webbuildermn

Hi thanks for your continued help. Not there yet. I tried a couple things. I tried (learning) debugging with some results. I noticed in the URL when I clicked on LastName, it entered in parameters, so I did see that orderby had a value and order did too. Reassuring. I think comes from the ‘manage_users_sortable_columns’. It was confirmatory:

http://journey.local/wp-admin/users.php?orderby=LastName&order=asc

I tried using methods you suggested as well as pre_get_posts and pre_get_user. I got a weird error there with

Can’t use method return value in write context

and squiggly lines even on VS Code when I try the pre_get_posts that others have suggested by code like this:
$query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );

Last I tried the “users_list_table_query_args” you pointed to. Same results- page loads, but doesn’t sort. I got an interesting error when I forgot to change the name of the variable from pasted code. It showed up in the debug mode and said Notice: Undefined variable: vars in /app/public/wp-content/plugins/j-w-m/j-w-m.php on line 108 Warning:

array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in

/app/public/wp-content/plugins/j-w-m/j-w-m.php on line 108

because here

add_filter( 'users_list_table_query_args', 'filter_users_list_table_query_args', 10, 1 );
function filter_users_list_table_query_args( $args ) { 
  // make filter magic happen here... 
  if(array_key_exists('orderby', $vars)) {  

…
of course I forgot to change $args to $vars. When I did, that error went away, page loaded like normal but that does tell us
1. the function is being run
2. When run, $vars is an array, as one would expect

Just why doesn’t it modify and work as expected.

Thanks joy. Yeah I had that add-in for the site, but to get sort, we have to pay $49. It’s not just me being cheap. It’s a site I built for free for a friend/professor and also it’s good training for my upcoming bootcamp and we only need it for this one use. I was looking into the source code of that add-in and it’s intense (compared to what I’m used to), whereas if I got mine to work, it would be lean.

Anyway, that’s a good reference you linked me but I don’t see any method that looks like it sorts the data. Is it something with views? How do I take the next step?

I’ve been following this article btw, but there’s also one other article that talks about sorting columns that I’ve found, though that one doesn’t’ cover admin tables.

Great Progress: The code below inputs my user_id. As you all know, the Action hook requires the number of parameters. I didn’t realize I was limiting it to 2. You can tell it it is greater than it is, but not less, or you’ll lose functionality. You also can’t pass more arguments to your callback function than it is expected to have according to the hook- in this case “manage_users_custom_column”. This is what I am intuiting. So when I change the add_action to 3 parameters, and add a parameter- “$user_id”, which is what it is, but I could call it whatever I want- $Waldo- then I have access to the User ID. The first parameter is a string and starts Null of course. You’d not be unwise to name it $Value, and then you can grab whatever value you want- for instance the returned value from a SQL query, which is what I have to do.

So, I have the user ID and there are two candidate tables we can get the info from- Users and User_Meta. I already know it’s User_Meta from the discussion prior. Looking at the DB table User_meta, user_id is not a unique key, so that presents an extra challenge.

There is a get_user_data($user_ID) which gets a user data object, which might work for populating the table but I am not sure it has sorting functionality as that might be linked to SQL order_by. I could play around with that to see if I can populate the table but I think I’ll pass.

There it is, in all its glory- a wp_usermeta table with a non unique user_id and associated meta_key of first_name and one of last_name.

So how to find that? I’ll do some studying and if I find anything I’ll share.

Great progress.

// // Populate the column
function add_content_to_mishas_column($value, $column_name, $user_id){
  $value = $user_id;
	if ($column_name == "FirstName"){
		return "Romeo";
	}
	if ($column_name == "LastName"){
		return "Montague";
  }

  if ($column_name == "Brilliant.org"){
    return $user_id;
  }
  if ($column_name == "Nova"){
    return $value;
  }
}

add_action('manage_users_custom_column', 'add_content_to_mishas_column', 10, 3);

Edit: This is the SQL command I need. Now how to embed or deliver it and receive the return:

SELECT meta_value
FROM <code>wp_usermeta</code>
where user_ID = 98   // or whatever the dynamic user_id is. 
and 
meta_key = "first_name";  // and again for last_name

This returns the right value I need. Now just delivering the query and receiving output. This is fun.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by webbuildermn.

1. I’m close to my goal but stuck near the end. There are two ways I can get to the end zone but I may need some help, if only a link or a point in the right direction.

2. I’ve been using this reference to make sortable columns, taking it step by step. All my code is below. It is all inputted into the functions.php file of the theme editor. Edit: It is now in a custom plugin.

3. I succeeded in adding custom column headers into my users table (Nova, Brilliant.org, “First Name” and “Last Name”. I could not get any data to be populated though, not when I used a variable $post_id or even when I just used echo. This same code worked in the post table yesterday. I got it to display echo 'post ID: '. $post_ID ; perfectly, but here in this table it’s giving me trouble.

4. I also was able to make these columns sortable because it now shows FirstName as sortable link with the triangle button, even though there’s no data to sort.

Where it goes wrong: I can’t get the first name or last name data. I don’t know how to do the SQL run.

Alternatively, I had this plugin, AdminColumns that already has two columns populated, “First Name” and “Last Name”. If I could sort that, that would be the other way. What is interesting is I can’t even get a custom column to show up when that plugin is activated, so I have to deactivate it to get my code below to even work as expected. How/why does this occur?

So those are my two ways- get the AdminColumns of “First Name” and “Last Name” to sort, or get my columns “FirstName” and “LastName” to get populated. I made them without spaces to differentiate the two.

Honestly I’m surprised I got this far!! Appreciate all your inputs or even just pointers and links.

// Experimental Sort Users //
// 
function add_custom_misha_columns($columns){
	$columns["Nova"] = "Nova";
	$columns["Brilliant.org"] = "Brilliant.org";
 	$columns["FirstName"] = "FirstName";
	$columns["LastName"] = "LastName";
	return $columns;
}
add_filter('manage_users_columns', 'add_custom_misha_columns');

// // Populate the column
function add_content_to_mishas_column($column_name, $post_id){ // edit: $user_id not $post_id
	if ($column_name == "FirstName"){
		echo "Romeo";
	}
	if ($column_name == "LastName"){
		echo "Montague";
	}
}
add_action('manage_users_custom_column', 'add_content_to_mishas_column', 10, 2);

function sort_mishas_user_columns ($columns){
	$columns["FirstName"] = "FirstName";
	return $columns;
}

// Add sortable column to Column Array
add_filter('manage_users_sortable_columns', 'sort_mishas_user_columns');

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by webbuildermn.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by webbuildermn.

Thanks again. I read the article. I think it’s exactly what I was looking for. Maybe tomorrow I will try put it into practice. As far as SQL queries, I’m not sure, but our AdminColumns already runs a query I suppose, and gives us First Name and Last name. Maybe we can just hitch a ride on that – if the name of the column would already be in the array. I don’t know 100% what I’m saying, but we’ll see.

I succeeded on a local instance of the site to create a column with “post id: ” . $post_ID displayed. I could try practice sorting that but I got it made. I just put the code in the functions.php file of the theme(child) but I made my first plugin today so I could try it there as it’s supposed to be better.

Long story short, I think this article was what I needed, a lot to play with and test.

I came up with a different method to make the site private. I used a plug-in Force login. This made the question irrelevant. Out of curiosity would still be cool to know but it’s not worth putting much time into learning. I guess I can’t delete this post so I thought I’d just reply and Mark resolved

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I am a word-press developer in training :). I am building a site for a friend/professor/mentory so it will be nice but not high end budget wise. But I like learning. It’s not a super high priority but I will try what you suggest- switching to parent, and disabling plugins. Thank you!