missing something? Am I doing something dramatic?

Massive thanks!

• John Huebner

• February 22, 2023 at 6:49 pm

Do not do your second code.

Explanation of db columns

sponsors-v2 = 2,                    number or rows in the repeater
sponsors-v2_0_organization = 310,   row 1 (index 0) organization sub field value
sponsors-v2_0_linked = 0,           row 1 (index 0) linked sub field value
sponsors-v2_1_organization = 86,    row 2 (index 1) organization sub field value
sponsors-v2_1_linked = 0,           row 2 (index 1) linked sub field value

all of these entries are managed automatically by ACF
You should be using add_row()
trying to insert values the way you are will break the repeater.

• kram08980

• February 23, 2023 at 4:12 am

Thanks a lot John!

Could you please point me out the guidelines of using add_row() in my case?

I literally spent a whole day trying to make it work. That’s why I used the code I shared. I’m glad I asked!

• John Huebner

• February 23, 2023 at 9:40 am

https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/add_row/

You should use the field keys and not field names if you are adding the rows to an empty repeater.