I recently read this tutorial about custom fields in WordPress and wrote a simple plug-in to provide a metabox with a set of input fields.
I do not use the Meta Box plug-in promoted on the web site.
My implementation for the save_post hook is as follows:
function save_my_data( $post_id ) {
if ( defined( 'DOING_AUTOSAVE' ) && DOING_AUTOSAVE ) {
return;
}
if ( get_post_status( $post_id ) === 'auto-draft' ) {
return;
}
if ( $parent_id = wp_is_post_revision( $post_id ) ) {
$post_id = $parent_id;
}
$fields = array( 'foo', 'bar' );
foreach ( $fields as $field ) {
if ( array_key_exists( $field, $_POST ) ) {
update_post_meta( $post_id, $field, sanitize_text_field( $_POST[ $field ] ) );
}
}
}
add_action( 'save_post', 'save_my_data' );
The tutorial mentions two aspects that I'm stuck with, because they simply redirect to their own plug-in solutions:
- Auto-save: WordPress auto-saves a post every 60 seconds while editing, as I learned in the tutorial. The draft is kept in a temporary database entry and deleted within 7 days. Custom fields, however, are not auto-saved.
How can I auto-save my custom fields as well and make sure that they are cleaned-up properly, if I abandon a draft?
- Revisions: Later on, the tutorial mentions that every now and then a revision of a blog post is created. Here again, custom fields are not stored in the revisions. And again, they refer to one of their commercial plug-ins.
How can I make sure, my metadata is stored in the revisions, too?
Basically, what I'm asking for is whether there is a best practice and WordPress offers any tools to store data in drafts/revisions or whether all plug-in developer have to come up with their own solutions.