How to update custom fields using the wp_insert_post() function?

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The WordPress function is used for submitting data programatically. Standard fields to submit to incude the content, excerpt, title, date and many more.

What there is no documentation for is how to submit to a custom field. I know it is possible with the add_post_meta($post_id, $meta_key, $meta_value, $unique); function.

But, how to include that into the standard wp_insert_post function?

<?php 
$my_post = array(
     'post_title' => $_SESSION['booking-form-title'],
     'post_date' => $_SESSION['cal_startdate'],
     'post_content' => 'This is my post.',
     'post_status' => 'publish',
     'post_type' => 'booking',
  );
  wp_insert_post( $my_post );
  ?>

5

If you read the documentation for wp_insert_post, it returns the post ID of the post you just created.

If you combine that with the following function __update_post_meta (a custom function I acquired from this site and adapted a bit)

/**
  * Updates post meta for a post. It also automatically deletes or adds the value to field_name if specified
  *
  * @access     protected
  * @param      integer     The post ID for the post we're updating
  * @param      string      The field we're updating/adding/deleting
  * @param      string      [Optional] The value to update/add for field_name. If left blank, data will be deleted.
  * @return     void
  */
public function __update_post_meta( $post_id, $field_name, $value="" )
{
    if ( empty( $value ) OR ! $value )
    {
        delete_post_meta( $post_id, $field_name );
    }
    elseif ( ! get_post_meta( $post_id, $field_name ) )
    {
        add_post_meta( $post_id, $field_name, $value );
    }
    else
    {
        update_post_meta( $post_id, $field_name, $value );
    }
}

You’ll get the following:

$my_post = array(
    'post_title' => $_SESSION['booking-form-title'],
    'post_date' => $_SESSION['cal_startdate'],
    'post_content' => 'This is my post.',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'post_type' => 'booking',
);
$the_post_id = wp_insert_post( $my_post );


__update_post_meta( $the_post_id, 'my-custom-field', 'my_custom_field_value' );

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