Root Cause:
The Gutenberg block editor was converting “Order by: Event date” to orderby=’date’. In WordPress, orderby=’date’ sorts by post_date and ignores the meta_key parameter. The correct value should be orderby=’meta_value’ with meta_key=’event_begin’ (the event start date meta field).
Solution (3 parts):
class-shortcodes.php – Added ‘orderbykey’ => ‘event_begin’ to shortcode defaults (list, timeline, map) to specify which meta field to sort by.
build/*/block.json – Added orderbykey attribute with default ‘event_begin’ to block definitions so blocks pass the correct meta field.
eventpost.php (line ~1974) – Added PHP converter that intercepts orderby=’date’ and converts it to orderby=’meta_value’ with orderbykey=’event_begin’.
Result: Events now sort by actual event start date, not publication date.
