Weird problem on if statement

Question

I'm facing a weird issue trying to do what I'm going to explain now.

Context

Plugins I'm using: Custom Post Type UI / Advanced Custom Fields Functionality: I have a custom post type called "vendors". Within this post type I have several custom fields made on ACF. One of these fields is Called "Promote to Homepage" which is set as a checkbox. So the idea is simple, if that checkbox is checked show that post on the homepage.

So this seemed to work fine, but when I tried to change that "Highlighted Vendor" to another one (unchecked current, checked desired to avoid conflicts I found that the post I was setting as featured wasn't showing, nothing was shown.

I started testing then trying with other vendor posts, to find that this behavior is completely random, some of them published correctly to homepage, some others not. I tried to find out a pattern to identify what might be causing it and failed. Also tried to replicate the settings of a vendor that was failing to publish within a vendor that was publishing fine, and even setting the exact same things the vendor was still publishing.

Finally I should mention that I have a page where I'm listing some kind of "directory" where all vendors are being shown. I added a simple code to check if the "promote_to_homepage" output was correct, something like "if the checkbox is checked, say hi" and found that the posts that aren't showing on homepage, pass the test on directory page.

I'm running out of ideas about what this could be, that's why I'm trying here if someone can bring me some help.

The code I'm using in the homepage is simple:

<?php query_posts('post_type=vendors');
while (have_posts()):the_post(); 
$featured = get_field('promote_to_homepage', $post -> ID, true);
if ($featured){?><!-- show the content here -->
<?php }; endwhile; ?>

That's all.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me on this.

Juan.-

Answer 1

there is no third parameter for get_field, may be causing your error.

EDIT-

In your current code, if the 10 most recent posts don't contain a post with your meta key, you'll see nothing since you're only getting 10 posts and then filtering them. Any query that doesn't specify number of posts defaults to your reading settings, which you say was 10.

also, if this is not your page's primary loop, you should be using WP_Query and not query_posts. If it is your page's primary loop, you should use a pre_get_posts action hook rather than query_posts. basically, there's no reason to ever use query_posts :)

a much more efficient means of selecting your posts via WP_Query is to query specifically for the ones with the key rather than filtering them after the fact:

$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => -1, // get all of them
    'post_type' => 'vendors',
    'meta_key' => 'promote_to_homepage'
);
$homepage_posts = new WP_Query( $args );
while( $homepage_posts->have_posts() ):
    $homepage_posts->the_post();
    // all your normal loop stuff here
    the_title();
endwhile;

Answer 2

I cant see where you check if the statement is true or not. You should have something like:

<?php 
query_posts('post_type=vendors');
while ( have_posts() ):the_post(); 
  $featured = get_field( 'promote_to_homepage', $post->ID, true );

  if ( $featured == 1 ){
    echo 'Checked';
  } else {
    echo 'Not Checked';
  }

endwhile; 

?>

The if statement could either be $featured == true or $feature == 1 as i usually go with.

Answer 3

Ah looked at the codex and there is no true on the get_field: http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/docs/functions/get_field/

$value = get_field( 'promote_to_homepage', $post->ID );
if( $value ) {
  echo 'Checked';
}
else {
 echo 'Not Checked';
}