wp_query loop with compare operator simply not working, why?

Question

Frustrated and would love some help with this.

I have a custom post field titled 'expire_date'. When the expire date is reached, I want that post to to drop off of the list of posts that are returned.

I use Generate Blocks, and support at Generate Press were kind enough to give me some code that they say should work for what I want.

However, it doesn't. None of the posts I want filtered out are filtered out.

I've tested the 'if' statement and that query_args do work by using a different query_arg. It worked fine (and is included in the script below).

But the actual script that I need to work doesn't. I've tested every way that I can think of, double checked the custom field and it's working and titled correctly. I've changed the comparison operator to = and even tried != and it doesn't make any difference. Nothing is filtered out. Why?

Thanks for any help!

Chris

add_filter( 'generateblocks_query_loop_args', function( $query_args, $attributes ) {
    if (
        ! is_admin()
        && ! empty( $attributes['className'] )
        && strpos( $attributes['className'], 'my-query' ) !== false
    ) {
        // pass meta_query parameter
        $query_args[ 'meta_query' ] = array(
            'meta_key'          => 'expire_date', //example 2022-06-20
            'meta_value'        => date("Y-m-d"),
            'type'              => 'DATE', //have also tried DATETIME and TIME
            'meta_compare'      => '>=',
        );
        ////in testing, this works/// $query_args['date_query'] = array( 'after' => '2022-06-01' );
    }
    return $query_args;
}, 10, 2 );

Answer 1

As stated in the documentation: _{(bold formatting was added by me)}

Note that meta_query expects nested arrays, even if you only have one query.

So your meta query should actually look like the following, and note that in a meta_query, we don't use the meta_ prefix, e.g. we use just key and not meta_key:

$query_args['meta_query'] = array(
    array( // clause/query 1
        'key'     => 'expire_date',
        'value'   => date("Y-m-d"),
        'type'    => 'DATE',
        'compare' => '>=',
    )
);

Or use the root meta_xxx arguments instead, and note that I used meta_type instead of just type:

$query_args['meta_key']     = 'expire_date';
$query_args['meta_value']   = date("Y-m-d");
$query_args['meta_type']    = 'DATE';
$query_args['meta_compare'] = '>=';

Or did you actually mean to use $query_args['meta_query'][] (note the []), i.e. to add another clause to the existing meta_query array? But even so, make sure you use the correct array keys.