Wordpress meta query not working with dynamic parameters - wordpress

Question

I'm trying to make a call using a custom end-point to one custom post type on my project.
I'm passing dynamic parameters to that function-
// $per_page = $_GET['per_page'];
// $page = $_GET['page'];
$per_page = 18;
$page = 1;
$type = $_GET['type'];
$order = $_GET['order'];
// $houseType = $_GET['houseType'];
$houseType = 'Terreno';
$houseState = $_GET['houseState'];
$houseArea = $_GET['houseArea'];
$housePrice = $_GET['housePrice'];
$houseRooms = $_GET['houseRooms'];
// $houseProp = $_GET['houseProp'];
$houseProp = 'venda';
$meta_query = array();
if( $houseProp ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'tipo_de_operacao',
'value' => $houseProp,
'compare' => '=',
);
}
if ( $houseType ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'tipo_de_imovel',
'value' => $houseType,
'compare' => '=',
);
}
if ( $houseState ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'estado_do_imovel',
'value' => $houseState,
'compare' => '=',
);
}
if ( $houseArea ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'area_bruta',
'value' => $houseArea[0],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '>'
);
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'area_bruta',
'value' => $houseArea[1],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '<'
);
}
if ( $housePrice ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'preco',
'value' => $housePrice[0],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '>'
);
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'preco',
'value' => $housePrice[1],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '<'
);
}
if ( $houseRooms ) {
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'quartos',
'value' => $houseRooms[0],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '>'
);
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'quartos',
'value' => $houseRooms[1],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '<'
);
}
if ( $type == "preco") {
$orderBy = array(
'meta_key' => $type,
'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
'order' => $order,
);
} else {
$orderBy = array(
'orderby' => array(
'date' => $order,
'menu_order'=> $order,
)
);
}
$args = array_merge($orderBy, array(
'post_type' => 'imoveis',
'posts_per_page' => $per_page,
'paged' => $page,
'meta_query' => $meta_query,
));
// get posts
$posts = get_posts($args);
The problem is that the $meta_query is not working...
If I pass only 1 parameter (houseProp), I can make that work with $meta_query[0], but if I pass more parameters it does not return anything.
What am I doing wrong?
EDIT:
I was able to see that I need to update my post on the backend (by pressing the update button).
I'm creating a post like this:
$post_id = wp_insert_post(array(
'post_title' => $house->InfoGeral->SubTipoImovel,
'post_type' => 'imoveis',
'post_content' => $description[0],
'post_status' => 'publish')
);
and filling the ACF custom fields like this:
update_field('field_5d230e2057fa5', $ref, $post_id);
what could possibly be the error?

Answer 1

When you use $meta_query it uses the 'relation' attribute and is defaulted to 'AND'. For example, when you set it up with one parameter, like your example:
$meta_query[] = array(
'key' => 'tipo_de_operacao',
'value' => $houseProp,
'compare' => '=',
);
You are really setting it to look like:
$meta_query = array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'tipo_de_operacao',
'value' => $houseProp,
'compare' => '=',
)
);
So now when you add a bunch of other parameters, it really looks like this:
$meta_query = array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'tipo_de_operacao',
'value' => $houseProp,
'compare' => '=',
),
array(
'key' => 'area_bruta',
'value' => $houseArea[0],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '>'
),
array(
'key' => 'area_bruta',
'value' => $houseArea[1],
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => '<'
)
);
So my guess is you are starting to really narrow your results down to this AND that AND this other thing, which is probably too restrictive. You can change the relation attribute to 'OR', if that is your goal, or attempt to re-code it to be less restrictive.
You can fix this by changing your line of:
$meta_query = array();
to:
$meta_query = array( 'relation' => 'OR' );
and keep everything else the same.