querying posts with a custom status

Question

I am trying to query some wordpress posts, they have a custom post status of closed.

When I run this query, they get returned despite their custom status being set to closed, even though I've asked for published:

$now = strtotime(date('d.m.Y H:i:s'));
$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'vacancy',
    'post_status' => 'published',
    'posts_per_page' => 1000,
    'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
    'meta_key' => 'wpcf-closing-date',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'wpcf-closing-date',
            'value' => $now,
            'compare' => '<=',
        )
    ),
);
$vacancies = new WP_Query($args);

I would have expected that only posts with the post_status of published would have come back. Anybody any ideas why this is returning closed posts?

Answer 1

The correct post_status for a 'published' post is 'publish':

'post_status' => 'publish',

Answer 2

The post_status closed is not part of the default post_status.

This custom post status is maybe add by a plugin or theme.

If you find register_post_status in your files, there are custom post status, and maybe an array to convert closed to pending or something else.

if not look for add_meta_boxes action.

You can also try to var_dump a closed post custom fields to see if it is not add to à custom meta field. If it's the case, you will get your publish posts by excluding them with meta_query parameter.

Hope it gives some hints!