Query Post by Custom Date Field

Hum,

I found out that in the database table wp_postmeta there is a field with another name: “_simple_fields_fieldGroupID_1_fieldID_1_numInSet_0”

I changed it now to this but still no luck:

query_posts(
				array(
					'showposts' => 50,
					'post_parent' => $this_page_id,
					'posts_per_page' => 50,
					'post_type' => 'page',
					'meta-key' => '_simple_fields_fieldGroupID_1_fieldID_1_numInSet_0',
					'orderby' => 'meta_value',
					'order' => 'ASC'

				)
			);

Try and change “meta-key” to “meta_key” and see if that makes any difference.

Par,

Thanks for the quick reply. It changed the order but it seems like its now completly random ??

'orderby' => 'meta_value',
  'meta_key' => '_simple_fields_fieldGroupID_1_fieldID_1_numInSet_0',
  'order' => 'ASC'

Any other solution?

Thanks,
Bjorn

Aha I see what it does now ??

Its sorts only on day and not yet with month and year. So it looks something like this now:

2 june
4 may
6 june
7 april

Par,

I found something interesting. I debug-ed the query and run it directly on the mysql database. As you can see in the screenshot is not ordered correctly like I put in my previous message.

Screenshot result

The strange thing here is that I don’t know why? Do you have a clue? Or even better an solution ??

Thanks for your help.
Bjorn

Ah, now I remember that another user had this problem. The format in the database is far from perfect when it comes to sorting. Please see this question + solution over at wordpress anwers:

https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/70473/custom-query-object-with-simple-fields-custom-date-field/70500#70500

Par,

What I want to do is your option 3)

(Three: Wait a couple of days and let me update Simple Fields with support for storing the dates as unixdates, since it makes so much more sense!)

As I can see you have a option “Enable Extended Return Values” with the description

Return an array with the selected date as a unix timestamp and as the date format set in WordPress settings.

But how can I sort then on the timestamp?
Because when I do this:

$selected_value = simple_fields_get_post_value(get_the_id(), "Datum", true);
print_r($selected_value);

I see this as an return value but the order is still the same:

Array ( [saved_value] => 14/07/2013 [timestamp] => 1373760000 [date_format] => 14 July 2013 [date_format_i18n] => 14 juli 2013 )

Hope you can help me out.
Bjorn

I made a new field instead, that stores the date in iso-format instead:
https://simple-fields.com/documentation/field-types/date-and-time-picker/

You can use that new field, or use my method mentioned in the thread above to manually to a sql query to get to correct order, or you can get all your values like you did above, and then use https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.usort.php to sort your array by timestamp.

Thanks I used the usort method. Not the nicest and fastest way but it does the job ??

Why do you only store the date/time picker in iso format and not also the date picker? That would solve a lot of issues I think.

Because if you now use both you need different ways to show the data.