You don’t need to reimport. When the template for the string combine field is changed and saved, the plugin attempts to update the field’s value in all the records. If it looks like that hasn’t happened, first, check that the template syntax is correct, and it correctly refers to the source fields. Also, if any of the source fields are empty, the string combine value may not be updated.
If it looks like things aren’t working like they should, you can use the plugin’s debugger to see the details as the field values are updated. To trigger an update, you will need to change the template (temporarily to something similar), then check the debugging log.
I have 3 fields I’m trying to combine
1. Burial_MO
2. Burial_Day
3. Burial_YR
I want to display them a 1 formatted date field such as mm/dd/yyyy
I added a field with type String Combine and a template of [Burial_MO]/[Burial_Day]/[Burial_YR]
I’ve tried it with and without the slashes in between the fields but either way the display ends up blank even though there is data in the fields
Here’s the log file info. Not sure what the records having to do with Nextgen Gallery have anything to do with it.
[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
(
)
[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = NULL WHERE id = '7535'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
(
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[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = NULL WHERE id = '7536'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
(
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[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = NULL WHERE id = '7537'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
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[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = NULL WHERE id = '7538'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
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[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = NULL WHERE id = '7539'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_Manage_Fields_Updates::update_fields update fields: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database_fields SET title = 'Burial_Date', group = 'main', form_element = 'string-combine', help_text = NULL, options = NULL, validation_message = NULL, default = '[Burial_MO] [Burial_Day] [Burial_YR]', attributes = 'a:0:{}', signup = '0', csv = '0', readonly = NULL, sortable = '0', persistent = NULL WHERE id = '44'[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]file_put_contents(/tmp/pope_cache): Failed to open stream: Permission deniedin /home/ferndalecemetery/public_html/wp/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/vendor/imagely/pope-framework/lib/class.pope_cache.php on line 227[01/08/26 2:48am UTC]PDb_List::_setup_iteration list query: SELECT p.id, p.last_name, p.first_name, p.section, p.block, p.lot, p.burial_yr, p.burial_mo, p.burial_day, p.nativity, p.age, p.burial_id FROM wpvk_participants_database p ORDER BY p.last_name ASC[01/08/26 2:51am UTC]file_put_contents(/tmp/pope_cache): Failed to open stream: Permission deniedin /home/ferndalecemetery/public_html/wp/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/vendor/imagely/pope-framework/lib/class.pope_cache.php on line 227
The field names in your template look incorrect, shouldn’t be any upper case letters in those. Take a look at the field name (not the title) as defined on the Manage Database Fields page.
In the error log, you see:
PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array()
This is telling you it’s not finding the source data, most likely because the names in the template don’t match the field names..
So I fixed that and now the log shows the field being populated, but it’s still not showing up on the screen display.
Log:
[01/08/26 7:17pm UTC]PDb_fields\string_combine::replaced_string field: burial_date replacement data: Array
(
[burial_mo] => 11
[value:burial_mo] => 11
[burial_day] => 27
[value:burial_day] => 27
[burial_yr] => 1920
[value:burial_yr] => 1920
)
[01/08/26 7:17pm UTC]PDb_fields\dynamic_db_field::update_record query: UPDATE wpvk_participants_database SET burial_date = ’11/27/1920′ WHERE id = ‘7301’
Screen Display:
https://ferndalecemetery.com/census-detail/?pdb=7301
So, the string combine value is in the database, you can see that in the write query, so what you’re seeing is likely a caching issue.
I’ve tried going to detail pages I haven’t visited before, and tried my phone, which is on a different network, and the field still isn’t showing even when there is data in the three fields. I do not have any caching plugins installed on this site.
So it’s not a caching issue. Any other ideas?
I double checked using phpMyAdmin and the string combine fields have the data.
Try saving the record, the plugin has its own cache and that will clear it.
I finally got a chance to work on the issue some more and the combined fields were now displaying. So the plugin cache must have been the issue since I had flushed all the other caches and using new devices/browsers didn’t work either.
