Add action to create new post after wp_insert_post fires? Think it's creating an infitnite loop

Question

I need to take the post meta from a post, and create a custom post type post. I'm using the code below but think it's creating an infinite loop.

When wp_insert_post fires I have create_cptpost function execute which gets the PID of the post created $post_id gets a custom field ac_1 then I need to create a new post in the cpt post type and update the post meta. Is there another way to do this? I'm basically trying to copy the first normal post content to a new custom post type post.

function create_mycpt( $post_id ) {

$post = get_post($post_id, ARRAY_A);

    if ( wp_is_post_revision( $post_id ) )
        return;


$ac1 = get_field('ac_1',$post_id);

$my_post = array(
  'post_title'    => 'The title',
  'post_type' => 'mycpt'
);

$pid = wp_insert_post( $my_post );

update_post_meta($pid, 'ac_1', $ac1);


}
add_action( 'wp_insert_post', 'create_mycpt' );

Answer 1

Yeah, that would be an infinite loop.

Why not have your function check to make sure that the post is something you'd actually want to insert a new cpt post for, and return if not. You're already checking for revisions. You could easily check for your own type too.

Answer 2

There's a really easy way to avoid creating an infinite loop like this - remove your action before it would be run again, and then re-add it afterwards.

For example:

function create_mycpt( $post_id ) {

  // ... your earlier code here

  // directly before calling wp_insert_post, remove your action
  remove_action( 'wp_insert_post', 'create_mycpt');

  // run wp_insert_post as normal
  $pid = wp_insert_post( $my_post );

  // directly afterwards, add your action again in case there's a next time
  add_action( 'wp_insert_post, 'create_mycpt');

  // ... the rest of your code here

}

add_action( 'wp_insert_post', 'create_mycpt' );

This will ensure that when you call the wp_insert_post() function, it doesn't know about your hook, so no infinite loop will result. You could probably get away with not even adding it again, since it is unlikely there'll be a second post being inserted on the same request. For consistency's sake, however, we might as well add it again, because it could happen!