Elementor Loop Grid Order By ACF Date Field

Create And Apply Loop Grid Template

Begin by designing your loop grid template within your Elementor page, and apply the loop grid widget to the page. The loop grid widget is a very powerful and easy to use widget but Elementor Pro is required to use this feature.

Add Query ID To Loop Grid

Finally, return back to your loop grid widget and apply the query ID “dd_event_date” under Content > Query > Query ID

PHP Code Snippet

Order By Date

<?php 

function dd_query_by_event_date( $query ) {
    $query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );
    $query->set( 'meta_key', 'start_date' );
}
add_action( 'elementor/query/dd_event_date', 'dd_query_by_event_date' );

Limit The Earliest Date To Today’s Date

<?php 

function dd_query_by_event_date( $query ) {
    $query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );
    $query->set( 'meta_key', 'start_date' );
    $query->set( 'meta_query', array(
        array(
            'key'     => 'start_date',
            'value'   => date( 'Y-m-d' ),
            'compare' => '>=',
            'type'    => 'DATETIME',
        ),
    ) );
}
add_action( 'elementor/query/dd_event_date', 'dd_query_by_event_date' );

Working 100%

Bonus: Expire Past Events

<?php
// Schedule the event check daily
add_action("wp", "dd_schedule_event_check");

function dd_schedule_event_check()
{
    if (!wp_next_scheduled("event_check_daily")) {
        try {
            wp_schedule_event(time(), "daily", "event_check_daily");
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            error_log("Error scheduling event check: " . $e->getMessage());
            wp_clear_scheduled_hook("event_check_daily");
        }
    }
}

// Hook to run the event check daily
add_action("event_check_daily", "check_and_update_events");

function check_and_update_events()
{
    // Get all published posts of the custom post type 'event'
    $events = get_posts(array(
        'post_type' => 'event',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
    ));

    foreach ($events as $event) {
        // Check if ACF field exists before accessing it
        if(get_field('start_date', $event->ID)) {
            $start_date = get_field('start_date', $event->ID);

            // Check if start_date is older than today
            if (!empty($start_date) && strtotime($start_date) < strtotime('today')) {
                // Update post status to 'draft'
                $result = wp_update_post(array(
                'ID' => $event->ID,
                'post_status' => 'draft',
                ));

                // Log update result (success or failure)
                if ($result) {
                error_log("Event " . $event->ID . " successfully drafted.");
                } else {
                error_log("Error updating event " . $event->ID . ".");
                }
            }
        } else {
                // Log missing ACF field
                error_log("Event " . $event->ID . " missing required 'start_date' field.");
        }
    }
}