Rich Snippet 'Recipe' with nested repeater fields

• abiwab

• October 22, 2019 at 1:21 am

Hi,
I’m working on adding an LD-JSON Rich Snippet for Google SEO on some webpages containing recipes. On some of those recipes, steps are divided into sections. In that case, Google says I should output a script looking like this :

"recipeInstructions": [
  {
    "@type": "HowToSection",
    "name": "Prepare the Crust",
    "itemListElement": [
      {
        "@type": "HowToStep",
        "text": "Heat oven to 425°F."
      }, {
        "@type": "HowToStep",
        "text": "Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate."
      }
    ]
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToSection",
    "name": "Add the Filling",
    "itemListElement": [
      {
        "@type": "HowToStep",
        "text": "In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into
        crust-lined pie plate."
      }, {
        "@type": "HowToStep",
        "text": "Top with second crust."
      }
    ]
  }
]

When there is no sections, it should look like this :

"recipeInstructions": [
  {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "text": "Heat oven to 425°F."
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "text": "Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate, pressing
    firmly against side and bottom."
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "text": "In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into
    crust-lined pie plate."
  }
]

Here is my setup : I’ve got an array $schema in which I’m pushing the section/steps arrays.

$schema = array(
    '@context'  => "http://schema.org",
    '@type'     => "Recipe",
    'name'      => $name,
);

if (have_rows('myrecipe')) {
    $schema['recipeInstructions'] = array();
    
    while (have_rows('myrecipe')) : the_row();
      if( have_rows('step') ):
        while( have_rows('step') ): the_row();

        $step = get_sub_field('step_title');

        // If sections
        if($step){
          $howtosection = array(
            '@type'     => 'HowToSection',
            'name' => $step,
          );
          array_push($schema['recipeInstructions'], $howtosection);

          if( have_rows('instructions') ):
            while( have_rows('instructions') ): the_row();

            $howtosection['itemListElement'] = array();
            $instruction = get_sub_field('instruction', false, false);

            $howtostep = array(
                '@type'     => 'HowToStep',
                'text' => $instruction,
            );
            
            array_push($howtosection['itemListElement'], $howtostep);

            endwhile;
          endif;
        }

        // If no section
        else {

          if( have_rows('instructions') ):
            while( have_rows('instructions') ): the_row();

            $instruction = get_sub_field('instruction', false, false);

            $howtostep = array(
                '@type'     => 'HowToStep',
                'text' => $instruction,
            );

            array_push($schema['recipeInstructions'], $howtostep);

            endwhile;
          endif;

        }

        endwhile;
      endif;
    endwhile;
}

However, I don’t know hot to push the “itemListElement” with the “HowToStep” arrays inside the “HowToSection” array ! Too much nested repeaters for me 😡

Does anyone know how I could make this work ?

Thanks 🙂