Query posts for a relationship value fallback issues

• shaunhaage

• March 15, 2022 at 6:38 am

Hi,

I am using the meta_query LIKE to match an author value “Joe Blogs” to the database value stored on in a relationship field, however If there is no match within the LIKE comparison, the meta_query still produces a wild card result similar to if the comparison condition was not set at all.

If am trying to find a possible solution that if no result is provided from the meta_query then it would fall back to a tax_query so as a result wold always be possible.

$articles = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'post_type' => 'article',
        'orderby' => 'posted_date',
        'order' => 'DESC',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'posts_per_page' => $totalRecordsToDisplay,
        'meta_query' => array (
            array(
                'key' => 'authors', // relationship field
                'value' => '"' . get_the_ID() . '"',
                //'value' => $post->post_title,
                //'value' => get_the_id(),
                'compare' => 'LIKE'
            )
                

        ),
        'tax_query' => array(
            'tax_query' => array(
                'relation' => 'AND',
                array(
                    'taxonomy' => 'expertise',
                    'field' => 'term_id',
                    'terms' => array(join(",", wp_list_pluck($expertises, 'term_id'))),
                    'include_children' => true
                )
            )
        ),

    )
);

• John Huebner

• March 17, 2022 at 11:46 am

As far as I know there isn’t any way to do an ‘OR’ on meta_query OR tax_query. Also, as far as I know this would be an ‘AND’ relationship.

Your meta query should not return results if there are not matches.

You would need to do 2 queries. If the first does not return results than do a second with the tax_query.

• shaunhaage

• March 18, 2022 at 6:47 am

Thanks for the suggestion, I resolved this by merging the two queries.

function get_post_primary_category($post_id, $term='category', $return_all_categories=false){
    $return = array();

    if (class_exists('WPSEO_Primary_Term')){
        // Show Primary category by Yoast if it is enabled & set
        $wpseo_primary_term = new WPSEO_Primary_Term( $term, $post_id );
        $primary_term = get_term($wpseo_primary_term->get_primary_term());

        if (!is_wp_error($primary_term)){
            $return['primary_category'] = $primary_term;
        }
    }

    if (empty($return['primary_category']) || $return_all_categories){
        $categories_list = get_the_terms($post_id, $term);

        if (empty($return['primary_category']) && !empty($categories_list)){
            $return['primary_category'] = $categories_list[0];  //get the first category
        }
        if ($return_all_categories){
            $return['all_categories'] = array();

            if (!empty($categories_list)){
                foreach($categories_list as &$category){
                    $return['all_categories'][] = $category->term_id;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return $return;
}

$args = array (
    'post_type' => 'article',
    'orderby' => 'posted_date',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'posts_per_page' => $totalRecordsToDisplay,
    'meta_query' => array (
        array(
            'key' => 'authors',
            'value' => '"' . get_the_ID() . '"',
            'compare' => 'LIKE'
        )  
    )
);

$articles = new WP_Query( $args );

if ($articles->post_count < $totalRecordsToDisplay ) {

    $new_TotalRecordsToDisplay = $totalRecordsToDisplay - $articles->post_count;
    $article_expertise = get_post_primary_category($post->ID, 'expertise');
    $primary_expertise = $article_expertise['primary_category'];

    //echo $primary_expertise->term_id;
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'article',
        'orderby' => 'posted_date',
        'order' => 'DESC',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'posts_per_page' => $new_TotalRecordsToDisplay,
        'tax_query' => array(
            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'expertise',
                'field' => 'term_id',
                'terms' => $primary_expertise->term_id,
                //'terms' => array(join(",", wp_list_pluck($expertises, 'term_id'))),
                'include_children' => true
            )
        )
    );
    $more_query = new WP_Query( $args );
    $articles->posts = array_merge( $articles->posts, $more_query->posts );
    $articles->post_count = count( $articles->posts );
}