WordPress ACF Relationship Array & Post Expirator Plugin: A Tale of Lost Items
The Problem: You've carefully built a WordPress website with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and the Post Expirator plugin to manage your content's lifespan. You're using an ACF Relationship field to link posts within your website, but after a post expires, you notice some of the related items in your Relationship array are inexplicably missing! This unexpected behavior can cause major headaches, especially if you rely on these relationships for functionality or data integrity.
Scenario:
Imagine you have a "News" post type with a "Related News" field that uses an ACF Relationship field. You've also used Post Expirator to set a specific expiration date for some news posts. When a post expires, the Post Expirator plugin gracefully hides it from your website. However, upon inspecting the "Related News" array for other, still-active posts, you discover that some of the previously related expired news items are missing.
The Original Code:
// Example using Post Expirator's 'post_expired' hook
add_action('post_expired', function($post_id) {
// Get the 'Related News' array
$related_news = get_field('related_news', $post_id);
// Loop through each related post
foreach ($related_news as $news_item) {
// Do something with the related news item
}
}, 10, 1);
Analysis & Insights:
This frustrating issue arises from the way Post Expirator handles expired posts. When a post expires, Post Expirator doesn't actually delete it. Instead, it sets the post's status to expired, effectively hiding it from your website. This subtle behavior can lead to confusion, as the post data technically still exists, but it's not readily accessible.
The Missing Pieces:
The key to understanding this issue is understanding how the ACF Relationship field interacts with the Post Expirator plugin. When you fetch the "Related News" array for a post, ACF uses the post's ID and the relationship data associated with it. However, when a post expires, its status changes to expired, and ACF's relationship query might not be able to correctly retrieve the related expired posts. This behavior can result in the "Related News" array appearing incomplete, as if items have mysteriously vanished.
Solution:
There are a few ways to address this issue:
-
Directly Query Expired Posts: Instead of relying solely on the ACF Relationship field, you can directly query for expired posts that were originally related to the current post. This involves using a custom query that specifically targets expired posts and filters the results to include only those that were related to the current post before expiration.
-
Alternative Relationship Management: Consider using an alternative relationship management system or plugin that doesn't rely on the post status for relationship lookups. Plugins like Pods or Custom Post Type UI might offer more flexibility in managing relationships, potentially avoiding this issue.
-
Custom Post Expirator Integration: If you're comfortable with code, you can manually update the relationship data when a post expires. You can use the
post_expiredhook to retrieve the related posts, update their relationship data, and store it in a custom field or database table to preserve the relationships even after expiration.
Additional Value:
By understanding the underlying mechanics of Post Expirator and ACF relationships, you can troubleshoot this problem effectively and find the right solution for your specific needs. Remember to choose a solution that best suits your website's complexity and maintainability.
Resources:
- Advanced Custom Fields Documentation: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/
- Post Expirator Documentation: https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-expirator/
- WordPress Developer Documentation: https://developer.wordpress.org/
This article aims to help you navigate the challenging world of ACF Relationship arrays and Post Expirator, providing you with the insights and solutions needed to maintain the integrity of your website's content and data.
