get_post_meta not working when variable used for post ID

Question

I think I've read every suggested article on this topic and there are some similar but nothing seems to solve my problem. It seems like it should be simple.

I just want to be able to use get_post_meta($id) where $id was set earlier in the script or even passed into the function. Whenever I do this I get only meta about the _edit_lock and _last_edit.

If I hardcode the post id in as say 2985 it works fine, but obviously that does not do what I need as the post will change. For those that want to know I am triggering on the publish of a post of one custom post type to take the shortcode from that type and insert it into a different custom post type.

I am hoping that one of you brilliant people out there can help a relative newbie out here.

Here is my code:

add_action('transition_post_status', 'dif_create_zoom_mtg_lesson', 10, 3);

function dif_create_zoom_mtg_lesson ($new_status, $old_status, $postobj) {
if('publish' === $new_status && 'publish' !== $old_status && $postobj->post_type === 'zoom-meetings') {
    global $zoom;
    global $post;

    ob_start();
        echo "POST IN ENTIRETY -metas"."<br/>";
        var_dump($postobj);
        $getpostid = $postobj->ID;
        echo "postid ==>";
        var_dump($getpostid);
        echo "<br/>";
        $postmetas = get_post_meta($getpostid);
        echo "VARDUMP postmetas===>";
        var_dump($postmetas);
        echo "<br/>";
    $dif_zoom_mtg_body .= ob_get_clean();

    $dif_countdown_timer = '<p id="dif-timer"></p>';
    $dif_zoom_mtg_body .= $dif_countdown_timer;

// not working now since I cannot get meeting_id dynamically
    //$dif_zoom_mtg_body .= '[zoom_api_link meeting_id="'.$dif_zoom_mtg_id.'" link_only="no"]';

    $my_post = array();
    $my_post['post_type'] = 'post';
    $my_post['post_title']    = "Zoom post ID=".$getpostid;
    $my_post['post_content']  = $dif_zoom_mtg_body;
    $my_post['post_status']   = 'publish';
    $my_post['post_author']   = 1;
    $my_post['post_category'] = array(0);
    // Insert the post into the database
    wp_insert_post( $my_post );
}
}

This gives me the output of:

POST IN ENTIRETY -metas
object(WP_Post)#4361 (24) {
["ID"]=>
int(2733)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2020-06-11 16:44:55"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2020-06-11 16:44:55"
["post_content"]=>
string(61) "

Xcar body

["post_title"]=> string(5) "X car"
["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) ""
["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed"
["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=> string(0) ""
["post_name"]=> string(5) "x-car"
["to_ping"]=> string(0) ""
["pinged"]=> string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-06-11 16:44:55"
["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-06-11 16:44:55"
["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=> int(0)
["guid"]=> string(56) "https://xxxxxxx.net/?post_type=zoom-meetings&p=2733"
["menu_order"]=> int(0)
["post_type"]=> string(13) "zoom-meetings"
["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0"
["filter"]=> string(3) "raw"
}

postid ==>int(2733)

VARDUMP postmetas===>array(1) {
["_edit_lock"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(12) "1591893865:1"
}
}

Answer 1

If you're hooking into publish_post, that fires before meta is ready.

Either get the meta from the POST object, or use a different hook - possibly update_post_meta.