Use a JS array to search through meta_query

• stroperik

• October 6, 2015 at 7:38 pm

Hi guys!

So I have an AJAX request that is supposed to pick up data from a couple of checkboxes and then filter the search based on which ones are selected.

For my JS, I have this segment to get the checkboxes:

products = new Array();
	$('input#products:checked').each(function() {
		products.push($(this).val());
	});

And in my functions.php, I have this:

function product_search() {
	$products = $_POST['products'];
	
	$args = array(
		'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
		'post_type'				=> 'products',
		'meta_query'	=> array(
			array(
				'key'		=> 'products',
				'value'		=> $products,
				'compare'	=> 'IN'
			),
		)
	);

	// [...]
}

Now, if I change $products to something static, I get my results, but the array that’s being parsed from my JS doesn’t play well here. I’ve tried to used json_decode() on $products, without any good results.

If I console log the products var, I can get this if I have two checkboxes checked:

["Wooden", "Plastic"]

How can I make these guy come along?

Thanks in advance!

• Jonathan

• October 6, 2015 at 9:22 pm

Hi @stroperik

What about if you do an error_log(print_r($products, true)); right after fetching the $_POST?

Also, what kind of field is products in ACF? If it’s an checkbox field or radio the values would be saved as an serialized array and then I don’t think IN would work as comparison.

• stroperik

• October 6, 2015 at 10:05 pm

Hi @jonathan and thanks for the reply!

I get this from the log:

Array
(
    [0] => Wooden
    [1] => Plastic
)

And yes, products is a checkbox field. So what is supported if I want to do a WP_Query here? My goal in the end is to combine a search field with four different columns, each with checkboxes in them and making the relation to be AND.

• Jonathan

• October 7, 2015 at 10:30 pm

No problem 🙂

I’m not an SQL expert but I thiiiiink you can’t do a IN search with the checkbox field as the value in the DB will be a serialized array.

I’m not sure how well this will play with your entire solution (and it’s not really performance-effective in the long run) but try if this works.

function product_search() {
	$products = $_POST['products'];
	
	$args = array(
		'posts_per_page'	=> -1,
		'post_type'				=> 'products',
	);
	
	$meta_query = array();
	foreach( $products as $product ){
		$meta_query[] = array(
			'key'		=> 'products',
			'value'		=> $product,
			'compare'	=> 'LIKE'
		),
		
	}
	
	$args['meta_query'] = $meta_query;
	
}