Suggest Fields is returning string and not array

Developers
1

I am working with the ‘suggest’ field and it is returning a string and not an array of ids.

The documentation says that the return value should be an array. However, like I said I am getting back a comma list of ids as a string. Is this a error in the docs? I want to make sure before I move forward with development.

Thanks.

2

Hey David,

It looks like the docs are incorrect. I checked the code and I believe it’s returning a JSON encoded array of values. You should be able to do this to get an array in php…

$my_array = json_decode( $settings->my_values );

Let me know if that helps. I’ll get the docs updated.

Justin

3

Thanks Justin.

4

Hey Justin, it is not working.
I am using the ‘suggest’ to find tags from a custom taxonomy. That works fine and what is returned is a list of ids separated by a comma. It is not in JSON format…just a string (string ‘9, 7, 4’) and when I apply json_decode() I am getting a null return.
The string value I am getting back is fine as a comma list as I can explode() it, but I want to make sure it is not a bug or other changes will be made to make my code break.
Thanks

5

Hey David,

Sorry about that! At first glance it looked like a JSON encoded array but it is in fact just a comma separated string of the values. I’ve updated the docs to reflect that.

Justin

6

That fine Justin, my biggest concern was to clarify the correct output and not build around the wrong output. Thanks for the quick response.

7

You’re welcome, David!