Wordpress Custom Meta Box Returns Empty? - php

Question

I created a custom meta box (author) for a custom post type (books). The box shows up in the admin fine, but I can't figure out how to display the author in my theme.
This is the code used to create the box:
/**
* Adds a meta box to the post editing screen
*/
function prfx_custom_meta() {
add_meta_box( 'prfx_meta', __( 'Book Author', 'prfx-textdomain' ), 'prfx_meta_callback', 'rabe_books', 'side' );
}
add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'prfx_custom_meta' );
/**
* Outputs the content of the meta box
*/
function prfx_meta_callback( $post ) {
wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'prfx_nonce' );
$prfx_stored_meta = get_post_meta( $post->ID );
?>
<p>
<label for="meta-text" class="prfx-row-title"><?php _e( 'Example Text Input', 'prfx-textdomain' )?></label>
</p>
<?php
}
/**
* Saves the custom meta input
*/
function prfx_meta_save( $post_id ) {
// Checks save status
$is_autosave = wp_is_post_autosave( $post_id );
$is_revision = wp_is_post_revision( $post_id );
$is_valid_nonce = ( isset( $_POST[ 'prfx_nonce' ] ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_POST[ 'prfx_nonce' ], basename( __FILE__ ) ) ) ? 'true' : 'false';
// Exits script depending on save status
if ( $is_autosave || $is_revision || !$is_valid_nonce ) {
return;
}
// Checks for input and sanitizes/saves if needed
if( isset( $_POST[ 'meta-text' ] ) ) {
update_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta-text', sanitize_text_field( $_POST[ 'meta-text' ] ) );
}
}
add_action( 'save_post', 'prfx_meta_save' );
/**
* Adds the meta box stylesheet when appropriate
*/
function prfx_admin_styles(){
global $typenow;
if( $typenow == 'post' ) {
wp_enqueue_style( 'prfx_meta_box_styles', plugin_dir_url( __FILE__ ) . 'meta-box-styles.css' );
}
}
add_action( 'admin_print_styles', 'prfx_admin_styles' ); ?>
And this is what I placed in my template:
<div class="book-author">by:
<?php $book_author = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'meta-text', true );
if (!empty($book_author)) {
echo $book_author;
} elseif (empty($book_author)) {
echo "Why doesnt it work?";
} ?>
</div>
Instead of displaying the author, it displays the text "Why doesnt it work?" which I guess means that the value is empty. But it shouldn't be. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

As mevius mentioned, you're issue is here:
<?php _e( 'Example Text Input', 'prfx-textdomain' )?>
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/_e
You'll need to assign the box to a data point.
This is a snippet from one of our functions.php file that has this:
function css_metadata_box($object, $box) { ?>
<p>
<label for="custom-css-data">Add custom CSS for this page</label>
<textarea name="custom-css-data" id="custom-css-data" cols="60" rows="25" tabindex="30" style="width: 97%;"><?php
echo esc_html( get_post_meta( $object->ID, 'custom-css', true ), 1 );
?></textarea>
<input type="hidden" name="css_meta_box_nonce" value="<?php echo wp_create_nonce( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ); ?>" />
</p>
<?php }
add_meta_box('css-data-box', 'Page CSS', 'css_metadata_box', 'page', 'normal', 'high');