Add filter menu to admin list of posts (of custom type) to filter posts by custom field values

Question

This answer is very close to what I am looking to do, but instead I would like to specify a specific custom field and display a select menu of its available values. Thanks!

Answer 1

Simple to do, first create the dropdown with just the meta values you want and then catch the submit of the filter, just change POST_TYPE to the name of your post type and META_KEY to the name of your meta key:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Admin Filter BY Custom Fields
Plugin URI: http://en.bainternet.info
Description: answer to http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/45436/2487
Version: 1.0
Author: Bainternet
Author URI: http://en.bainternet.info
*/

add_action( 'restrict_manage_posts', 'wpse45436_admin_posts_filter_restrict_manage_posts' );
/**
 * First create the dropdown
 * make sure to change POST_TYPE to the name of your custom post type
 * 
 * @author Ohad Raz
 * 
 * @return void
 */
function wpse45436_admin_posts_filter_restrict_manage_posts(){
    $type = 'post';
    if (isset($_GET['post_type'])) {
        $type = $_GET['post_type'];
    }

    //only add filter to post type you want
    if ('POST_TYPE' == $type){
        //change this to the list of values you want to show
        //in 'label' => 'value' format
        $values = array(
            'label' => 'value', 
            'label1' => 'value1',
            'label2' => 'value2',
        );
        ?>
        <select name="ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE">
        <option value=""><?php _e('Filter By ', 'wose45436'); ?></option>
        <?php
            $current_v = isset($_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'])? $_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE']:'';
            foreach ($values as $label => $value) {
                printf
                    (
                        '<option value="%s"%s>%s</option>',
                        $value,
                        $value == $current_v? ' selected="selected"':'',
                        $label
                    );
                }
        ?>
        </select>
        <?php
    }
}


add_filter( 'parse_query', 'wpse45436_posts_filter' );
/**
 * if submitted filter by post meta
 * 
 * make sure to change META_KEY to the actual meta key
 * and POST_TYPE to the name of your custom post type
 * @author Ohad Raz
 * @param  (wp_query object) $query
 * 
 * @return Void
 */
function wpse45436_posts_filter( $query ){
    global $pagenow;
    $type = 'post';
    if (isset($_GET['post_type'])) {
        $type = $_GET['post_type'];
    }
    if ( 'POST_TYPE' == $type && is_admin() && $pagenow=='edit.php' && isset($_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE']) && $_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'] != '') {
        $query->query_vars['meta_key'] = 'META_KEY';
        $query->query_vars['meta_value'] = $_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'];
    }
}

Answer 2

If you are using another query inside restrict_manage_posts make sure you add && $query->is_main_query() to your parse_query if statement, otherwise the parse_query filter will interfere with that second query.

if ( 'POST_TYPE' == $type
      && is_admin()
      && $pagenow=='edit.php'
      && isset($_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'])
      && $_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'] != ''
      && $query->is_main_query()
) {
      $query->query_vars['meta_key'] = 'META_KEY';
      $query->query_vars['meta_value'] = $_GET['ADMIN_FILTER_FIELD_VALUE'];
}

Answer 3

If you have to add many fields you have to add to query

$query->query_vars['meta_query'][] = array(
    'key'     => 'KEY',
    'value'   => $_GET['FIELD'],
    'compare' => 'LIKE'
);