Related posts suddenly stopped working

While testing this, some things I had to make sure of going along the way:

• Are the template title “Related To Template” as written in the shortcode and as written in the Template title exactly the same? For example, a lowercase “t” in “To” might throw it off.
• The field > Advanced Field Options reads “Multi-select”
• It doesn’t have a bi-directional relationship with itself.

After all that, putting your template code in worked for me, as long as a relationship field was selected.

The below shortcode should do the same thing with [meaning_related_to]:

<?php

add_shortcode(
	'meaning_related_to',
	function(){
		ob_start();
		// Get this meaning
		$meaning = pods( 'meaning', get_the_ID() );

		echo '<div class="related-to-list">';

		// Loop through related Meanings.
		$related_to = pods( 'meaning', [
			'ID' => wp_list_pluck( $meaning->field( 'related_to' ), 'ID' ),
		] );
		while( $related_to->fetch() ) {

			echo '<a href="' . esc_url( get_the_permalink( $related_to->field( 'ID' ) ) ) . '">';
			echo '<div class="related-to-image">' . get_the_post_thumbnail() . '</div>';
			echo '<div class="related-to-title">' . $related_to->field( 'post_title' ) . '</div>';
			echo '</a><br/>';
		}

		echo '</div>';

		return ob_get_clean();
	}
);

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Paul Clark.

Ok now you touched on something interesting. It did indeed have a bi-directional field with itself and when deselecting it did not relieve the issue however it did change one of the posts being displayed as related. Unfortunately the 4 other posts are not related still.

I’m trying to wrap my head around this bidirectional thing and whether or not it should be turned on. The meanings posts are meant to be related to one another…if that helps.

Mm… Yes, bidirectional is double-entry meant for when posts are not related to themselves. It wouldn’t be necessary in this case.

I still haven’t been able to resolve the issue ever after going through your checklist sorry to say. Though I have not yet integrated the PHP.

Hm, tried the PHP but it just seems to list all Meanings alphabetically. It also would not allow me to limit=”5″.

This version should fix the query and adds a limit of 5.

add_shortcode(
	'meaning_related_to',
	function(){
		ob_start();
		// Get this meaning
		$meaning = pods( 'meaning', get_the_ID() );

		echo '<div class="related-to-list">';

		$limit = 5;
		$i = 0;

		// Loop through related Meanings.
		foreach( wp_list_pluck( $meaning->field( 'related_to' ), 'ID' ) as $id ) {
			$i++;
			if ( $limit === $i ) {
				break;
			}

			$related_to = pods( 'meaning' );
			$related_to->fetch( $id );

			echo '<a href="' . esc_url( get_the_permalink( $related_to->field( 'ID' ) ) ) . '">';
			echo '<div class="related-to-image">' . get_the_post_thumbnail( $related_to->field( 'ID' ) ) . '</div>';
			echo '<div class="related-to-title">' . $related_to->field( 'post_title' ) . '</div>';
			echo '</a><br/>';

		}

		echo '</div>';

		return ob_get_clean();
	}
);

It works!

Now, I really apologize, but the reason I was so determined to get the template and shortcodes to work that I already had is because I had finagled so much CSS and such for them to look right (I’m not good at this). AND perhaps more importantly I figured I would be able to replicate the result to create other such “widgets” around the site that I need. Unfortunately with PHP I don’t know how to work with it nearly at all.

So my question is – did you give me the PHP version because you don’t see how my request could work without it? Are the templates and shortcodes not capable?

The shortcode and template worked for me.
I usually prefer PHP.
I sent the PHP because I wasn’t sure why your templates might not be displaying.

P.S. bidirectional field did up being useful here meaning-to-meaning as well

Are you saying I should keep the bidirectional field on?

I turned it back on but still the results aren’t related to the post on screen. ??

Yes bidirectional.
The new shortcode didn’t work?
Not sure then.
If neither appear, then would then suspect field naming. E.g., is the field name exactly “related_to” and post type name exactly “meaning”

Yes it’s those exactly, even the lower casing. Would I be able to pay you to take a look at the back end?

The new shortcode worked but this will prove impossible for me to replicate over other widgets without learning PHP myself.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by SidianMSJones.

See https://support.pods.io/chat/ DM or #jobs channel.

Closing topic! Cheers, Jory