Question

I added a content rating system to my platform where the authors can select which audience their post is appropriate for. Currently, these options are available:

• Unrated
• G
• PG
• R

The code that I use to display the rating options on the post edit page is:

// Article Content Rating
add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'rating_select_box' );
function rating_select_box() {
    add_meta_box(
        'rating_select_box', // id, used as the html id att
        __( 'Content Rating (optional)' ), // meta box title
        'rating_select_cb', // callback function, spits out the content
        'post', // post type or page. This adds to posts only
        'side', // context, where on the screen
        'low' // priority, where should this go in the context
    );

}

function rating_select_cb( $post ) {
    global $wpdb;
    $value = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'rating', true);
    echo '<div class="misc-pub-section misc-pub-section-last"><span id="timestamp"><label>Article Content Rating: </label>';

    $ratings = array(
        1 => ' G ',
        2 => ' PG ',
        3 => ' R ',
    );

    echo '<select name="rating">';
    echo '<option value=""' . ((($value == '') || !isset($ratings[$value])) ? ' selected="selected"' : '') . '> Unrated </option>';

    // output each rating as an option
    foreach ($ratings as $id => $text) {
        echo '<option value="' . $id . '"' . (($value == $id) ? ' selected="selected"' : '') . '">' . $text. '</option>';
    }
    echo '</select>';

    echo '</span></div>';
}

add_action( 'save_post', 'save_metadata');

function save_metadata($postid)
{   
    if ( defined( 'DOING_AUTOSAVE' ) && DOING_AUTOSAVE ) return false;
    if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_page', $postid ) ) return false;
    if( empty($postid) ) return false;


    if ( is_null($_REQUEST["rating"]) ) {
        delete_post_meta($postid, 'rating');
    } else {
        update_post_meta($postid, 'rating', $_REQUEST['rating']);
    }

}
// END Article Content Rating

Now, the problem is, what code do I add to single.php to display their choice? So for instance, if the author selected PG, then I want to echo 'Content Rating: PG'; or if it was on default (unrated), I want to echo 'Content Rating: Unrated';. How is this possible? Ideally, a solution that is light on the server as my platform is heavily trafficked.

Answer 1

You already use the delete_post_meta() and update_post_meta() functions to remove and modify the custom values. Simply use the get_post_meta() function to obtain the value for the current post, and echo it out as you see fit.

If you’re in The Loop, it would be something like:

$rating = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'rating', TRUE);

Edit:

You already know your ID to rating mapping (I might make this mapping a global array, or some defines, or something similar). Simply use that to look up the string to output:

$ratings = array(
    1 => 'G',
    2 => 'PG',
    3 => 'R'
);

if(array_key_exists($rating, $ratings)) {
    echo "Content Rating: $ratings[$rating]";
} else {
    echo "Content Rating: Unrated";
}