Using update_user_meta with an array

  • I’m building a plugin where I’m trying to use a user meta field to store a history of user activity. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how to update and store the array of data.

    So, my question is: can somebody tell how to update my code? Or, would it be simpler to create a table with this data? Create a new post type?
    (I thought a user meta field would be better, so that I wouldn’t clutter the database with another table, but maybe my reasoning is off.)

    Anyway, here’s what I’m trying to accomplish:
    1 – In the front end, the user chooses from a drop-down menu their selection for the day. For example: “Today, I ate an APPLE or ORANGE or BANANA”.
    2 – The plugin saves the vote of fruit for the day in the user meta field I call myplugin-hist.
    3 – The next day, if the user chooses a new fruit, the plugin adds this new fruit to the myplugin-hist so that we can see what the choice was yesterday and again today.
    4 – I’ve tried various ways of storing the data, and I get arrays within arrays, not resembling the structure I have in mind, which should ideally have this structure:

    array(
	day 1 => apple
	day 2 => banana
	day 3 => apple
)

    Here’s a sample of my code. So far, I’ve written just the code to save to the database (which is where I need help.)

    // This function receives the (int)$fruit vote from another function
// (apple is 1, banana is 2, etc)
public function i_vote_for($fruit) {
	global $MainPluginClass;
		
	// First, we obtain the user's vote history
	$hist = get_user_meta($this->ID, 'myplugin-hist', false);

	// I added this, in case it's a brand-new user with no history
	if (!array($hist)) $hist = array();

	// This is a custom function that returns an int, to count day 1, day 2, etc
	$d = $MainPluginClass->current_date();

	//This is the part where I'm scrathcing my head.
	//I've tried $hist[$d][] = $fruit;
	//I've tried $hist[] = array ($d, fruit);
	$hist[0][] = $fruit;		
	update_user_meta($this->ID, 'myplugin-hist', $hist);     
	// the $this->ID is a shorthand in my plugin for get_current_user...       
}
    • This topic was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by jd-fb.
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • No need to explicitly fetch an array, you can do it like this
    $hist = get_user_meta($this->ID, 'myplugin-hist', true);
    or else the meta value will be wrapped in another array.

    This is not the condition you want to check,
    if (!array($hist))
    change it to,
    if (!is_array($hist))

    Finally, store your value like this,
    $hist[$d] = $fruit;

    Lets put this all together,

    // This function receives the (int)$fruit vote from another function
// (apple is 1, banana is 2, etc)
public function i_vote_for($fruit) {
	global $MainPluginClass;
		
	// First, we obtain the user's vote history
	$hist = get_user_meta($this->ID, 'myplugin-hist', true);

	// I added this, in case it's a brand-new user with no history
	if (!is_array($hist)) $hist = array();

	// This is a custom function that returns an int, to count day 1, day 2, etc
	$d = $MainPluginClass->current_date();

	//This is the part where I'm scrathcing my head.
	$hist[$d] = $fruit;		
	update_user_meta($this->ID, 'myplugin-hist', $hist);     
	// the $this->ID is a shorthand in my plugin for get_current_user...       
}
    Thread Starter jd-fb

    (@jd-fb)

    Thanks for the info.
    I do a var_dump of the array after saving it, and I’m still getting variations of

    array(
	array(
		day 1=>apple
		day 2=>banana
		day 3=>orange
	)
)

    (An array inside of an array. This makes it difficult to use foreach to iterate through the data.)

    I’ve just re-read the Codex for add_user_meta, and it looks like I could use that to add multiple lines to the database with my myplugin-hist meta key. If I use add_user_meta with $unique set to false, then WP adds my meta key as many times as I need.

    I think I’ll try that to see how it works.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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