Optimize code to query Custom Fields as PHP memory limit error?

• caram

• March 4, 2014 at 2:29 am

Hi there,

My client is experiencing a PHP memory limit error on one of the pages and I was wondering whether it is related to the way I am calling the Advanced Custom Fields. Sorry, I am not an expert in PHP, so I was wondering whether this code is repetitive and could be optimized:

<div class="container post">
      <?php 
         while (have_posts()) :
         the_post();
         ?><?php  endwhile; ?>
      <div class="row-fluid post-title">
         <header>
            <p class="entry-title"><?php  the_title(); ?></p>
            <p class="entry-sub-title"><?php  the_subtitle(); ?></p>
            <!--<?php  get_template_part('templates/entry-meta'); ?>-->
         </header>
      </div>
      <div class="row-fluid info-table">
         <div class="info-details">
            <?php
               $key = 'xxx';
               $themeta = get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, TRUE);
               if($themeta != '') {
               	echo 'xxxx';
               } ?>
            <?php  if( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'xxx', true) ) { ?>
            <span class="info-detail"><?php  the_field('xxx'); ?></span>
            <?php  } ?>
            <?php
               $key = 'yyy';
               $themeta = get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, TRUE);
               if($themeta != '') {
               	echo 'yyy';
               }?>
            <?php  if( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'yyy', true) ) { ?>
            <span class="info-detail"><?php  the_field('yyyy'); ?></span>
            <?php  } ?>
            <?php
               $key = 'zzz';
               $themeta = get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, TRUE);
               if($themeta != '') {
               	echo 'zzz';
               }?>
            <?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'zzz', true) ) { ?>
            <span class="info-detail"><?php  the_field('zzz'); ?></span>
            <?php  } ?>

etc.

Am I making too many PHP queries and how could it be optimized?

Thanks so much for any help and best wishes.

• Elliot

• March 6, 2014 at 9:13 am

Hi @caram

You could better optimize the code by making use of the get_field function instead of the get_post_meta function. This will allow ACF to cache data and only load it once (instead of twice in your case):

<?php  if( get_field('yyy') ) { ?>
    <span class="info-detail"><?php  the_field('yyyy'); ?></span>
<?php  } ?>

This said, your code should not be maxing out memory limits, so it’s more likely to be a ‘too many plugins / functionality’ issue. Perhaps a server upgrade is needed or you can remove some plugins / functionality.

Thanks
E

• caram

• March 11, 2014 at 9:55 am

Thanks so much for your advice, Elliot!