Meta Box Relationship in Bricks using Posts Query Loop

This Pro tutorial is similar to the recent ACF Relationship in Bricks using Posts Query Loop guide but for Meta Box.

In the past, we covered a somewhat custom requirement in the Meta Box Relationship in Bricks tutorial.

If your requirements are fairly standard, though, i.e., you are looking to show posts connected to a different CPT when viewing single posts of a particular CPT, a query type of your Meta Box relationship does the job. This feature is built into Bricks.

This tutorial covers a different method of showing related posts when using a Meta Box relationship with a posts query type.

A post of Game CPT:

On the front end:

(ignore the numbers in the brackets after post title links; they are post IDs for testing purposes)

‘Review 3’ post:

Step 1

Install and activate Meta Box and Meta Box AIO.

Create both your CPTs. In this example, these are game and review.

Add a few posts of each.

Step 2

Create a Relationship like this:

Step 3

Edit posts of any of your above CPTs and select connected items of the other post type.

Remember that in Meta Box, the relationship is bidirectional by default.

Step 4

Create a single Bricks template for your first CPT (game in the current example) and edit it with Bricks.

Add a template condition to make it apply to singular games.

Add a Section inside its Container, Post Title and Post Content elements.

Add another Section and inside its Container, a h2 Heading having “Related Review” text.

We shall programmatically append “s” to this heading text if there is more than 1 connected review.

Add a Container and inside it a Block. Enable query loop on the Block.

Set Post Type to Reviews.

Enable “Query editor (PHP)”.

Paste:

$connected_reviews = MB_Relationships_API::get_connected( [
    'id'   => 'game-review',
    'from' => get_the_ID(),
] );

$connected_reviews = wp_list_pluck( $connected_reviews, 'ID' ) ?: [0];

return [
  'post__in' => $connected_reviews,
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
];

We are pulling the review posts connected via the specified MB relationship to the current game post, plucking the IDs out and feeding it to post__in query parameter.

Step 5

Set up a template for single review posts similarly.

Query editor (PHP):

$connected_games = MB_Relationships_API::get_connected( [
    'id'   => 'game-review',
    'to' => get_the_ID(),
] );

$connected_games = wp_list_pluck( $connected_games, 'ID' ) ?: [0];

return [
  'post__in' => $connected_games,
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
];

Step 6

Let’s ensure that “s” gets added at the end of “Related Review” and “Related Game” heading text if there are more than one corresponding CPT posts.

Add the following in child theme‘s functions.php or a code snippets plugin:

<?php 

// Add "s" at the end of a specific heading element's text if there is more than 1 related post.
add_filter( 'bricks/element/settings', function( $settings, $element ) {
	if ( $element->id === 'qjnszv' && bricks_render_dynamic_data( '0' ) > 1 || $element->id === 'irgiqx' && bricks_render_dynamic_data( '0' ) > 1 ) {
		$settings['text'] .= 's';
	}
  
	return $settings;
}, 10, 3 );

Do not add the opening PHP tag if the code is being added near the end of child theme’s functions.php.

Replace qjnszv with the Bricks ID of the “Related Review” heading in the Game template.
Replace fjhifr with the Bricks ID of the query loop in that template.

Replace irgiqx with the Bricks ID of the “Related Game” heading in the Review template.
Replace jopxzo with the Bricks ID of the query loop in that template.

Reference

https://docs.metabox.io/extensions/mb-relationships/#getting-connected-items