WordPress - User Query - Order by Meta Value - wordpress

Question

I am trying to use a WordPress User Query to create a list of users that is ordered by a custom meta value. Its a simple numeric value, going from 1 to 100, so 1 needs to be displayed first, 100 last, etc.
This is my attempt, which has failed miserably:
<?php
$args = array(
'role' => 'Author',
'meta_key' => 'order-number',
'orderby' => 'order-number',
'order' => 'asc',
);
$wp_user_query = new WP_User_Query($args);
$authors = $wp_user_query->get_results();
if (!empty($authors))
{
echo '<div style="float:left;">';
foreach ($authors as $author)
{
$author_info = get_userdata($author->ID);
echo '<div class="post team-member"><div class="image">';
echo get_avatar( $author_info->ID, 91 );
echo '</div>';
echo '<div class="content"><div class="title">' . $author_info->user_firstname . ' ' . $author_info->user_lastname . '</div>';
echo '' . substr( get_the_author_meta('user_description',$author_info->ID) , 0 , 100 ) . '...';
echo '</div></div>';
}
echo '</div>';
} else {
echo 'No authors found';
}
?>
I think the problem is that wp_user_query does not support custom fields in orderby - so I need a solution that works around this.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Correct. The orderby parameter can only accept possible values of 'login' (default), 'nicename', 'email', 'url', and 'registered'.
A dirty fix would be something like this:
<?php
global $wpdb; //Ignore this line if you're not within a function
$order = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT DISTINCT user_id FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE meta_key='order-number' ORDER BY meta_value ASC", "ARRAY_N");
$authors = array();
foreach($order as $aid)
$authors[] = new WP_User($aid[0]);
if (!empty($authors))
{
echo '<div style="float:left;">';
foreach ($authors as $author)
{
$author_info = get_userdata($author->ID);
echo '<div class="post team-member"><div class="image">';
echo get_avatar( $author_info->ID, 91 );
echo '</div>';
echo '<div class="content"><div class="title">' . $author_info->user_firstname . ' ' . $author_info->user_lastname . '</div>';
echo '' . substr( get_the_author_meta('user_description',$author_info->ID) , 0 , 100 ) . '...';
echo '</div></div>';
}
echo '</div>';
} else {
echo 'No authors found';
}
This is largely untested, so I can't guarantee this will work straight out of the gate, but it should get you started.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

<?php
// prepare arguments this is your query.
$args = array(
'meta_key' => 'last_name',
'query_id' => 'wps_last_name',
);
// Create the WP_User_Query object
$author_query = new WP_User_Query( $args );
?>
Add following lines to functions.php file
<?php
add_action( 'pre_user_query', 'wps_pre_user_query' );
/*
* Modify the WP_User_Query appropriately
*
* Checks for the proper query to modify and changes the default user_login for $wpdb->usermeta.meta_value
*
* #param WP_User_Query Object $query User Query object before query is executed
*/
function wps_pre_user_query( &$query ) {
global $wpdb;
if ( isset( $query->query_vars['query_id'] ) && 'wps_last_name' == $query->query_vars['query_id'] )
$query->query_orderby = str_replace( 'user_login', "$wpdb->usermeta.meta_value", $query->query_orderby );
}
?>