Help with creating meta data plugin

  • Resolved jakemc

    (@jakemc)


    18 years, 9 months ago

    Hi. I’m trying to understand how functions are called from a plugin and I’m a bit of a newbie (sorry).

    I’m trying to create a plugin that will allow users to associate posts from a particular category with a post they’re editing. I’m doing this with custom field by storing the id of the associated post as a meta value.

    I have several php functions to check and list appropriate meta data all called by a ‘master’ function, jm_insert_fields.

    I can’t put the other functions in the add_action because they should only be executed by a call from jm_insert_fields but if I while they just sit in my plugin file they’re not being executed at all. If I put them in edit_form_advanced.php directly they’re executed happily but I really want to keep my code separate.

    How do I get these functions to execute?

    If it helps, here’s an outline of the code in my plugin file:

    `add_action( ‘edit_form_advanced’, ‘jm_insert_gensurgeon_fields’ );

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

  • Firstly, don’t apologise for being a newbie! It’s great when new people start doing things for wordpress!

    Does your function look like this?

    function jm_insert_gensurgeon_fields() {

    function some_other_function () { ... }

    function another_function () { ... }

    function etc() { ... }

    }

    Because I’m not sure that will work…

    Try defining them before you define jm_insert... and then call them within that function, so something like this:

    function some_other_function () { ... }
    function another_function () { ... }
    function etc() { ... }

    function jm_insert_gensurgeon_fields() {
    some_other_function();
    another_function();
    etc();
    }

    Obviously that’s simplified, but it helps illustrate what I mean.

    Thread Starter jakemc

    (@jakemc)

    Hi Maerk.

    Thanks for the prompt reply and for being so encouraging. I love wordpress but getting into the guts of it like this is a little intimidating.

    My functions are structured like this:

    function jm_get_title($postID) {...}
    function jm_has_specific_meta($postid,$meta_key) {...}
    function jm_list_specific_meta($meta_data,$meta_key) {...}

    function jm_insert_fields() {
    ...
    if($meta_data = jm_has_specific_meta($post_ID,'professional_speciality'))
    jm_list_specific_meta($meta_data,'professional_speciality');
    ...
    }

    jm_insert_fields is executed – I can see the HTML it generates – but no list of meta data that should be generated by jm_list_specific_meta is visible.

    HTH and thanks again.

    Hmm… instead of

    function jm_has_specific_meta($postid,$meta_key) {...}

    try

    function jm_has_specific_meta() {
    global $postid, $meta_key;
    ...
    }

    Got a feeling that won’t work either, though. It sounds like there might be a problem with one of your functions.

    What does jm_list_specific_meta() contain?

    Thread Starter jakemc

    (@jakemc)

    Ah! The act of sharing my problem helped me to see the solution.

    The problem was that I didn’t have access to variables defined in the page from the plugin so I have to get them explicitly.

    In particular:
    $post_ID = $_REQUEST['post'];

    Oh, does it work now? I love it when things get solved, it’s like the sun coming out!

    Thread Starter jakemc

    (@jakemc)

    Yes it does. Thanks for you help!

    Of course, I’ve now got a trickier problem but I’ll save that for a new post… ??

    I look forward to it ??

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