Need help getting around the "variables can be passed by reference" error

  • Stephiew

    (@stephiew)


    11 years ago

    I have finally found a way to generating a slug name that will call a specific post to show on another post’s sidebar!

    $aside = $post; echo $post->post_name;
do_action('after_aside', $aside);
$aside = preg_replace('/(\-profile)/','-aside$0',"-aside");

echo $aside

    So now I can have a post with a person’s name as the slug, and a post with the slug name-aside, that I can hopefully call up on the new sidebar.
    While this is really great (although messy, the -profile bit works but I’m not sure why), now my problem is calling the new slug name to get THAT post’s contents!
    When I do

    get_post('aside')
or
get_post($aside)

    I get the dreaded “Only variables can be passed by reference” message, which I don’t even understand, not being fluent in PHP.
    From what I can gather, I have to do something to my little working bit to get it to work within the post call. I’ve tried making it a function (didn’t work)
    what else can I try? Does anyone know?
    Thank you,
    Stephanie
    (more info later if required)

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
  • Thread Starter Stephiew

    (@stephiew)

    11 years ago

    Figured it out! I’m going to post the code that worked for if anyone else wants to do what I am doing.

    <?php
ob_start();
$aside = $post; echo $post->post_name;
do_action('after_aside', $aside);
$aside = preg_replace('/(\-profile)/','-aside$0',"-aside");
echo $aside;
$aside = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

$page = get_posts( array( 'name' => $aside ) );

if ( $page )
{
    echo $page[0]->post_content;
}

?>

    So basically, I put all the code that turns the current post name from name to name-aside, and put it inside the object, then fetch it with my variable name (‘$aside = ob_get_contents();’) so when I put it into get_posts, it goes to find the constructed slug.
    This is going to be helpful because I am working on a company website, where we want profiles to be a post, and then have a sidebar with additional information about the person in question. The people doing the posting from now on do not know code, so I am making it simple for them. All they need to do is make their posts, and name the slugs accordingly (name and name-aside) for it to be constructed for them automatically!
    Best part: no plugins or widgets used!

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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