Displaying Custom Field

  • WPOso

    (@wordpress-oso)


    9 years, 11 months ago

    I want to create a block of text that will be displayed on a series of pages. I’m following the instructions @ https://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Fields

    I just created a new custom field…

    Name: County Intro

    Value: Hi, if you live in this county, what are some socio-political issues you care about?

    Now I’m trying to figure out how to make the value display live.

    From the instructions: “With a Custom Field added to the post, it’s time to display your books and mood to the world. To display the Custom Fields for each post, use the the_meta() template tag. The tag must be put within The Loop in order to work. Many people add the_meta() template tag to the end of their post or in their Post Meta Data Section.”

    When I paste <?php the_meta(); ?> into the body of my post (in text mode), I see nothing when I display the page.

    As I understand it, an alternate method is to paste the code “within The Loop.” So where do I find “the loop”? I have a child theme, so I assume I need to copy some file from the theme folder into the child theme folder.

    Also, I don’t want to display this custom field on every post; just on posts focusing on counties and communities. (They’ll probably all be in the category Washington and will be tagged with “county.”

    Thank you.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    9 years, 11 months ago

    No. You don’t post PHP into the editor,.

    I gave you a link about how to use a shortcode. Use a shortcode to fetch and display that custom field.

    Thread Starter WPOso

    (@wordpress-oso)

    9 years, 11 months ago

    OK, the shorcode page offers the following example:

    //[foobar]
function foobar_func( $atts ){
	return "foo and bar";
}
add_shortcode( 'foobar', 'foobar_func' );

    If my custom field is titled “County Intro,” then how would I modify that? Something like this?:

    //[foobar]
function foobar_func( $atts ){
	return "County Intro";
}
add_shortcode( 'foobar', 'foobar_func' );

    Also, I don’t see where they explain WHERE to paste the code.

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    9 years, 11 months ago

    function show_county() {
  global $post;
  // assumes the string is in the custom field 'county'
  $county = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'county', true);
    return $county;
}
add_shortcode( 'county', 'show_county');

    that’s a bare minimum. you should test that there is a value in county, etc.

    this goes in your theme’s functions.php or in a plugin shell.

    Thread Starter WPOso

    (@wordpress-oso)

    9 years, 11 months ago

    OK, I copied functions.php into my child theme folder, added that code and uploaded, but the page still displays nothing.

    I think the problem is it isn’t “connecting” with my custom field. The name of the custom field was “County Intro.” I just changed it to “county,” but it still doesn’t work.

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    9 years, 11 months ago

    what do you mean by

    I copied functions.php into my child theme folder,

    the code is on the right track — look up get_post_meta in the codex; I wrote this off the top of my head and the the code may be close but wrong 🙂

    see the example here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Fields

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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