Limit a bp_has_groups() loop to groups matching a groupmeta key/value pair

gistfile1.aw

<?php

/**
 * This is a quick and dirty class to work around the fact that bp_has_groups() does not have a
 * meta_query parameter (or even an 'in' parameter). Usage:
 *
 * 1) Just before you fire up your bp_has_groups() loop, instantiate the BP_Groups_Meta_Filter
 *    class, with parameters $key and $value
 * 2) Do your groups loop as normal
 * 3) When you've closed the bp_has_groups() loop (endif;), call the method remove_filters() just
 *    to be safe.
 *
 * EXAMPLE
 * Here's how you would run a bp_has_groups() loop that would only show groups that had the meta
 * key/value: 'favorite_gum' => 'Juicy Fruit'
 *
 *     $meta_filter = new BP_Groups_Meta_Filter( 'favorite_gum', 'Juicy Fruit' );
 *     
 *     // Note that you can pass whatever arguments you want to bp_has_groups(), as usual
 *     if ( bp_has_groups() ) :
 *         while ( bp_groups() ) :
 *             bp_the_group();
 *             // Do your template stuff here
 *         endwhile;
 *     endif;
 *
 *     // Make sure that other loops on the page are clean
 *     $meta_filter->remove_filters();
 */
class BP_Groups_Meta_Filter {
	protected $key;
	protected $value;
	protected $group_ids = array();

	function __construct( $key, $value ) {
		$this->key   = $key;
		$this->value = $value;

		$this->setup_group_ids();

		add_filter( 'bp_groups_get_paged_groups_sql', array( &$this, 'filter_sql' ) );
		add_filter( 'bp_groups_get_total_groups_sql', array( &$this, 'filter_sql' ) );
	}

	function setup_group_ids() {
		global $wpdb, $bp;

		$sql = $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT group_id FROM {$bp->groups->table_name_groupmeta} WHERE meta_key = %s AND meta_value = %s", $this->key, $this->value );

		$this->group_ids = wp_parse_id_list( $wpdb->get_col( $sql ) );
	}

	function get_group_ids() {
		return $this->group_ids;

	}

	function filter_sql( $sql ) {
		$group_ids = $this->get_group_ids();
		if ( empty( $group_ids ) ) {
			return $sql;
		}

		$sql_a = explode( 'WHERE', $sql );

		$new_sql = $sql_a[0] . 'WHERE g.id IN (' . implode( ',', $group_ids ) . ') AND ' . $sql_a[1];

		return $new_sql;
	}

	function remove_filters() {
		remove_filter( 'bp_groups_get_paged_groups_sql', array( &$this, 'filter_sql' ) );
		remove_filter( 'bp_groups_get_total_groups_sql', array( &$this, 'filter_sql' ) );
	}
}

?>

Hello boonebgorges!
first thank you for posting this!
Unfortunately, iam a real newbie at php/bp, and I dont know how to use your code.
Could you please help me out with this?
I would like each group to select a town, country and activity in the creation process and make this searcheable in the groups directory. To create new fields, i have checked already group extension api and group meta tutorial. (little bit lost if that's the same or not) to create new fields and both worked. but I dont know how to use that metadata to make it' searcheable'. well, thank you a lot in advance!
I hope you can help me with that! Sonia

i have tested this code code works good but i am not bale to understand i have select box on group list page like bellow
<select id="groups-order-bydffff"> <option value="user-league">User League</option> <option value="Art and Culture">Art and Culture</option> </select>

if i select Art and Culture i have to show that group which have this meta value so how do send the group name to the loop wanted some thing like this

<?php   if ($groupname=="Art and Culture"){
             $meta_filter = new BP_Groups_Meta_Filter( 'group-custom-field-cat', 'Art and Culture' ); 
               echo @json_decode($meta_filter, true);
}
        ?>  

please any body help me to achieve this using ajax.

@aaclayton can you please share the code set the scope for the AJAX query of your tab in header as you have mentioned in the comment on this page.it will help lot of developers.