Automatically select parent page if custom field equals page title

Question

Is it possible to automatically set/select a parent page on page creation when a custom field and page title are equal?

Example:

I have the following page hierarchy:

• Providers
  • Provider Page (Page title = user1)
    • Provider Package

When a new page is created, and the custom field value is “user1” and there is a page with the title “user1”. Then the Provider Page, in this case “user1”, should automatically be set as the parent for the page that is created (Provider Package page).

I hope it is a bit clear because it is quite difficult to explain I notice myself.

Is such a thing possible?

Answer 1

You can achieve this by using post editing hook filters/actions. Like this

 add_action( 'edit_post', 'parentsetter_save_post' );
    function parentsetter_save_post()
    {
      global $post;
      $custom_field=get_post_meta($post->ID,'customfieldname',true);

      if ($custom_field!=''){
        $parent_page=get_page_by_title($custom_field);
        if (!empty($parent_page) and $post->post_parent!=$parent_page->ID){
            global $wpdb;
            $wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("update $wpdb->posts set post_parent=%d 
            where ID=%d",$parent_page->ID,$post->ID));
          }
      }
    }

Just replace "customfieldname" with your custom field name and it will work.