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Posted by Don Macarthur
Don Macarthur
28,430 Points

Adding href to HTML a tag from Custom Post Type

Hi guys,

I've created a custom post type using Custom Post Types UI and Advanced Custom Fields in order to add links to videos to a page.

In order to do it I've created a Custom Field of type text for the URL for the relevant video, with the field named video_link.

I'm having trouble getting this to create an href inside my a tag.

The way I am trying to code it is:-

<?php echo '<a href="' . the_field("video_link") . '">Video Link</a>'; ?>

All this does is write the actual url to my document, followed by "Video Link" which works as a link, but does not have an active href. ie the document shows www.youtube.comVideoLink

When I inspect the document the html which is being generated is:

"www.youtube.com"
<a href>Video Link</a>

I really can't figure this one out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Don

2 Answers

Bruno Navarrete
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Bruno Navarrete
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 22,246 Points
Bruno Navarrete
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Bruno Navarrete
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 22,246 Points

I'm pretty sure you're not calling it right, go with get_post_meta(), something like:

<?php echo '<a href="' . get_post_meta($post->ID,"video_link",true) . '">Video Link</a>'; ?>

You can also make it a little more readable like this:

<?php $video_link =  get_post_meta($post->ID,"video_link",true); 
    echo '<a href="' . $video_link . '">Video Link</a>';
?>
Don Macarthur
Don Macarthur
28,430 Points

Hey Bruno,

Thanks for the reply.

That's close, but when I click the link it navigates to a url which is just the current page url with the $video_link url appended.

Any ideas?

Thanks again Don

Bruno Navarrete
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Bruno Navarrete
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 22,246 Points
Bruno Navarrete
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Bruno Navarrete
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 22,246 Points

Don Macarthur are you using it inside of the loop? If so, make sure your post has a value associated with the video_link custom field. If not, replace $post->ID with the post ID of the post you're trying to get the custom field from.

Don Macarthur
Don Macarthur
28,430 Points
Don Macarthur
Don Macarthur
28,430 Points

Hi Bruno,

I figured it out. I didn't have the full url including "http://", just from "www." onwards. What a noob...... :-)

Thanks for your help Don