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@brenna
Last active December 26, 2022 23:29
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WordPress function to auto-populate a taxonomy with a custom post type's entries.
function custom_tax_init(){
//set some options for our new custom taxonomy
$args = array(
'label' => __( 'My Custom Taxonomy' ),
'hierarchical' => true,
'capabilities' => array(
// allow anyone editing posts to assign terms
'assign_terms' => 'edit_posts',
/* but you probably don't want anyone
* except admins messing with what
* gets auto-generated! */
'edit_terms' => 'administrator'
)
);
// create the custom taxonomy and attach it to a custom post type
register_taxonomy( 'my-taxonomy', 'post-type-A', $args);
}
add_action( 'init', 'custom_tax_init' );
function update_custom_terms($post_id) {
// only update terms if it's a post-type-B post
if ( 'post-type-B' != get_post_type($post_id)) {
return;
}
// don't create or update terms for system generated posts
if (get_post_status($post_id) == 'auto-draft') {
return;
}
/*
* Grab the post title and slug to use as the new
* or updated term name and slug
*/
$term_title = get_the_title($post_id);
$term_slug = get_post( $post_id )->post_name;
/*
* Check if a corresponding term already exists by comparing
* the post ID to all existing term descriptions.
*/
$existing_terms = get_terms('my-taxonomy', array(
'hide_empty' => false
)
);
foreach($existing_terms as $term) {
if ($term->description == $post_id) {
//term already exists, so update it and we're done
wp_update_term($term->term_id, 'my-taxonomy', array(
'name' => $term_title,
'slug' => $term_slug
)
);
return;
}
}
/*
* If we didn't find a match above, this is a new post,
* so create a new term.
*/
wp_insert_term($term_title, 'my-taxonomy', array(
'slug' => $term_slug,
'description' => $post_id
)
);
}
//run the update function whenever a post is created or edited
add_action('save_post', 'update_custom_terms');
@She-Codes
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This was exactly what I needed thanks so much for sharing!

@fredbradley
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You little legend! This is what I was looking for! :)

@robertirish
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Thanks for this! Elegant solution.

@thethe
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thethe commented Jun 29, 2014

Thanks a lot! Is it possible to auto select this created taxonomy?

@davidallenlewis
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Awesome. But how would one modify this to take into account deleted posts (i.e. delete the corresponding term when the post is deleted). I tried. No luck.

@burnified
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I could see why the auto delete feature was left out. I mean, it would just be another function you could call to do it, but if we're this deep into integration, there's a reason you wouldn't want that to happen. Most of the time it's not a one-way thing.

http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/136103/dynamically-create-remove-terms-in-taxonomy-when-custom-post-type-is-published-t

@dennisaskeland
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One up for auto delete function to be added. And whole snippet moved to a plugin with dynamically changeable CPTs, thumbs up

@opolanco23
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if anyone is interested I wrote a simple addition to this script that will create a custom meta field for your taxonomy, I named it post_id but you can name it whatever you like and have the script save to that custom field instead of the taxonomies description.

@moneya
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moneya commented Jan 29, 2018

Any idea on how to auto-populate a taxonomy with another custom taxonomy entries ?
@dennisaskeland @burnified @brenna

@moneya
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moneya commented Jan 29, 2018

Any idea on how to auto-populate a taxonomy with another custom taxonomy entries ?
@dennisaskeland @burnified

@pcopu
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pcopu commented Nov 19, 2018

For anyone interested, you can auto select the created taxonomy by replacing this code:

wp_insert_term($term_title, 'location', array(
    'slug' => $term_slug,
    'description' => $post_id
    )
);

With this code:

wp_set_object_terms( $post_id, $term_title, $tax, false );

The last argument is to set whether you're appending or replacing. Set it false to replace any currently selected terms.

@badfeather
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I love this solution for generating taxonomy terms based on post types, however I was looking for a solution that didn't rely on term descriptions, since I needed to use those in my theme. I ended up using get_term_meta() and update_term_meta() instead of term descriptions.

Modified function below:

    foreach($existing_terms as $term) {
	$related_post_id = get_term_meta($term->term_id, 'related_post_id', true);
        if ($related_post_id == $post_id) {
            //term already exists, so update it and we're done
            wp_update_term($term->term_id, 'my-taxonomy', array(
                'name' => $term_title,
                'slug' => $term_slug
                )
            );
            return;
        }
    }

    /* 
    * If we didn't find a match above, this is a new post, 
    * so create a new term.
    */
    wp_insert_term($term_title, 'my-taxonomy', array(
        'slug' => $term_slug,
    ) );

    /* 
    * Add term meta to new term 

    */    
    $new_term = get_term_by('slug', $term_slug, 'my-taxonomy');
	if ( $new_term ) {
		update_term_meta($new_term->term_id, 'related_post_id', $post_id);
	}

@samabp
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samabp commented Sep 24, 2019

@badfeather Could you please explain why you had to go this route?

@badfeather
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@samabp Sure. I needed to use category/term descriptions for what they're intended for (writing a description of that category/term). It seemed to make more sense to take advantage of taxonomy term meta to save these relationship ID values, rather than hacking them into the description field.

@samabp
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samabp commented Sep 25, 2019

@badfeather Thanks a lot, makes sense to me.

@caesarsamsi
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Is there a way to use woocommerce product attributes (which is a custom taxonomy) with this code?

Thanks!

@brenna
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Author

brenna commented May 19, 2020

hi @caesarsamsi, I wrote this a very long time ago and am not familiar with woocommerce so I'm not sure if that's possible or not. good luck!

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