Schedule filter with ACF - advanced-custom-fields

Question

I need to build a WP_Query that filters the posts by some Advanced Custom Fields. The following bullet-points describe the functionality needed:
Today is greater than start_date and less than 'end_date'.
If today is the 'start_date', test if the the time is greater than the 'start_time'.
If today is the 'end_date', text if the time is less than the 'end_time'.
Retrieve only the first post, ordered by custom field 'priority'.
I am struggling to build the typical WHERE clausule, like:
SELECT * FROM x WHERE (
( 'start_date' < today AND 'end_date' > today )
OR
( 'start_date' = today AND 'start_hour' < now )
OR
( 'end_date' = today AND 'end_hour' > now )
)
ORDER BY y
LIMIT 0,1;
I have been some time thinking about it, I thought it would be possible by nesting meta_queries in the WP_Query args... Didn't work (see args underneath).
$now_date = date('Ymd');
$now_time = date('Hi');
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'cat' => 4, /* Bulletin */
'posts_per_page' => 1,
'post_parent' => 0,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'bu_from',
'compare' => '<',
'value' => $now_date,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
),
array(
'key' => 'bu_to',
'compare' => '>',
'value' => $now_date,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
)
),
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'bu_from',
'compare' => '=',
'value' => $now_date,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
),
array(
'key' => 'bu_from_time',
'compare' => '<=',
'value' => $now_time,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
)
),
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'bu_to',
'compare' => '=',
'value' => $now_date,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
),
array(
'key' => 'bu_to_time',
'compare' => '>=',
'value' => $now_time,
'type' => 'NUMERIC'
)
)
),
'meta_key' => 'bu_priority',
'orderby' => 'meta_value',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
REQUEST that ignores all the meta_query:
/* Taken from var_dump($the_query); */
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM wp_posts
INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id)
INNER JOIN wp_postmeta ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id
WHERE 1=1
AND wp_posts.post_parent = 0
AND ( wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (4) )
AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post'
AND ((wp_posts.post_status = 'publish'))
AND (wp_postmeta.meta_key = 'bu_priority' )
GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER BY wp_postmeta.meta_value ASC
LIMIT 0, 1
;

Answer 1

After reviewing with the management what exactly do we need... I changed all quite all the logic involved here.
<!-- START: BULLETIN -->
<?php
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'cat' => 4, /* Bulletin */
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'post_parent' => 0,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'orderby' => 'ID',
'order' => 'DESC'
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
// Start the Loop.
$added_cnt = 0;
$now = array( 'date' => date('md'), 'day' => date('N') );
$bulletins = array(
'1' => array(),
'2' => array(),
'3' => array(),
'4' => array(),
'5' => array()
);
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
if (
/* Scheduled by day and month */
(
( get_field('bu_schedule_by') == '1' )
&&
( get_field('bu_start_month').get_field('bu_start_day') <= $now['date'] )
&&
( get_field('bu_end_month').get_field('bu_end_day') >= $now['date'] )
)
||
/* Scheduled by day of the week */
(
( get_field('bu_schedule_by') == '2' )
&&
( in_array( $now['day'], get_field('bu_days_to_be_seen') ) )
)
) {
$bulletins[ get_field('bu_priority') ][ get_the_ID() ] = array();
$bulletins[ get_field('bu_priority') ][ get_the_ID() ][ 'title' ] = get_the_title();
$bulletins[ get_field('bu_priority') ][ get_the_ID() ][ 'subtitle' ] = get_field('bu_subtitle');
$bulletins[ get_field('bu_priority') ][ get_the_ID() ][ 'image' ] = get_field('bu_image');
$bulletins[ get_field('bu_priority') ][ get_the_ID() ][ 'content' ] = get_the_content();
$added_cnt++;
}
endwhile;
$bulletin = array();
$bu_priority = 1;
while ( ( $added_cnt > 0 ) && ( count($bulletin) == 0 ) ) {
if ( count($bulletins[$bu_priority]) > 0 ) {
$bulletin = reset($bulletins[$bu_priority]);
}
$bu_priority++;
}
$bu_image = $bulletin['image'];
echo '
<div class="section group section_opener custom_bulletin" style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; padding: 0 !important;">
<div id="xmas_bg" class="col span_4_of_16"'.( !empty($bu_image) ? ' style="background-image: url('.$bu_image['url'].'); background-position: 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin: 40px 0; height: 178px;"' : '' ).'></div>
<div id="xmas_title" class="col span_4_of_16" style="">
'.( $bulletin['title'] != '' ? '<h1 style="font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700;">'.$bulletin['title'].'</h1>' : '' ).'
'.( $bulletin['subtitle'] != '' ? '<h2 style="font-size: 23px; color: #c94446; font-weight: 300; margin-top: -8px;">'.$bulletin['subtitle'].'</h2>' : '' ).'
</div>
<div class="col span_1_of_16"></div>
<div id="xmas_copy" class="col span_6_of_16" style="padding: 80px 0; font-size: 14px !important;">
'.$bulletin['content'].'
</div>
<div class="col span_1_of_16"></div>
</div>
';
endif;
?>
<!-- END: BULLETIN -->