get_post_meta() returning data inconsistently

[paddelboot]

Issue Overview

Code in file 1 ( p() is my debug function):

    $associatedClient = \get_post_meta( $project->ID, 'pci_project_client', TRUE );

    p( $project->ID, "ProjectID" );
    p( $associatedClient, "ClientId" );

Output:

ProjectID
260
ClientId
6

Code in file 2:

    $AssociatedClient = \get_post_meta( $ProjectId, 'pci_project_client', TRUE );

    p( $ProjectId, "ProjectID" );
    p( $associatedClient, "ClientId" );

Output:

ProjectID
260
ClientId
Array
(
   [ID] => 6
   ....
)

Expected Behavior

get_post_meta() should only ever query the provided key.

Current Behavior

Once, get_post_meta() returns the correct value of the provided key (pci_project_client), another time it returns the value of _pods_pci_project_client

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

?

Possible Solution

?

WordPress Environment

``` WordPress Version: 4.9.8

PHP Version: 7.2.9-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1

MySQL Version: 5.7.23

Server Software: Apache/2.4.34 (Ubuntu)

Your User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:61.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/61.0

Session Save Path: /var/lib/php/sessions

Session Save Path Exists: Yes

Session Save Path Writeable: Yes

Session Max Lifetime: 1440

Opcode Cache:

Apc: No
Memcached: No
OPcache: Yes
Redis: No

Object Cache:

APC: No
APCu: No
Memcache: No
Memcached: No
Redis: No

WPDB Prefix: nx24_2_

WP Multisite Mode: Yes

WP Memory Limit: 64M

Pods Network-Wide Activated: Yes

Pods Install Location: /media/Entwicklung/Entwicklung.xxx/www/v2/wp-content/plugins/pods/

Pods Tableless Mode Activated: No

Pods Light Mode Activated: No

Currently Active Theme: xxx Interface Theme

Currently Active Plugins:

xxx Interface: 0.8.3Beta
Pods - Custom Content Types and Fields: 2.7.9

</details>

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[paddelboot]

For now, to get consistent return values, I need to

$AssociatedClientId = is_array( $AssociatedClient ) ? intval( $AssociatedClient[ 'ID' ] ) : intval( $AssociatedClient );

[quasel]

any special reason you use get_post_meta() with $single set to TRUE ? just using the default might fix your issue. Still it should return the same in your case!

Any other code in File 1 or 2 that interferes with pods? as something must be different as code not randomly creates two different outputs - we need just to find out what's different

_pods_pci_project_client stores the relationship information in one key as internal backup
pci_project_client is one meta_value per related item…

pods itself uses https://pods.io/docs/database-reference/database-storage-relationship-fields/ to query that information! (we take care of that even if you use get_post_meta() for performance reasons!

[paddelboot]

any special reason you use get_post_meta() with $single set to TRUE

So the function returns a singular value instead of an array. pci_project_client is a singular value.

(we take care of that even if you use get_post_meta() for performance reasons!

What does that mean?

[sc0ttkclark]

What does p() do exactly?

[sc0ttkclark]

FYI for reference, our get_post_meta integration runs through here:

https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/blob/2.x/classes/PodsMeta.php#L3009

[sc0ttkclark]

At first glance, it's possible calling get_post_meta() the first time, primes the cache incorrectly. We'll want to check that out and see if we can confirm that.

[paddelboot]

What does p() do exactly?

It's just a wrapper for <pre> print_r() </pre>.

FYI for reference, our get_post_meta integration runs through here:

That method looks intense! If I find the time, I might try to take a closer look at it.

At first glance, it's possible calling get_post_meta() the first time, primes the cache incorrectly. We'll want to check that out and see if we can confirm that.

Thanks a lot.

[quasel]

Any finding's? as it seems to work in a quick test - but maybe you used a different configuration? can you share your config? any caching active? Or it's multisite related just realized I tested it in a single install

[JoryHogeveen]

Related: #3614