Can WP_Query return custom field post meta?

  • Resolved Shaun Scovil

    (@sscovil)


    13 years, 4 months ago

    For some reason, I cannot get WP_Query to return the custom field values of posts. I can get the post thumbnails using get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID, array(50,50)), but I cannot get the custom field data using get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true).

    A stripped-down version of what I’m trying to do can be seen here: https://pastebin.com/at8S2THs

    Even with all non-essential code removed, I cannot make this work. I know you can use parameters like meta_key and meta_value in a query to narrow down the results, but I just want to display all values for the keys I specify, if they exist, for each post.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated…

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • You code seems to work just fine. Only thing was a <th> you didn’t close. Your problem might be somewhere else?

    Thread Starter Shaun Scovil

    (@sscovil)

    @kim: Thanks for the response, and good catch on the <th> error!

    So this worked for you?? It absolutely refuses to work on my test site, except on the single post page template (where there is no new WP_query). Then it works just fine. Same post data, same custom fields. Same code even! I copied and pasted it.

    Guess I’m gonna have to fire up a fresh WordPress install and re-test it there…

    Yes it works. I tested it on page.php just after the comments_template(…) in the Twenty Eleven 1.2 theme. It shows all post titles and the meta values on a couple of posts where I entered them as normal custom fields.

    Thread Starter Shaun Scovil

    (@sscovil)

    That is astonishing, because I’ve tested it on two different WP installs (different themes, one very minimal) and I can’t even get the $post object to return the custom fields.

    I used this to see what was being returned by my WP_Query:

    Global $post;
echo "<pre>";
 print_r($post);
echo "</pre>";

    …and saw no sign of my custom fields. Yet I can get them to appear on a single post by adding the same code to the page template.

    Thank you for taking the time to help me troubleshoot this, btw! I really do appreciate it. I’m trying to add this functionality to one of my WP plugins, per a user request.

    Thread Starter Shaun Scovil

    (@sscovil)

    @kim: Would you mind terribly testing out this plugin: https://mynewsitepreview.com/plugins/sorttablepost_v4.0beta.zip

    The shortcode [sorttablepost meta="Custom Field Key,Another Custom Field Key,Yet Another" nothumb="true" nocats="true" notags="true"] should output a table that lists all of your post titles, post dates, and whatever custom fields you identify in the meta option.

    Thanks in advance…

    Wp_query does not return the meta data on its own as far as I know.

    The plugin didn’t work (didn’t get the meta values). I tried to check the data that was used by get_post_meta(); The meta keys seems ok, but when I tried to echo $post->ID, I got nothing. Try to add global $post; just after the loop starts.

    Thread Starter Shaun Scovil

    (@sscovil)

    You rock!!! That totally did the trick…just needed to add global $post; after the loop starts.

    Thank you so much!

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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