Merging post data from post ID on edit screen WordPress

Arnav Joy answers:

Hello Andrew,
Cam you please show me these live in action somewhere?
I mean if you can share url etc.

Also please share code that you are using so far.

Andrea P answers:

I would suggest adding a button to the "pending" cpt, with an AJAX call to run the "merge" logic.
Then I would avoid auto-bin, because when the ajax comes back successful you can double check the "person" post and manually bin the "pending" post you just merged. it's safer and it's an easy flow.

this good tutorial explains step by step how to make a mini plugin which adds a button connected to an ajax call:
https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-use-ajax-in-wordpress-a-real-world-example/

the tutorial basic structure is basically the same as what you need. with these differences:

1- the tutorial adds the button to the frontend content, you need it in backend. so instead of using these 2 hooks
add_filter( 'the_excerpt', array( $this, 'rml_button' ) );
add_filter( 'the_content', array( $this, 'rml_button' ) );
you should add the button to this hook:
add_action( 'post_submitbox_misc_actions', array( $this, 'rml_button' ) );

2- then you also have to load the scripts to the admin. And you don't need to load any styles for your purpose. So at the beginning, remove the register/enqueue related to the styles and then modify this hook:
add_action( ‘plugins_loaded’, array( $this, 'enqueue_rml_scripts' ) );
so that it's like this:
add_action( ‘admin_enqueue_scripts’, array( $this, 'enqueue_rml_scripts' ) );
and you could also just put the register_scripts() and wp_enqueue_scripts() in the same function enqueue_rml_scripts() so you can tidy up a bit those things

3- also modify the function for printing the button so that it adds the source post id as well as the current post
public function rml_button( $post ) {

if( get_post_type() == 'pending' ) {
echo '<div id="merging-actions"><a href="#" class="rml_bttn" data-id="' . $post->ID. '" data-source="'. get_post_meta($post->ID, 'sourcepost') .'">Merge</a></div>';
}
}


4- modify the js so that it pulls the ids from the button and pass them to ajax. (and also change the ajax action name to something that makes more sense for you)
jQuery(document).ready( function(){
jQuery('#submitdiv').on('click', 'a.rml_bttn', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
var post_id = jQuery(this).data( 'id' );
var source_id = jQuery(this).data( 'source' );
jQuery.ajax({
url : readmelater_ajax.ajax_url,
type : 'post',
data : {
action : 'merge_survey_to_person',
post_id : post_id,
source_id : source_id
},
success : function( response ) {
jQuery('.rml_contents').html(response);
}
});
jQuery(this).hide();
});
});

5- modify the php action hook entirely. Here is where your plugin will be completely different, but it's basically just one function.
first modify the action name and the function name rather than using "read_me_later":
// Setup Ajax action hook
add_action( 'wp_ajax_merge_survey_to_person', array( $this, 'merge_survey_to_person' ) );
then modify the function read_me_later so that it looks something like this:
public function merge_survey_to_person() {
// get values from the data posted by ajax
$post_id = $_POST['post_id'];
$source_id = $_POST['source_id'];
$source = get_post($source_id);

if (!$source) {
echo "could not find the associated person";
die();
}

// retrieve all your metafields from the "pending" survey post like this
$answer_1 = get_post_meta($post_id, 'answer_1');

// add same metafield to the source post
update_post_meta($source_id, 'answer_1', $answer_1);

// print some success message
echo '<div>Survey successfully merged to Person ID '. $source_id .'</div>';

die();
}

6- Skip the part related to the widget

7- Please do follow the instruction at the end of the tutorial, regarding how to make the ajax call more secure and check nonce referrer etc... And go back and modify my sample code accordingly.


I would suggest to change the naming of functions so that they make sense for you and they don't have the rml_ prefix. I haven't changed them in most of my sample code so that you can easily refer to the tutorial.

Then I think the tutorial is missing a bit where it tells how to actually run-up the logic, because I haven't seen anything that fire the run() method.
In order to do so, you should add something like this at the bottom of your plugin file, after the main class is closed:
(assuming you changed the name of the class from ReadMeLater to MergeSurveyToPerson )

$my_plugin = new MergeSurveyToPerson();
$my_plugin->run();

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