Why does get_post_meta not work with the posts page?

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Looking for a reason why get_post_meta() doesn’t work with home.php. From my reading I understand that it’s a template and not a post or page, per “Custom fields won’t display on my blog page”. The closest page I was able to find from searching was “get_post_meta fields don’t show up on posts page” but alas the answer doesn’t go into detail why. I have coded a custom meta box, it works, for the front_page.php and all custom post types but not within home.php. I am using a conditional is_home() and it works but it seems get_the_ID() doesn’t, the code:

if ( is_home() ) {
    // variables 
    $check_meta     = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'checkbox', true );
    $header_meta    = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'header', true );        
    $textarea_meta  = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'textarea', true );

    // condition
    if ( ( $check_meta == 'yes' ) && !empty( $textarea_meta ) && !empty( $header_meta ) ) {
        // code
    }
}

Why does get_the_ID() appear to not work with get_post_meta() in home.php located in header.php?

Edit:

Per the comments I thought I would edit this question to help someone else in the future. I am setting the the front page and the posts page in Settings -> Reading. The below worked in my conditional for is_home():

$check_meta     = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'checkbox', true );
$header_meta    = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'header', true );        
$textarea_meta  = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'textarea', true );

3 Answers
3

If your posts page is a static page selected under Settings > Reading > Front page displays, then get_queried_object_id() will return the ID for that page which you can use to fetch meta data.

$check_meta     = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'checkbox', true );
$header_meta    = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'header', true );        
$textarea_meta  = get_post_meta( get_queried_object_id(), 'textarea', true );

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