How to query custom post then display sections by meta value

Question

This seems like an easy thing to do but I am missing something here. I have a custom post type called "recipient" and a meta check box called "yes_current" - (we help children with cancer and run events for them so we need to know who is a current recipient and who is a past recipient.) We want to display two sections on our RECIPIENT page: CURRENT RECIPIENTS and PAST RECIPIENTS.

My thought is to query the loop to get all of the custom_post_types that equal recipient, then display the featured image for all CURRENT recipients (if yes_current is ON) in the Current section, then do the same for PAST recipients in the Past section.

Thank you guys!

CODE:

<h1>CURRENT Recipients</h1>

<?php $current_loop = new WP_Query(array('post_type' => 'recipient', 'posts_per_page' => '-1', 'yes_current' => 'on'));

if( $current_loop->have_posts() ): while( $current_loop->have_posts() ): $current_loop-the_post(); 

<?php get_the_post_thumbnail($page->ID, 'thumbnail'); ?>

<?php endwhile; endif; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

<h1>PAST Recipients</h1>

<?php $current_loop = new WP_Query(array('post_type' => 'recipient', 'posts_per_page' => '-1', 'yes_current' => 'off'));

if( $current_loop->have_posts() ): while( $current_loop->have_posts() ): $current_loop->the_post(); 

<?php get_the_post_thumbnail($page->ID, 'thumbnail'); ?>

<?php endwhile; endif; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

Edit

Custom post meta code:

$meta_boxes[] = array( 'id' => 'yes_current', 'title' => 'Current Recipient', 'pages' => array( 'recipient' ), 'context' => 'side', 'priority' => 'low', 'fields' => array( array( 'name' => 'Current Recipient', 'id' => "{$prefix}yes_current", 'type' => 'checkbox', // Value can be 0 or 1 'std' => 1, ), ),

Answer 1

I would recommend executing two separate queries, each one differing from the other via a meta_query against your post custom meta key value.

$current_query_args = array(
    'post_type' => 'recipient',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'yes_current',
            'value' => 'on',
            'compare' => '='
        )
    )
);

$current_query = new WP_Query( $current_query_args );

if ( $current_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $current_query->have_posts() ) : $current_query->the_post();

    // Loop goes here

endwhile; endif;

wp_reset_postdata();

$past_query_args = array(
    'post_type' => 'recipient',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'yes_current',
            'value' => 'off',
            'compare' => '='
        )
    )
);

$past_query = new WP_Query( $past_query_args );

if ( $past_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $past_query->have_posts() ) : $past_query->the_post();

    // Loop goes here

endwhile; endif;

wp_reset_postdata();

Answer 2

So I figured it out. Since I am using Meta Boxes from the guys at Deluxe Blog Tips, I used their helper function that replaces get_post_meta. Here is the final code to display a list of CURRENT recipients and a list of PAST recipients for my custom_post_type Recipients. The meta box being compared to value is rec_yes_current:

<h1>Current Recipients</h1>
<?php /* Start loop */ ?>
<?php $linkposts = new WP_Query(array('post_type' => 'recipient', 'posts_per_page' => '-1'));
  while ($linkposts->have_posts()) : $linkposts->the_post(); 
  $linkvalue = $linkposts->ID;
    $image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($linkvalue), 'post-thumbnail' );
    $medical = get_post_meta(get_the_id(), 'rec_medical', true);
$twitter = get_post_meta(get_the_id(), 'rec_twitter', true);
$facebook = get_post_meta(get_the_id(), 'rec_facebook', true);
$dob = get_post_meta(get_the_id(), 'rec_dob', true);
    $today = date("m/d/Y");
    list($m,$d,$y) = explode('/',$dob);
    list($tm,$td,$ty) = explode('/',$today);
$year=$ty-$y;
    $current = rwmb_meta( 'rec_yes_current' ); 
?>

<?php  // if is current
if($current == '') {
echo '<div class="single recipient">';
echo '<p class="recname"><a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '">' . get_the_title($linkvalue) . '</a></p>';
echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '" class="frame">' . get_the_post_thumbnail($linkvalue, 'thumbnail') . '</a>';
echo '<p class="year"><strong>Age</strong>: ' . $year . ' years old</p>';
echo '<p class="condition"><strong>Conditions</strong>:' . $medical . '</p>';       
echo '<p class="readmore"><a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '">read more</a></p>';
echo '</div>';
}; ?>

<h1>Past Recipients</h1>

<?php  // if is current
if($current != '') {
    echo '<div class="single recipient">';
    echo '<p class="recname"><a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '">' . get_the_title($linkvalue) . '</a></p>';
    echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '" class="frame">' . get_the_post_thumbnail($linkvalue, 'thumbnail') . '</a>';
echo '<p class="year"><strong>Age</strong>: ' . $year . ' years old</p>';
echo '<p class="condition"><strong>Conditions</strong>:' . $medical . '</p>';       
echo '<p class="readmore"><a href="' . get_permalink($linkvalue) . '">read more</a></p>';
echo '</div>';
}; ?>

<?php endwhile; wp_reset_query(); ?>

If there is a cleaner/better way to write this, I would love to see it. Thanks guys!