5

I'm writing a custom function that allows the posts to be sorted based on a custom field. When the user submits the "sort by" form, the meta_key (as well as orderby and order) parameters by which the posts should be sorted is stored in a $_SESSION variable.

I'm using the pre_get_posts action to hook into my function. The function checks that the $_SESSION variable exists and attempts to set the appropriate values as needed

add_action('pre_get_posts', 'ml_order_properties');
function ml_order_properties($query) {

    //ml_is_property() function simply returns true/false
    //if this is a property listing related page/archive/post

    if ( ml_is_property() && is_main_query() ) {
        //SET THE SORT ORDER
        $query->query_vars['orderby'] = $_SESSION['ml_user']['orderby']['orderby']; //Like 'meta_value_num'
        $query->query_vars['order'] = $_SESSION['ml_user']['orderby']['order']; //Like 'ASC'
        $query->query_vars['meta_key'] = $_SESSION['ml_user']['orderby']['meta_key']; //Like 'property_price'

        //ENSURE OFF MARKET PROPERTIES ARE NOT DISPLAYED
        $args = array(
            'taxonomy' => 'ml_property_status',
            'terms' => array(
                'off-market'
            ),
            'include_children' => true,
            'field' => 'slug',
            'operator' => 'NOT IN'
        );

        //ALWAY ADD TO THE END OF THE EXISTING ARRAY
        $tax_query = $query->tax_query->queries;
        $tax_count = count($tax_query) == 1 ? 1 : count($tax_query)+1;
        $tax_query[$tax_count] = $args;

        $query->set('tax_query', $tax_query);
    }
}

The problem with this function is that it causes the primary WordPress navigation menu to stop appearing. No PHP errors are generated. Doing a dump of the $wp_query global variable outputs the following:

Object
(
|    query_vars => Array (60)
|    (
|    |    ['ml_property_type'] = String(5) "homes"
|    |    ['error'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['m'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['p'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['post_parent'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['subpost'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['subpost_id'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['attachment'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['attachment_id'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['name'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['static'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['pagename'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['page_id'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['second'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['minute'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['hour'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['day'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['monthnum'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['year'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['w'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['category_name'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['tag'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['cat'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['tag_id'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['author_name'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['feed'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['tb'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['paged'] = Integer(1) 0
|    |    ['comments_popup'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['meta_key'] = String(14) "property_price"
|    |    ['meta_value'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['preview'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['s'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['sentence'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['fields'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['category__in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['category__not_in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['category__and'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['post__in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['post__not_in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['tag__in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['tag__not_in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['tag__and'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['tag_slug__in'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['tag_slug__and'] => Array (0)
|    |    (
|    |    )
|    |    ['orderby'] = String(14) "meta_value_num"
|    |    ['order'] = String(3) "ASC"
|    |    ['tax_query'] => Array (2)
|    |    (
|    |    |    ['0'] => Array (5)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(16) "ml_property_type"
|    |    |    |    ['terms'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    |    ['0'] = String(5) "homes"
|    |    |    |    )
|    |    |    |    ['include_children'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    |    |    ['field'] = String(4) "slug"
|    |    |    |    ['operator'] = String(2) "IN"
|    |    |    )
|    |    |    ['1'] => Array (5)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(18) "ml_property_status"
|    |    |    |    ['terms'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    |    ['0'] = String(10) "off-market"
|    |    |    |    )
|    |    |    |    ['include_children'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    |    |    ['field'] = String(4) "slug"
|    |    |    |    ['operator'] = String(6) "NOT IN"
|    |    |    )
|    |    )
|    |    ['ignore_sticky_posts'] = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    |    ['suppress_filters'] = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    |    ['cache_results'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    ['update_post_term_cache'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    ['update_post_meta_cache'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    ['post_type'] = String(0) ""
|    |    ['posts_per_page'] = Integer(2) 10
|    |    ['nopaging'] = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    |    ['comments_per_page'] = String(2) "50"
|    |    ['no_found_rows'] = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(16) "ml_property_type"
|    |    ['term'] = String(5) "homes"
|    )
|    tax_query Object
|    (
|    |    queries => Array (3)
|    |    (
|    |    |    ['0'] => Array (5)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(16) "ml_property_type"
|    |    |    |    ['terms'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    |    ['0'] = String(5) "homes"
|    |    |    |    )
|    |    |    |    ['include_children'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    |    |    ['field'] = String(4) "slug"
|    |    |    |    ['operator'] = String(2) "IN"
|    |    |    )
|    |    |    ['1'] => Array (5)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(18) "ml_property_status"
|    |    |    |    ['terms'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    |    ['0'] = String(10) "off-market"
|    |    |    |    )
|    |    |    |    ['include_children'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    |    |    ['field'] = String(4) "slug"
|    |    |    |    ['operator'] = String(6) "NOT IN"
|    |    |    )
|    |    |    ['2'] => Array (5)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['taxonomy'] = String(16) "ml_property_type"
|    |    |    |    ['terms'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    |    ['0'] = String(5) "homes"
|    |    |    |    )
|    |    |    |    ['include_children'] = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    |    |    |    ['field'] = String(4) "slug"
|    |    |    |    ['operator'] = String(2) "IN"
|    |    |    )
|    |    )
|    |    relation = String(3) "AND"
|    )
|    meta_query Object
|    (
|    |    queries => Array (1)
|    |    (
|    |    |    ['0'] => Array (1)
|    |    |    (
|    |    |    |    ['key'] = String(14) "property_price"
|    |    |    )
|    |    )
|    |    relation = String(3) "AND"
|    )
|    post_count = Integer(1) 4
|    current_post = Integer(2) -1
|    in_the_loop = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    comment_count = Integer(1) 0
|    current_comment = Integer(2) -1
|    found_posts = String(1) "4"
|    max_num_pages = Float(1) 1
|    max_num_comment_pages = Integer(1) 0
|    is_single = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_preview = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_page = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_archive = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    is_date = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_year = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_month = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_day = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_time = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_author = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_category = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_tag = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_tax = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    is_search = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_feed = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_comment_feed = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_trackback = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_home = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_404 = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_comments_popup = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_paged = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_admin = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_attachment = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_singular = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_robots = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_posts_page = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    is_post_type_archive = Boolean(0) FALSE
|    query_vars_hash = String(32) "225f6b4c460d5ca9fc40d6cf79dcc662"
|    query_vars_changed = Boolean(1) TRUE
|    thumbnails_cached = Boolean(0) FALSE

My gut tells me that the issue may be related to this similar question, but I'm pretty much at a loss otherwise.

The function also checks to ensure that the posts being displayed do not have the 'off-market' slug from the 'ml_property_status' taxonomy applied to them as those items should never be publicly shown.

Commenting out the following line in the function makes everything display correctly (just no sorting)

$query->query_vars['meta_key'] = $_SESSION['ml_user']['orderby']['meta_key'];
1

1 Answer 1

17

If you change your if statement to use $query->is_main_query() like the example on the is_main_query() codex page, does that resolve the issue?

The nav menus are created by a query, so usually this problem stems from the pre_get_posts interfering with the menus query. Hence, I wonder whether that check isn't working.

1
  • Thanks for your help on this mrwweb… That indeed did the trick! Commented May 18, 2012 at 14:13

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.