Only show search results with if current date is between two dates?

Question

I have a custom post type which I can set a start and end date in the metadata.

I use the function below to filter the search results and only show results from the post type visitor:

function SearchFilter($query) {
        if ($query->is_search) {
            $query->set('post_type', 'visitor');
        }
        return $query;
    }
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'SearchFilter');

I have two metadata fields that contains a start date and an end date:

get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'visitor-start-date', true ); // Start date
get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'visitor-date', true ); // End date

I want to filter the search results to only show results if the current date (today) is between these two dates. The dates are in epoch/unix and looks like this: 1539129600 1546214400

How do I include this in my filter I created above to only show results where todays date is between the start and end date?

Answer 1

You can use meta queries to filter posts according to your needs.

Here is a sample code:

function SearchFilter( $query ) {
    if ( !is_admin() && $query->is_search ) {
        $query->set( 'post_type', 'visitor' );

        $query->set( 'meta_query', array(
            'relation' => 'AND',
            array(
                'key' => 'visitor-start-date',
                'value' => time(),
                'compare' => '<='
            ),
            array(
                'key' => 'visitor-date',
                'value' => time(),
                'compare' => '>='
            ),
        ) );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'SearchFilter' ); // pre_get_posts is an action, not a filter, so you don't have to return anything in it

If you want the server time, then use time function as in code above.

On the other hand, if you need to use WP time in comparisons, then use current_time function:

current_time( 'timestamp' );