Multiple meta_key with get_pages

Question

I currently have the following code where I filter by the page template;

$pages = get_pages( array(
‘post_type’ => ‘page’,
‘meta_key’ => ‘_wp_page_template’,
‘meta_value’ => ‘unit.php’,
‘hierarchical’ => 0
) );

I would also like to sort by an ACF field so would need to add something like;

‘meta_key’  => ‘status’,
‘orderby’   => ‘meta_value’,
‘order’ => ‘DESC’

Is it possible to get both meta_key parts to work together?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if you can do it with get_pages(), but you should be able to do something like this with get_posts():

$args = array(
    'post_type'  => 'page',
    'meta_query' => array(
        'template_clause' => array(
            'key'     => '_wp_page_template',
            'value'   => 'unit.php',
            'compare' => '=', 
        ),
        'status_clause' => array(
            'key'     => 'status',
            'compare' => 'EXISTS',
        ),
        'relation' => 'AND',
    ),
    'orderby' => 'status_clause',
    'order'   => 'DESC',
);
$pages = get_posts( $args );

// Better option, per Tom J Nowell's comment on the question
$page_query = new WP_Query( $args );

I haven't tested this code, but I think it should do what you're looking for.

References

• WP_Query » Custom Field (ie, post meta) parameters ([get_posts()] (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_posts/) arguments follow the same plan as WP_Query)
• WP_Query
• WP_Query improvements (includes the information on naming your clauses)