Optional Meta Query

Question

I have places stored as posts in WP's posts table.

I am doing some geo-locating using Geo Data Store (http://wordpress.org/plugins/geo-data-store/). This is working great for me, as I can currently get results from any radius I choose from a starting point (a city converted to coordinates).

I was previously using an exact match on the city - when a user clicked a city, it loaded results with posts that held postmeta exactly matching the clicked city - I click Asheville, I get places in Asheville.

The problem that switching to geo-location has caused is that now when a user clicks a city, some results within that city aren't shown because they are not within the given radius of the city center, even though the city postmeta exactly matches the clicked city.

The relevant part of my query looks like this:

$coordinates = ConvertCityStateToCoords($city.', '.$state);
$lat = (double)$coordinates['lat'];
$long = (double)$coordinates['long'];
$posts = (array) $geoDataStore->getPostIDsOfInRange('place', $radius, $lat, $long);
$posts = array_map('intval',$posts);
$args['post__in']=$posts;
$places= new WP_Query($args);

Whereas it used to look like this:

$args['meta_query'][] = array(
    'key' => 'place_state',
    'value' => $state,
);
$args['meta_query'][] = array(
    'key' => 'place_city',
    'value' => $city
);
$places= new WP_Query( $args );

My question is this: will I have to abandon WP_Query (which I would rather not do because I am also using it for pagination and ordering) in favor of SQL that will allow me to query an 'optional' field - SQL that would include posts within the radius as well as posts with the exact match city, but not exclusively one or the other.

Answer 1

All of the real work here is being done by $geoDataStore->getPostIDsOfInRange. That is where the search is done and that is what isn't returning the results you want.

WP_Query just pulls the specified post IDs. There is no reason you should have to abandon that part of the code, though you may want to add 'orderby' => 'posts__in' to preserve the order of the post IDs passed into the query.

If $geoDataStore->getPostIDsOfInRange is not returning all of the IDs you want, you will have to look into how it works.

Now, this looks like the code that your $geoDataStore class uses to make the query. There are no hooks in that you might be able to manipulate.

There are only two things I can think of doing.

1. Extend that class and replace that function so that it searches your meta information.
2. Or run another query to check your meta information and include the places outside the generated radius-- something like this.

In other words...

$posts = (array) $geoDataStore->getPostIDsOfInRange('place', $radius, $lat, $long);
$posts2 = new WP_Query(array(
  // query for the others
  'fields' => 'ids',
  // other parameters
  // Much like your original meta_query but
  // I do think you need the 'OR' relationship
));
$posts = array_unique($posts + $posts2);
$args['post__in'] = $posts;
$places = new WP_Query($args);

Answer 2

You need to declare an OR relationship between the queries, as AND is default.

Example taken from http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'product',
    'meta_query' => array(
        'relation' => 'OR',
        array(
            'key' => 'color',
            'value' => 'blue',
            'compare' => 'NOT LIKE'
        ),
        array(
            'key' => 'price',
            'value' => array( 20, 100 ),
            'type' => 'numeric',
            'compare' => 'BETWEEN'
        )
    )
);