In the previous part of this series, we learned how to create relationships with several page builders. However, if you don’t want to use them, you still can create and display the relationship between two objects on your website with the help of MB Relationships and MB Views from Meta Box. In this practice, we’ll create a bi-directional relationship between Courses and Instructors post type and show them on the page.

This is an archive page for example. It includes a list of courses and the name of instructors who contributed to each course.

archive page includes a list of courses and the name of instructors who contributed to each course.

Video Version

Before Getting Started

We have two separate custom post types: Courses and Instructors. In this case, the relationship is to link the courses to their instructors, and also link each instructor to the courses to which they contributed. These relationships will be shown on both the singular page of each post type and the archive page for Courses.

So, we need the Meta Box core plugin to have a framework to create custom post types, custom fields, and relationships. It’s free and available on wordpress.org.

For advanced features, we also need some Meta Box extensions as follows:

  • MB Custom Post Type: to create custom post types for the courses and instructors;
  • MB Relationships: to create relationships between these post types;
  • MB Views: to create the pages and their template for relationships;
  • Meta Box Builder: to have an intuitive UI on the backend to create custom fields and relationships;
  • MB Admin Columns (optional): to display the related courses and related instructors in the dashboard.

You can install these extensions individually or use Meta Box AIO to have them all.

Create New Custom Post Types

Go to Meta Box > Post Types to create a new post type for the instructors, and another one for the courses.

Go to Meta Box > Post Types to create a new custom post type for the instructors, and another one for the courses.

After publishing, you will see your new post types in the Admin Dashboard.

your new custom post types in the Admin Dashboard

Create Custom Fields

If you need to save some extra information for each post type, just go to Meta Box > Custom Fields > Add New to create custom fields as usual. In this case, I just create some for the courses as follows.

Meta Box > Custom Fields > Add New to create custom fields

After creating all the wanted fields, go to the Settings tab, set the Location as Post type, and select the Course to apply created fields to it.

go to the Settings tab, set the Location as Post type, and select the Course to apply created custom fields to it

Create Relationships

Go to Meta Box > Relationships to create the relationships between the Courses and Instructors post types.

Go to Meta Box > Relationships to create the relationships between the Courses and Instructors post types.

There’ll be the From and To section to set the relationship.

the From and To section to set the relationship

Because we’re setting the relationship between 2 post types, set the Object Type as Post in both two sections.

set the Object Type as Post in both two sections

In the Post type option, choose the post type you want to create a relationship. The relationship is bidirectional, so you can put the post types not in order. For example, I set the Instructor in the From section, and the rest is Course.

In the Post type option, choose the post type you want to create a relationship I set the Instructor in the From section, and the rest is Course

Because I activated the MB Admin Columns extension before, I have this option in both two sections of the relationship’s settings.

the option in both two sections of the relationship’s settings

Check that box to show which courses are related to the post of an instructor and vice versa.

Check that box to show which courses are related to the post of an instructor and vice versa

In the Field tab, you can set the label for the relationship section that shows in the post editor.

In the Field tab, you can set the label for the relationship section that shows in the post editor

That’s all to set the relationship. Go to a post editor of the Course post type, there’ll be a box at the right sidebar to choose which instructors are related to the current post. It displays as a field, this will make sense when you get posts from this field in the next step. You can select several courses in the section.

there’ll be a box at the right sidebar to choose which instructors are related to the current post You can select several courses in the section

It’ll be the same when you add related courses for an instructor.

the box to add related courses for an instructor

In the dashboard, all the information will display like this.

In the dashboard, all the information will display like this

Display the Relationship

In this practice, we’ll display this relationship on both singular pages of the Course post type and Instructor post type, also on the archive page where all the courses are listed.

Display the Relationship on the Singular Page of Instructors

This is an example of the Instructor post type. It shows detailed information about one instructor. There will be a section to show all the courses that the instructor contributed to.

example shows detailed information about one instructor and a section to show all the courses that the instructor contributed to.

To create the template for the singular page of Instructors, go to Views in Meta Box and create a new one.

go to Views in Meta Box and create the template for the singular page of Instructors,

In the Template tab, you can add some code or insert fields from the list in the right sidebar.

In the Template tab, you can add some code or insert fields from the list in the right sidebar.

First, choose the Post title to get the name of the instructor.

choose the Post title to get the name of the instructor

Then, choose Post content to get detailed information about the instructor.

choose Post content to get detailed information about the instructor

Next, we’ll create a section to display a list of courses contributed by this instructor. It’s the relationship that we want. So we will get posts following the created relationships.

Move on to the Query tab. There is the name of the relationship that we created.

Move on to the Query tab. There is the name of the relationship that we created

We’re creating a template for the Instructor singular page, so choose the Connect To option. It is the name of the field for the relationship when you edit a post in the Instructor post type.

choose the Connect To option, it is the name of the field for the relationship when you edit a post in the Instructor post type.

There are some lines of code display.

Explanation:

  • {% set relationship = attribute( relationships, 'instructor-to-course' ) %}: to query the posts following the relationship;
  • {% for post in relationship.to %}: this loop helps to list the posts because there will be multiple posts.

To display each post's information, just insert some fields as usual inside this loop.

Choose the Post thumbnail to show a featured image of the course.

Choose the Post thumbnail to show a featured image of the course

Next, choose the Post title to get the name of the course.

choose the Post title to get the name of the course

I have some extra information about the course that saves in custom fields. They’re type, date, place, and price. Just choose them one by one.

choose type, date, place, and price

After getting all of the information of the posts as you want, move to the Settings section of the view, set the Type as Singular, and choose the name of the post type as Instructor in Location.

move to the Settings section of the view, set the Type as Singular, and choose the name of the post type as Instructor in Location.

Go to a page that shows any instructor information, you will see the posts displayed like this.

the information displayes

To have a better look for the page, go back to the created template, add some div tags and classes for each information.

add some div tags and classes for each information

Then add some CSS.

add some CSS

Back to the page on frontend, the new look has been done.

the final look of the Singular Page of Instructors

Display the Relationship on the Singular Page of Courses

We’ll show each course information and the instructor who contributed to them on the page. It uses the relationship we created.

the page show each course information and the instructor who contributed to

Go to Views and create another template. Do likewise with the singular page of the Instructor.

Go to Views and create another template

Just choose the fields from the list on the right sidebar to display the course’s information.

First, choose the Post thumbnail to show a featured image of the course.

choose the Post thumbnail to show a featured image of the course

Then choose the Post title, Post content, even the information in the custom fields such as Type, Date, Place, and Price.

choose the Post title, Post content, even the information in the custom fields such as Type, Date, Place, and Price

To display information about the related instructor, I also use the Query tab, and choose the Connect From option. It’s this option because the field for the relationship in the Course’s post editor has that name.

use the Query tab to display information about the related instructor, and choose the Connect From option

It also may have more than one related instructor, so there is a loop. Insert fields inside this loop to display the instructor information.

In this case, I choose only the Post title to have the name of the instructors.

choose the Post title to have the name of the instructors

Also set the Type and Location for the view to apply it to the singular page of the Course post type.

set the Type and Location for the view to apply it to the singular page of the Course post type.

All of the information displayed.

All of the information displayed

Back to the created template, also add some div tags and classes.

add some div tags and classes

Then add some CSS.

add some CSS

And this is the result.

the final look of the singular page of course

 

Display the Relationship on an Archive Page

We’ll create an archive page showing all the courses. On the page, we also display the instructor who contributed to each course.

archive page showing all the courses and display the instructor who contributed to each course.

Move to Pages > Add New to create a new page as usual.

Move to Pages > Add New to create a new page as usual

To create the template for this page, go to Views in Meta Box and create a new one.

go to Views in Meta Box and create a new template

In the Template tab, insert the Post title field to display the page's title.

In the Template tab, insert the Post title field to display the page's title.

For the section that displays the course’s information, add this code.

For the section that displays the course’s information, add this code

{% set args = { post_type: 'course', posts_per_page: -1, order: 'DESC'} %}
{% set posts = mb.get_posts( args ) %}
{% for post in posts %}

{% endfor %}

Explanation:

  • {% set args = { post_type: 'course', posts_per_page: -1, order: 'DESC'} %}: is to declare that we’ll get all of the posts from the post type that has the slug as course;
  • mb.get_posts(): this function is to get posts;
  • {% for post in posts %}: this loop helps to display all the posts.

Let’s get and display the course’s information as usual by inserting some fields from the list on the right sidebar into this loop. These all things are the information from the post’s default fields and custom fields.

get and display the course’s information as usual by inserting some fields from the list on the right sidebar into this loop

For the related instructors that store in the relationship field, we use the following code:

[instructor_list courseid={{post.ID}}]

For the related instructors that store in the relationship field, we use the following code

It is to list all the instructors related to a course that is defined by ID. However, it hasn’t worked yet. We should declare this shortcode in the theme file later to activate it.

Scroll down to the Settings section of the views, choose the location as Page, and choose the Courses.

Scroll down to the Settings section of the views, choose the location as Page, and choose the Courses

Go to the page on frontend, you will see that there is no instructor name displayed since we haven’t activated the mentioned shortcode.

no instructor name displayed since we haven’t activated the mentioned shortcode

You can go to the theme file and add code directly or use a third-party plugin, for example, Code Snippets.

Go to Snippets, add a new one, and add code to the Function tab.

Go to Snippets, add a new one, and add code to the Function tab

add_shortcode( 'instructor_list', function ($atts) {
    extract( shortcode_atts( array(
        'courseid' =>''
        ), $atts));
    ob_start();
    $connected = new WP_Query( [
        'relationship' => [
            'id' => 'instructor-to-course',
            'to'  => $courseid,
        ],

]);

$resultstr = array();
if( $connected->have_posts() ): while ( $connected->have_posts() ) : $connected->the_post();
        $resultstr[] = '<a href="'.get_the_permalink().'">'.get_the_title().'</a>';
    endwhile; endif;
    echo implode(", ",$resultstr);
    wp_reset_postdata();
    return ob_get_clean();
} );

Explanation:

$connected = new WP_Query( [
    'relationship' => [
        'id' => 'instructor-to-course',
        'to'  => $courseid,
],

These code are to stipulate that we will get data from the relationship that connects to the current post and has the instructor-to-course ID.

$resultstr = array();
    if( $connected->have_posts() ): while ( $connected->have_posts() ) : $connected->the_post();
        $resultstr[] = '<a href="'.get_the_permalink().'">'.get_the_title().'</a>';
    endwhile; endif;
    echo implode(", ",$resultstr);
    wp_reset_postdata();
    return ob_get_clean();

These ones to check if there is any data from the relationship field, we will get the title of the instructor and its permalink.

Go back to the archive page on the frontend, the name of the instructors displayed.

Go back to the archive page on the frontend, the name of the instructors displayed

To style this page, go back to the view. Add some div tags and classes.

Add some div tags and classesto style the page

Then add some CSS code.

add some CSS code

This is the new look for the page.

the final look of the archive page

I uploaded all of these codes which I used for this practice on Github, so you can refer to them.

Last Words

With MB Views, it’s a convenient and quick way to create relationships anywhere on your site no matter what theme or builders you are using. Let’s try and enjoy it. If you want to suggest any tutorials, feel free to leave a comment and keep track of our blog. Thanks for reading!

4 thoughts on “How to Create Relationships - P3 - Using MB Views

  1. Good article. Thanks! The "to" and "from" still confuse me occasionally when I'm using relationships. My first instinct is almost always to pick the wrong one (such as when creating a view or custom block), and then I have to go back and swap it.

    1. I find myself often using taxonomies instead of relationships, solely so that I can more easily use the Query Loop block in the Block Editor, and filter by taxonomy.

    2. Also, instead of creating the snippet for the Course Archive Shortcode, could you also just create an MB View and use it's shortcode or include it in another view?

    1. Hi Brandon,

      That's right about the shortcode. Using MB Views seems better if users are familiar with it.

  2. Hello MB team,

    do you have any resource how to get the "instructor list" (multiple values out of a relationship) in more detail and with MB Views?

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