Visual composer custom query - excluding meta_key - php

Question

I have a custom query that I would like some help converting to visual composer's custom query. Basically, I would like to exclude all posts from displaying in the post grid that have the meta_key: _is_featured_posts and its value as yes.
// WP_Query arguments
$args = array(
'post_type' => array( 'post' ),
'post_status' => array( 'publish' ),
'nopaging' => false,
'posts_per_page' => '12',
'order' => 'DESC',
'orderby' => 'date',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => '_is_ns_featured_post',
'value' => 'yes',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
),
),
);
// The Query
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

There is an alternative solution, it is not recommended but as NOT EXISTS is not working so you can use the following code. I also check the solution given here, but it's not working either.
//to hold the post id which has _is_ns_featured_post => 'yes'
$exclude_id = array();
$args_exclude = array(
'post_type' => array('post'),
'post_status' => array('publish'),
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'meta_query' => array(
array(
'key' => '_is_ns_featured_post',
'value' => 'yes',
),
),
);
$exclude_posts = new WP_Query($args_exclude);
if (!empty($exclude_posts->posts))
{
foreach ($exclude_posts->posts as $post)
{
$exclude_id[] = $post->ID;
}
}
$args = array(
'post_type' => array('post'),
'post_status' => array('publish'),
'nopaging' => false,
'posts_per_page' => '12',
'order' => 'DESC',
'orderby' => 'date',
'post__not_in' => $exclude_id //exclude post_id which has _is_ns_featured_post => 'yes'
);
// The Query
$query = new WP_Query($args);
foreach ($query->posts as $post)
{
print_r($post);
}
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

See: visual composer wordpress query for post grid
Try this:
$args = array(
'post_type' => array( 'post' ),
'post_status' => array( 'publish' ),
'nopaging' => false,
'posts_per_page' => '12',
'order' => 'DESC',
'orderby' => 'date',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => '_is_ns_featured_post',
'value' => 'yes',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
),
),
);
echo http_build_query($args);
// Result:
post_type%5B0%5D=post&post_status%5B0%5D=publish&nopaging=0&posts_per_page=12&order=DESC&orderby=date&meta_query%5Brelation%5D=AND&meta_query%5B0%5D%5Bkey%5D=_is_ns_featured_post&meta_query%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D=yes&meta_query%5B0%5D%5Bcompare%5D=NOT+EXISTS
http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/5c2bc6ddd37a02fc8facf4f227176e262854b92e
I would recommend to avoid use array('post') in case if only one post type, so just use post_type=post&post_status=publish&nopaging=0&posts_per_page=12&order=DESC&orderby=date&meta_query[relation]=and&meta_query[0][key]=_is_ns_featured_post&meta_query[0][value]=yes&meta_query[0][compare]=NOT EXISTS
P.S.
possibly %5B and %5D you will need to convert back to [ and ] via echo urldecode(http_build_query($args));