One of the common requirements in WordPress is being able to filter the events (or could be posts of any post type) to only those that are set to occur in the future via a custom fields plugin like ACF.
Here’s how future or upcoming events can be shown when using Bricks Builder.
Whether you are using the Posts element or the Query Loop feature, click the query (loop) icon and add a META QUERY like this:

where event_date
is the name (when using ACF)/ID (when using Meta Box) of the date-type of custom field.
Meta value can be set to either
or
The Display and Return Formats for the field do not matter and can be set to any or left at their defaults.
Reference
https://forum.bricksbuilder.io/t/solved-post-loop-meta-query-by-acf-date-field/2309/9?u=sridhar
14 comments
Rich
Great tips thanks, any idea how to only list events per venue in a list of upcoming events and past events please?
Sridhar Katakam
Which events plugin are you using Rich?
Rich
Non, I've built it using ACF. I have posts set as ACF Events, and start_date_time to filter events so they are after todays date, but I can't get a filter/query to work so that it only shows events related to a venue. I've tried using ACF Relationship:Events as you can see on the bricks post here: https://forum.bricksbuilder.io/t/solved-post-loop-meta-query-by-acf-date-field/2309/11?u=sridhar
Sridhar Katakam
How are the events tied to the venues? Relationship field or a custom taxonomy? If Relationship field, why not make it a taxonomy? It will be more performant plus easier to group events by their taxonomy.
Rich
Tied by a bi-directional relationship. I have events categorised by type (if that helps). Can you expand of the taxonomy option please? Thank you
Sridhar Katakam
You could create a custom hierarchical (like categories) taxonomy called Event Venue for your Event CPT. Then in the event edit screen, select one or more venue(s) for each event.
You can then either create multiple loops - one for each venue and in each taxonomy query loop, place another loop that outputs the venues in that taxonomy.
The other option is to use code and do this automatically. See https://brickslabs.com/posts-grouped-by-terms-in-bricks/.
Rich
Thanks, I've used the custom query code and a relation array to include venue too, no custom taxonomy needed. I then looked at what I had written:
$args = [
'post_type' => 'events',
'orderby' => 'meta_value', // We want to organize the events by date
'meta_key' => 'start_date_time', // Grab the "start date" field created via "ACF" (stored in YYYY-MM-DD format)
'order' => 'ASC', // DESC is the other option
'posts_per_page' => '-1', // Let's show them all.
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'start_date_time', // Check the start date field
'value' => date("Y-m-d"), // Set today's date (note the similar format)
'compare' => '>=', // Return the ones greater than today's date
'type' => 'DATE' // Let WordPress know we're working with date
),
array(
'key' => 'venue', // Check the venue field
'value' => '"' . get_the_ID() . '"', // matches exactly "123", not just 123. This prevents a match for "1234"
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
)
];
And realising the relation venue needed the POST ID, i have it working without this custom code! HA. I will keep the code as I may need to use it again elsewhere, but i've worked out how to do this using the bricks options now. Thanks again, got there in the end
Robbie
I'm using pods to build a custom event calendar. I've set up a query exactly like this but nothing displays when I set to "Greater Than"
If I choose "lesser" the post will show the event with the second closest date in the future. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
Sridhar Katakam
Follow https://brickslabs.com/querying-posts-by-date-datetime-custom-fields-in-bricks/.
It was earlier tested with ACF and Meta Box.
I have now tested it with Date type of field created using Pods and it applies to Pods as well.
Christian Strand
Looks like my "timestamp code" actually outputted a php function here on your site
Christian Strand
Hi. Using Metabox and I have my DateTime fields stored as timestamps so I can use the WordPress function to display the date in the correct language based on user. The above doesn't seem to work if I have "save as timestamp" selected in Metabox datetime field. Are you able to help witha filter that work based on timestamp rather than Ymd? I have tried to use 301809Australia/Melbourne0830pm09+10:00.
Tilen
Perfect, works for Tribe Events Calendar as well! Thank you, I've been struggling on this one. ๐
Jay
Can this also be achieved with a custom date field from JetEngine?
Sridhar Katakam
Should work. Give it a try.
I don't have experience with JE.