Sorting by Custom Fields, with Priority

• karks88

• January 23, 2015 at 11:46 am

I’m working on an employee directory for a site that is running ACF 3.5.8.2 (kind of stuck with this version at the moment).

What I’m trying to do is sort this directory in two ways. I have custom fields called ‘dir-last-name’ (text) and ‘dir-department-head’ (checkbox).

If someone is listed as a Department Head, I want to list them first in their respective department.

Then, for everyone else in that department, I want to sort them alphabetically by their Last Name.

I read through this post, which was helpful:
http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/how-to-query-posts-filtered-by-custom-field-values/

However, what I’m trying to figure out is how to ensure that the Department Head will get listed first. Any suggestions?

• ractoon

• January 23, 2015 at 2:52 pm

One possible route is to query for the Department Head first, and then do a second query to get the remaining posts excluding the Department Head post id. It would be using the exclude parameter from get_posts – http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_posts

• karks88

• January 24, 2015 at 2:52 am

Thanks! I have thought about doing 2 queries but I’m trying to salvage the setup of the their template if possible.

Right now I’ve got a query like this:

<?php
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'staff',
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'meta_key'	=> 'dir-last-name',
'orderby' => 'meta_value',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
query_posts($args);
?>

So that is grabbing everyone’s last name and sorting it. The template also has this bit of code, which I’m hoping to modify:

<?php if (in_array("Administration", (array) get_field('dir-department'))): ?>

In this bit, it’s looking for entries in the Administration department. Code below that (not included here) formats the entry nicely.

What I would love to do is modify this to also look for a value of “yes” in the ‘dir-department-head’ field. So I want to look for someone in the Administration department (like the code above) and then also check to see if they are a Department Head. Basically an if/else statement that checks for a Department Head, then moves on to the rest of the list.

I know only enough PHP to be dangerous so everything I’ve tried to do doesn’t seem to work 😉

• ractoon

• January 24, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Ah, maybe like:

<?php if (in_array("Administration", (array) get_field('dir-department')) || ('yes' == get_field('dir-department-head'))): ?>

• karks88

• January 26, 2015 at 9:41 am

ractoon, thanks for your help! That code led me in the right direction. I did end up having to use 2 queries.

First I checked for department heads:

<?php //Get the Department Head First ?>
<?php
$args = array(
	'numberposts' => -1,
	'post_type' => 'staff',
	'meta_key' => 'dir-department-head',
	'meta_value' => 'yes'

);
query_posts($args);
?>
	<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
 
<?php if (in_array("Administration", (array) get_field('dir-department')) AND ('yes' == get_field('dir-department-head'))): ?>

Formatting fields, etc.

<?php endif; ?> 
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

Then, a separate query for the rest of the employees, excluding the “yes” answers in the department head field by pulling only those entries who left the field blank:

<?php // Get Other Deparment Employees ?>
<?php
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'staff',
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'meta_key'	=> 'dir-last-name',
'orderby' => 'meta_value',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
query_posts($args);
?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php if (in_array("Administration", (array) get_field('dir-department')) AND ('' == get_field('dir-department-head'))): ?>

Formatting fields, etc.

<?php endif; ?> 
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

Thanks for leading me in the right direction!