Related Posts based on Sub-Field Values

• hillelc

• August 8, 2015 at 5:19 am

I know this issue has been brought up before, but I’ve read all the posts and am still struggling. Apologies if this should have been obvious.

I am setting up related posts. The related posts are of a particular type (10) and have a repeater field (people) and a sub-field (person_page_id).

I am looking to load only the posts where the sub-field (person_page_id) matches the post_id of the current page. It should be a simple comparison. But nothing I try seems to be working. I’d prefer to use get_posts as it seems to present fewer issues than wp_query.

I have already read all the examples I could find:

• http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/query-posts-custom-fields/
• http://support.advancedcustomfields.com/forums/topic/reverse-query-relationship-subfield-which-is-nested-in-a-repeater-field/
• http://support.advancedcustomfields.com/forums/topic/query-subfield-value-using-get_posts/

So this code works and brings back all the posts in the proper category:

 		    <?php $id = get_the_ID(); ?> 		 					<!--get the permalink for the current page -->

			<?php 

				$posts = get_posts(array(
					'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
					'post_type'			=> 'post',
					'category'			=> 10,
				));

				if( $posts ): ?>
	
					<ul>
		
					<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): 
		
						setup_postdata( $post )
		
						?>
						<li>
							<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
						</li>
	
					<?php endforeach; ?>
	
					</ul>
	
					<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

				<?php endif; ?>

But when I add these two lines:

					'meta_key'			=> 'people_%_person_page_id',
					'meta_value'		=> $id,

…I get zero results.

I’ve tried a whole bunch of other variations as well. None of which have worked (obvs or I wouldn’t be asking here).

Every example I see on the web of retrieving values in sub-fields has folks using meta_query to wrap up the values in an array instead of just putting them in meta_key and meta_value. But I’ve tried that too and it hasn’t worked. I’ve also tried variations using wp_query instead of get_posts. Those haven’t made a difference either.

Here’s a version where I moved the arguments into a meta_query array:

<!– fetch albums in which this person is featured –>

 		    <?php $id = get_the_ID(); ?> 		 					<!--get the permalink for the current page -->

			<?php 

				$posts = get_posts(array(
					'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
					'post_type'			=> 'post',
					'category'			=> 10,
					'meta_query'	=> array(
							'relation'		=> 'AND',
							array(
								'key'		=> 'people_%_person_page_id',
								'compare'	=> '=',
								'value'		=> $id,
								)
							)
						)
					);

				if( $posts ): ?>
	
					<ul>
		
					<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): 
		
						setup_postdata( $post )
		
						?>
						<li>
							<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
						</li>
	
					<?php endforeach; ?>
	
					</ul>
	
					<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

				<?php endif; ?>

Any help would be *much* appreciated. 🙂

–hillel

• hillelc

• August 9, 2015 at 7:07 am

OK. I found one more example and copied it almost verbatim from the ACF resource guide page here: http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/query-posts-custom-fields/

I used example #4 which seemed like the closest.

My new code is as follows:

			<?php 

			// filter
			function my_posts_where( $where ) {
	
				$where = str_replace("meta_key = 'people_%", "meta_key = 'people_%", $where);

				return $where;
			}

			add_filter('posts_where', 'my_posts_where');

			// get the ID of the current page
			$currentpersonpageid = get_the_ID();
			

			// args
			$args = array(
				'numberposts'	=> -1,
				'post_type'		=> 'post',
				'cat' 			=> 10,
				'meta_query'	=> array(
					'relation'		=> 'AND',
					array(
						'key'		=> 'people_%_person_page_id',
						'compare'	=> '=',
						'value'		=> $currentpersonpageid,
					)
				) 
			);

			echo $currentpersonpageid;       //debugging
			print_r(array_values($args));    //debugging

			// query
			$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
			

			?>
			<?php if( $the_query->have_posts() ): ?>
				<ul>
				<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
					<li>
						<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
					</li>
				<?php endwhile; ?>
				</ul>
			<?php endif; ?>

			<?php wp_reset_query();	 // Restore global post data stomped by the_post(). ?>

I’ve inspected the current page ID and the target page ID and they are both the same value as they should be.

I’ve inspected the $args that I created and it contains this:

( [0] => -1 [1] => post [2] => 10 [3] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [key] => people_%_person_page_id [compare] => = [value] => 46 ) ) )

And I’ve run the code without the properties in the meta_query array to try and isolate the problem, and the code works without that bringing back the posts in category ID 10. So all that works.

However, when I add the key piece, the meta_query, I get zero results.
It needs to look at all the posts in category 10, and inspect the ‘person’ repeater sub-field called ‘person_page_id’ and return any posts that match the current posts ID. But nothing.

Any help would be much appreciated.

• Elliot

• August 11, 2015 at 9:50 am

Hi @hillelc

Thanks for posting your code.

I can see that your ‘posts_where’ filter is missing the word ‘LIKE’ in the str_replace.

Please re-read the 4th example to see where this is needed: http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/query-posts-custom-fields/

• hillelc

• August 11, 2015 at 10:06 am

BINGO! That did the trick. Not bad, I was only one change away from getting it right.

Thanks SO much for the help. 🙂