[Resolved] Calculate a new date and store it in a custom field

[Author]

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[Rune Brynestad]

I need help with a function. I have two fields in my Toolset form. ['start_date'] that comes from a datepicker custom field in the form and ['year-to-publish'] that is an integer value from a dropdown menu in the form.

From these two fields I need to calculate a publishing date ['start_date'] + ['year-to-publish']

I've started writing the function, but need help calculating the publishing date the number of years ahead from the start date.

Thanks in advice.

Kind regards
Rune

//Calculate a publishing date from a starting date .
add_action('cred_save_data', 'calculate_publishing_date',10,2);
function calculate_publishing_date($post_id, $form_data) {
    if ($form_data["id"]==3260)
    {
        if(isset($_POST['start_date'])){  // ['start_date'] comes from a datepicker custom field in the form
            $start_date = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d', $_POST['start_date']));
        }
        if(isset($_POST['year-to-publish'])){ // ['year-to-publish'] comes from a dropdown menu custom field in the form
            $number_of_years = $_POST['year-to-publish'];
        }
        $publishing_date = $start_date + $number_of_years * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60;  // calculate the publishing date (here I'm on thin ice)
        update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-publishing-date', $publishing_date);  // 'wpcf-publishing-date' is the new date to store in a custom field.
    }
}

[Christian Cox]

Hello, I have a few bits of advice for you. First and most important is to use the PHP function error_log. If you're not familiar with error_log, take a few minutes to research it and it will save you hours of time. You can use the error_log function to write out to a server log file as code is executing, and it's an invaluable tool for PHP development. You can write out a simple string or value directly using

error_log('string');

...if the data you want to log is an array or object $foo, you should use print_r with error_log like so:

error_log(print_r($foo, true)); 

If you're not familiar with turning on server logs, I can show you how to turn them on temporarily in most common wp-config.php setups. Go in your wp-config.php file and look for

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

Change it to:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

Then add these lines, just after the WP_DEBUG line:

define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', dirname(__FILE__) . '/error_log.txt');
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );
define('WP_DISABLE_FATAL_ERROR_HANDLER',true);

Update wp-config.php on your server. Now you can use the error_log function to create and write to an error_log.txt file in the root directory of your site - the same directory that holds wp-config.php in most setups. Once you have that log up and running, use error_log() in your code to write to the logs as code is executed. When you're done, revert the changes you made in wp-config.php and you can delete the log file. I've added two error_log statements to your code below, which should help you see what's going on and where the problems lie:

//Calculate a publishing date from a starting date .
add_action('cred_save_data', 'calculate_publishing_date',10,2);
function calculate_publishing_date($post_id, $form_data) {
    if ($form_data["id"]==3260)
    {

error_log('Form 3260 has been submitted. The POST superglobal contains: ');
error_log(print_r($_POST, true));

        if(isset($_POST['start_date'])){  // ['start_date'] comes from a datepicker custom field in the form
            $start_date = new DateTime(date('Y-m-d', $_POST['start_date']));
        }
        if(isset($_POST['year-to-publish'])){ // ['year-to-publish'] comes from a dropdown menu custom field in the form
            $number_of_years = $_POST['year-to-publish'];
        }
        $publishing_date = $start_date + $number_of_years * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60;  // calculate the publishing date (here I'm on thin ice)
        update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-publishing-date', $publishing_date);  // 'wpcf-publishing-date' is the new date to store in a custom field.
    }
}

The two log statements should tell you when this Form has been submitted, and then give you a breakdown of all the information captured in the $_POST superglobal. Beyond that, some additional advice specific to your code here:
1. A Types custom datepicker field will use the 'wpcf-' prefix. So if the field slug in wp-admin is start_date, the field key in $_POST will be wpcf-start_date.
2. A Types datepicker field will be passed in the $_POST superglobal as an array of information, not a single value. To access the Unix timestamp of the datepicker field selection, you can do something like this in PHP:

$timestamp = $_POST['wpcf-start_date']['timestamp'];

3. Check out this stackoverflow post that discusses using strtotime to add time to a timestamp:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5172849/php-adding-years-to-a-timestamp

$newTimestamp = strtotime('+1 year', $timestamp);

No need for using DateTimes or any other conversions here, just timestamp manipulation.

Let me know if you get stuck.

[Rune Brynestad]

Hi Christian

Thanks for looking into this. I got it to work in a way.

$newTimestamp = strtotime('+1 year', $timestamp);

add 1 year and update the 'wpcf-publishing-date' field with a date 1 year from start_date

$newTimestamp = strtotime('+1 year', $timestamp);

add 2 years and so on

But the number of years to add comes from the variable $number_of_years which in turn gets its value from the dropdown menu with the slug 'year-to-publish', so I change the code to

$newTimestamp = strtotime('+$number_of_years year', $timestamp);

That did not work. Is it something wrong with the syntax in that line of code?

Thanks again.

Kind regards
Rune

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Rune,

Christian is currently unavailable today but he will be back tomorrow to continue assisting with this.

Thanks,
Shane

[Rune Brynestad]

Any progress on this?

Kind regards
Rune

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Rune,

Christian is still not available, however can you try this below.

$newTimestamp = strtotime('+'.$number_of_years.' year', $timestamp);

What I'm essentially doing is concatenating the variable to the statement so that the variable can get rendered.

Please let me know if this works.

Thanks,
Shane

[Rune Brynestad]

Unfortunately, it did not work

Here is how my function looks like now:

add_action('cred_save_data', 'calculate_publishing_date',10,2);
function calculate_publishing_date($post_id, $form_data) {
    if ($form_data["id"]==3260)
    {
        error_log('Form 3260 has been submitted. The POST superglobal contains: ');
	error_log(print_r($_POST, true));
      
      	if(isset($_POST['wpcf-dodsdato']['timestamp'])){
            $timestamp = $_POST['wpcf-dodsdato']['timestamp'];
        }

        if(isset($_POST['tidspunkt-for-publisering'])){
            $number_of_years = $_POST['tidspunkt-for-publisering'];
        }

      	$newTimestamp = strtotime('+'.$number_of_years.' year', $timestamp);
      	// $newTimestamp = strtotime('+4 year', $timestamp); (Testing without using $number_of_years works)
        update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-publiseringsdato', $newTimestamp);
    }
}

When I use the PHP function error_log I can see that thre is an Undefined index: tidspunkt-for-publisering
I'm attaching the error log disguised as a jpg. Please rename the field to .txt after download

Also attaching the custom field setup for the tidspunkt-for-publisering which is a dropdown with numeric values indicating the numbers of year to add

Finally the actual cred group from the user form

[cred_show_group if="( $(hvem-skal-minnesiden-handle-om) eq '2' ) AND ( '[wpv-post-author format='meta' meta='ID']' eq '[wpv-user field='ID']' )" mode="none"]
	<div class="form-group">
		<label>Fremtidig innlegg</label>
		[cred_field field="innhold" force_type="field" class="form-control" output="bootstrap"]
	</div>
	<div class="form-group">
		<label>Tidspunkt for publisering.  Velg antall år fra dødsdato</label>
		[cred_field field="tidspunkt-for-publisering" force_type="field" class="form-control" output="bootstrap"]
	</div>
	<div class="form-group">
		[cred_field field="bekreft-ok" force_type="field" class="form-control" output="bootstrap"]
	</div>
[/cred_show_group]

Thanks for looking into this.

Kind regards
Rune

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Rune,

I tested this code line here:
$newTimestamp = strtotime('+'.$number_of_years.' year', $timestamp);

It works fine, the number of years gets returned perfectly fine as a timestamp.

Are you experiencing any errors ? Does the $newTimestamp variable return any value ?

Add this to your code to see what gets returned.

die($newTimestamp);

Thanks,
Shane

[Rune Brynestad]

Added die($newTimestamp); to the code like this:

add_action('cred_save_data', 'calculate_publishing_date',10,2);
function calculate_publishing_date($post_id, $form_data) {
    if ($form_data["id"]==3260)
    {
        error_log('Form 3260 has been submitted. The POST superglobal contains: ');
		error_log(print_r($_POST, true));
      
      	if(isset($_POST['wpcf-dodsdato']['timestamp'])){
            $timestamp = $_POST['wpcf-dodsdato']['timestamp'];
        }
        if(isset($_POST['tidspunkt-for-publisering'])){
            $number_of_years = $_POST['tidspunkt-for-publisering'];
        }
      	$newTimestamp = strtotime('+'.$number_of_years.' year', $timestamp);
      	die($newTimestamp);
      	// $newTimestamp = strtotime('+4 year', $timestamp); (Testing without using $number_of_years works)
        update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-publiseringsdato', $newTimestamp);
    }
} 

I can't see any instances of the $newTimestamp variable in the error log.

I'm attaching the new error log disguised as a jpg. Please rename the field to .txt after download.

Thanks again for looking into this.

Kind regards
Rune

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Rune,

Would you mind allowing me to have admin access to the website so that I can have a look at this for you ?

Also could you let me know the page where you are testing this out ?

Thanks,
Shane

[Shane Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/Jamaica (GMT-05:00)]

Hi Rune,

Could you try testing this again.

The problem was that you didnt add the wpcf- prefix to the "tidspunkt-for-publisering" slug.

This prefix is needed when getting the custom field values from Types.

Please try now and let me know if this helps.
Thanks,
Shane

[Rune Brynestad]

My issue is resolved now. Thank you!