Ordering by Custom Field That Stores JSON

• colinswin

• August 7, 2018 at 2:08 pm

I have a field that stores a JSON string from YouTube. I wish to create a custom query that would sort by a value within the JSON. In a perfect world, a meta_key like this would work, but it obviously does not. Is there a way to do this?

$args = array( 
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
  'post_type' 	   => 'videos',
  // video_json_string is the ACF field name
  'meta_key'	   => 'video_json_string['items'][0]['statistics']['viewCount']', 
  'orderby'	   => 'meta_value'
);
$query = new WP_Query($args);

I know I could create a new field and store the view count there by itself, but I want to see if it can be done in this fashion. Thank you for any help!

• John Huebner

• August 7, 2018 at 9:54 pm

If it’s an ACF field it does not store JSON. ACF fields that contain arrays store serialized values.

There isn’t WP_Query() on fields like these and the best option is what you suggest, store the value you want to search and filter on into it’s own meta_key.

• colinswin

• August 13, 2018 at 12:30 pm

Thanks John.