[Resolved] How to save repeating fields with update_post_meta

[Author]

Posts

[Mario]

I have a repating field "wpcf-field-repeating" (file) and want update existing values it with new values (array) while executing an action-hook.
Unfortunately my update_post_meta doesn´t work for repeating fields. I guess it has to do with sorting/serializing.
i found this for example:
https://toolset.com/documentation/user-guides/repeating-fields/
https://toolset.com/forums/topic/cant-save-array-data-in-one-custom-field/#post-460826

$fields =get_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-field-repeating');
....
so changes to $fields
...
$sort_order=get_post_meta($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', true);

   foreach ($fields as $single_value ) {
       update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-field-repeating', $single_value);
    }
update_post_meta ($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', $sort_order);

$sort_order is empty and it wouldn´t work for additional values. So question is where could i find a working code-snippet for my objective to store this file repeating field?

Am i right, that in upcoming releases of types plugin (relationships) the repeating fields will change? Especially how they are stored in database?
Thanks for any hints.

[Shane]

Hi Mario,

Thank you for contacting our support forum.

First we need to do some debugging as to why this not working.

Lets check whats in the $fields variable by doing this.

var_dump($fields);

Please add that to your code and let me know what it returns.

Thanks
Shane

[Mario]

$sort_order is empty and finally just last value inserted always in DB.

$fields =get_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-field-repeating');
log($fields);

$sort_order=get_post_meta($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', true);
log("sort_order=" . $sort_order);
 
   foreach ($fields as $single_value ) {
      update_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-field-repeating', $single_value);
      log($single_value);
   }
update_post_meta ($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', $sort_order);
$fields =get_post_meta($post_id, 'wpcf-field-repeating');
log($fields);

30.11. 12:17:17 Array
(
    [0] => <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-0-2017-09-07_11h25_51.png 
    [1] => <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-1-presentation.pptx 
)
30.11. 12:17:17 sort_order=

30.11. 12:17:17 <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-0-2017-09-07_11h25_51.png 
30.11. 12:17:17 <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-1-presentation.pptx 

30.11. 12:17:17 Array
(
    [0] => <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-1-presentation.pptx 
    [1] => <em><u>hidden link</u></em>.../wp-content/uploads/ob-files/112-1-presentation.pptx 
)

[Christian Cox]

Hi, Shane is out for a week on vacation, so I've been asked to take a look at this ticket. I hope that's okay with you.

$sort_order is empty
Right, because you do not modify the value in your code. You get the original value and then set the same value without changing it:

$sort_order=get_post_meta($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', true);
// ...
// ...
update_post_meta ($post_id, '_wpcf-field-repeating-sort-order', $sort_order);

The $sort_order variable never changes. So if the original value was empty, the new value will also be empty. Please let me know if I'm misunderstanding what you want to accomplish here, but it appears that sort order will never be set to anything different than its previous value with this code.

and finally just last value inserted always in DB.
This is the expected behavior of update_post_meta when only 3 parameters are provided. Please refer to the documentation for this function's parameters here:
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/update_post_meta#Parameters

$prev_value
(mixed) (optional) The old value of the custom field you wish to change. This is to differentiate between several fields with the same key. If omitted, and there are multiple rows for this post and meta key, all meta values will be updated.
Default: Empty

In order to update each repeated value independently, you must include the 4th parameter "prev_value" to specify which of the repeating values you want to update. Otherwise, all values will be updated using the same value.

[Mario]

OMG...thank you so much Christian. So simple, missed it totaly.