Question

I’m currently trying to create a site for TV shows and due to certain wordpress limitations this is becoming a challenge.

However I bypass that with the use of implementing custom meta fields in the functions.php file, now my problem is that I need it to actively create new fields when I submit information in the current field. For example custom metabox names are
(Episode Name="This is It") (Episode Number="1") (Season Number="5")

Instead of having to create all the boxes from the beginning I would like the use Javascript (jQuery) or any solution to automatically create a new set of these 3 boxes
(Episode Name="") (Episode Number="") (Season Number="")
so I can just enter the new information as they come. Thank you in advance for your help!

Note: I have invested too much time into wordpress to just switch to another cms, so that is not an option at this point in time.

Answer 1

from what I understand of your question, you are looking for a simple solution to automate the input process. I have a general idea of what it is you nee to achieve as I have had to do something similar on a brochure type of website.

I have tried answering your question using Jquery, but I find it to increase the amount of text input required when creating your post, there is unfortunately no completely automated method of doing it, but hopefully below would provide you with a solution.

first I found the following plugin: Types – Complete Solution for Custom Fields and Types here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/types/

This allows you to create custom meta feilds when creating a new post/page. The custom feilds are brought added with a perfix of “wpcf-” and then the name of the field, e.g. “Episode Name” becomes “wpcf-episode-name” in the database.

The following is an edit of wordpress’s get_meta function:

function get_specifications(){
    if ( $keys = get_post_custom_keys() ) {
    echo '<div class="entry_specifications">';
    foreach ( (array) $keys as $key ) {
        $keyt = trim($key);
            if ( '_' == $keyt[0] )
            continue;
            $values = array_map('trim', get_post_custom_values($key));
            $value = implode($values,', ');

            //remove "wpcf-"
            $key = str_replace('wpcf-','',$key);

            //convert "-" to a space " "
            $key = str_replace('-',' ',$key);

            //check if it has a value, continue if it does, skip if it doesn't:
            if ($value <> ''){
                echo apply_filters('the_meta_key', "
                <div class='meta_wrapper'>
                    <div class='meta_title'>$key</div>
                    <div class='meta_value'>$value</div>
                </div>\n", $key, $value);
            };

        }

   }
   // echo '</div>'; comment out and remove the line below if you are not using floats in your css
   echo '</div><div class="clear"></div>';
}

In my page.php (or your template-page.php) I have added the following code when/where I want the meta to be produced:

<?php

//check to see if there is meta data, as you only want the meta data on TV Program pages
$met_check = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'wpcf-features', true);

if ($met_check <> ''){ 
//if it has a value, spit out "About EpisodeName" ?>  
    <h2 class="post-title clear">About <?php echo $title ?></h2>

    <?php //perform the function from functions.php and return results:
    echo get_specifications();
}
?>

I’ve styled the result with the following CSS:

.meta_entry {
    clear:both;
}
.meta_title {
    float:left;
    text-transform:capitalize;
    width:200px;
}
.meta_value {
    float:left;
    width:480px;
}

Hope this helps mate!