custom field to always to .get_the_title()?

Question

Is there a way to have always the the_title(); tag also includes a custom field called subtitle?

I want to have a title like this: "subtitle-custom-fild: Posttitle"

Like "Cool: The new TV show from Werner Herzog."

in this case, cool would be the custom field value, and "the new TV...." would be the_title().

I am getting this at the moment with the following code:

<h1><?php $values = get_post_custom_values("myCustomField"); echo $values[0]; ?>: <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php $values = get_post_custom_values("myCustomField"); echo $values[0]; ?>
<p><?php the_title(); ?></p></h1>

The Problem is, that google indexes the posts sometimes with the custom field in title, sometimes without it - which in some cases makes no sense. I also gave all possible "title tags" the complete title the same way in the "title=" attribute....

Is there any way to tell wordpress - if theres a custom field subtext - print it always in front of the post_title?

Thank you!

AD

Answer 1

<?php
function add_subtitle($title, $id) {
    $subtitle = get_post_meta($id, 'myCustomField', true);
    $new_title = $title;
    if(!empty($subtitle))
        $new_title = $subtitle . ': ' . $new_title;
    return $new_title;
}
add_filter('the_title', 'add_subtitle', 10, 2);

Basically, this uses the the_title filter to add the subtitle to your title. It only adds it if that custom field is available, otherwise, it leaves the title alone.

Answer 2

the_title() Accept parameters, we can use them to pass the custom field value to show either before or after the title.

Example -

<?php the_title( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'myCustomField', TRUE) ); ?>

Note - Make sure you set the 3rd parameter as TRUE, which will return a single STRING,

Edit #1-

/*  
 *  The OneLiner ( Note the DOT between two strings ) 
 *  OutPut - Foo: the post title
 */
the_title( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'myCustomField', TRUE) . ': ');

Reference Codex - Function Reference - the title()