How to use get_post_custom_values to return the value of an array

Question

I have a custom post type called albums and a custom field therein called tracklist which is an array containing song_title and duration. I would like to print a list of the songs on each album.

It's helpful for me to think of the array hierarchy like so:

albumlist
  album
    tracklist
      track
        song_title
        duration

So far I figured out how to drill down to the tracklist array, but not how to display the values of the song titles within it.

$albums = get_posts(array(
  'post_type' => 'album',
  'meta_key'  => 'tracklist'
));

if($albums) {
  foreach($albums as $album) {
    echo get_the_title($album->ID) . "<br>"; // Displays album's title
    $tracklist = get_post_custom_values('tracklist', $album->ID);

    foreach($tracklist as $track) {
      echo $track . "<br>"; // Displays "12" (there are 12 tracks on this album)
    }
  }
}

Anyway, I've been working at this for a couple hours trying to solve it myself, but it's getting late! Once I get to the tracklist array, how do I drill inside the track and get the song title?

Thanks for any help you can proffer.

Answer 1

If you change

foreach($tracklist as $track) {
  echo $track . "<br>"; // Displays "12" (there are 12 tracks on this album)
}

to

foreach($tracklist as $key => $value ) {
    echo "$key  => $value ('tracklist')<br />"; // Displays "12" (there are 12 tracks on this album)
}

then what you get?

Answer 2

Try this...

$albums = get_posts(array(
        'post_type' => 'album',
        'meta_key'  => 'tracklist'
));

if(isset($albums) && !empty($albums))
{
    foreach($albums as $album)
    {
        echo get_the_title($album->ID) . "<br>"; // Displays album's title
        $tracklist = get_post_meta($album->ID, 'tracklist', true);

        if(isset($tracklist) && !empty($tracklist))
        {
            foreach($tracklist as $track)
            {
                 echo $track . "<br>"; // Displays "12" (there are 12 tracks on this album)
            }
        }
        else
        {
            echo "No Tracklist Added";
        }
    }
}