Create Time to Read

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem: I would like to use a PHP function that counts the number of characters in custom fields, then use that number to calculate an estimated reading time. I'm using this post as a template: https://birchtree.me/blog/reading-time-wp-php/

Solution:
You can use the types_render_field function in PHP to generate the HTML markup for each field, and add that to the content string like so:

function reading_time() {
    $content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post->ID );
    $content .= types_render_field('field_slug', array( "id"=>$post->ID) );
    $content .= types_render_field('other_field_slug', array( "id"=>$post->ID) ); // copy and paste this line as needed for additional fields
    $word_count = str_word_count( strip_tags( $content ) );
    ... code continues ...

If the HTML applied to each field should be stripped, use the get_post_meta function instead:

function reading_time() {
    $content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post->ID );
    $content .= get_post_meta($post->ID, 'wpcf-field_slug', true );
    $content .= get_post_meta($post->ID, 'wpcf-other_field_slug', true ); // copy and paste this line as needed for additional fields
    $word_count = str_word_count( strip_tags( $content ) );
    ... code continues ...

Relevant Documentation:
https://toolset.com/documentation/customizing-sites-using-php/functions/
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_post_meta/

This support ticket is created 6 years, 9 months ago. There's a good chance that you are reading advice that it now obsolete.

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Tagged: Setting up custom fields, Setting up custom types, Types fields API, Types plugin

This topic contains 3 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Christian Cox 6 years, 8 months ago.

Assisted by: Christian Cox.

Author

Posts

February 14, 2018 at 2:39 pm #616039

Chris

I have seen these "Time to Read" plugins where it will grab the text from your page and estimate the length of time it will take to read the post, like this one: https://wordpress.org/plugins/reading-time-wp/

But this reads the post content section, and I have stripped that out with Toolset CPT.

Do you have a way that would allow me to add in all my custom fields (or even automatically grab all of the ones on the page) and then calculate the time to read in the same fashion.... allowing me to insert a shortcode on my page to display?

I might be able to modify this with your guidance: hidden link

Thanks for your help in advance.

February 14, 2018 at 6:52 pm #616133

Christian Cox

Looks like you could append all your custom field content to $content variable to have their values counted in the $word_count variable. I don't know of a good way to automatically add all custom field values...you must add code for each field. Something like this (untested, just a guess):

function reading_time() {
    $content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post->ID );
    $content .= types_render_field('field_slug', array( "id"=>$post->ID) );
    $content .= types_render_field('other_field_slug', array( "id"=>$post->ID) ); // copy and paste this line as needed for additional fields
    $word_count = str_word_count( strip_tags( $content ) );
    ... code continues ...

We have documentation for the types_render_field function here, and examples for different types of fields:
https://toolset.com/documentation/customizing-sites-using-php/functions/

Note that types_render_field will add formatting and markup to the custom field values. If you want the raw values from the database, you should use get_post_meta instead. Types custom fields are stored with a prefix of "wpcf-", so the code might look like this:

function reading_time() {
    $content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post->ID );
    $content .= get_post_meta($post->ID, 'wpcf-field_slug', true );
    $content .= get_post_meta($post->ID, 'wpcf-other_field_slug', true ); // copy and paste this line as needed for additional fields
    $word_count = str_word_count( strip_tags( $content ) );
    ... code continues ...

https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_post_meta/

March 14, 2018 at 8:32 pm #625090

Chris

Yup, got it. Just had to define global $post.

Thanks!

March 15, 2018 at 3:44 pm #625368

Christian Cox

Great, let me know if you run into any other problems with this code.