Complicated custom meta field search (dates filtering)

Anonymous

#11657

Hello

I have several custom meta fields where dates for custom post type ‘event’ are stored. Number of the fields varies for every post.

For proper understanding here is a piece of code which retrieves all available dates (including past dates) from meta fields and stores them in $eventDates array. Ongoing dates (greater or equal today) are stored in $ongoingDates array.

My question is: how can I make a filtering using $eventDates and $ongoingDates array data?

The code:

<?php

$today = date( 'Ymd' );

// Loop stars here

if ( 'event' == get_post_type() ) {

	// Every 'event' custom post type has a main date stored in 'event_date' meta key
	$eventDate = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'event_date', true);

	// There could be additional dates for 'event'
	// Сhecking custom field 'additional_dates_num' which indicates how many additional dates are present for 'event'
	// Possible values of 'additional_dates_num' custom field are 0 to 3
	$additionalDateNum = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'additional_dates_num', true);

	// Checking if there are some additional dates for the event
	if ( $additionalDateNum > 0 ) {

		// Making the main date from 'event_date' custom field part of all dates array
		$eventDates[] = $eventDate;

		// Retrieving all other additional dates from 'additional_event_date_1', 'additional_event_date_2' and 'additional_event_date_3' custom fields.
		// These fields are activated in post editing mode depending on 'additional_dates_num' value
		for ($i=1; $i<=$additionalDateNum; $i++) {
			// Adding retrieved additional dates to the same array where main date was added before
			$eventDates[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'additional_event_date_' . $i, true);
		}
		
		// Sorting the date array acsending in case the dates were not in proper order
		sort($eventDates);

		// Comparing dates to today's date and writing the list of ongoing dates to $ongoingDates array
		foreach ($eventDates as $date) {
			if ($date >= $today) $ongoingDates[] = $date;
		}
	} else {
		if ($eventDate >= $today) {
			// Addind the main date to $ongoingDates and $eventDates arrays in case it is bigger or equals $today and there are no additional dates present
			$ongoingDates[] = $eventDate;
			$eventDates[] = $eventDate;
		} else {
			// Addind the main date to $eventDates array in case it is less than $today and there are no additional dates present
			$eventDates[] = $eventDate;
		}
	}
}

// Loop ends here

?>

Ross Moderator

#11792

Hey Michael

Adding custom values for the search is not officially supported, however you should be able to hook into the query and modify it using pre_get_posts

This post has en example of how to modify the query to show only posts from the current user:

https://support.searchandfilter.com/forums/topic/show-only-results-for-author-of-shortcoded-page/#post-9952

function modify_search_filter_query( $query )
{
    global $sf_form_data;
	global $wp_query;
	
    if ( $sf_form_data->is_valid_form() && $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin())
    {
		//we can add our modifications here:
		$authorID = 1;
		$query->set('author', implode(",", $authorID)); 

		//not necessary but we can match the search form ID in case we are using multiple search forms
		/*if($sf_form_data->form_id()==797)
		{
			
		}*/
		
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'modify_search_filter_query', 21 );

So you could add your conditions in there – but you must be comfortable with using WP hooks and modifying the query.

Thanks

[Author]

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