Hooks and multiple loops

  • andrewharvey

    (@andrewharvey)


    14 years ago

    Hi

    First let me say that this and other sites have been an invaluable resource as I’ve slowly learned WordPress as a non-coder. However there are times when the more I read, the more confused I get. At these times I find that discussing with the community really helps me consolidate and understand what I’ve learned.

    I’m trying to add a second loop which will display posts from the category “featured”.

    I’ve done a lot of reading, and I think I’m almost there. But would appreciate any tips to streamline my code.

    I’m using this in functions.php of a thematic childtheme:

    function childtheme_catloop() {
	$feat_query = new WP_Query(
		array(
			'orderby' => 'rand',
			'category_name' => 'featured',
			'showposts' => 3
		));
	while ($feat_query->have_posts()) : $feat_query->the_post(); ?>
  		<!-- featured_loop -->
	<?php endwhile;
		echo '<div id="recent-header"class="section-header"><p>Recent Posts</p></div>';?>
  		<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
			<!-- normal_loop -->
  	<?php endwhile;
}
add_filter('thematic_categoryloop','childtheme_catloop');

    1 – Is there a more appropriate add_filter hook? This seems to be adding to rather than replacing the existing loop. Or is it better practice to add another function to remove the old loop. Something like:

    function remove_categoryloop() {
	remove_action('thematic_categoryloop','thematic_categoryloop');
}
add_action('init', 'remove_categoryloop')

    ;

    2 – Should I code the html for each loop? Or is there a hook I can call here? I don’t need to change any structure. I expected the_post() to work, but it doesn’t.

    Sorry if these are simple questions. I have been reading and struggling with this for a couple of days, but just can’t seem to make sense of it. I would be grateful for some pointers that would help me understand how and why it works.

    THANK YOU!!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Thread Starter andrewharvey

    (@andrewharvey)

    OK, after scratching my head some more, I’ve come up with the following solutions. If anyone can offer advice or ideas to improve this, I would be very grateful.

    1. I used the remove_action to remove the default loop, and then called my new childtheme_catloop function. But I had made a mistake in my remove_action syntax, and this was causing my headaches. The correct code is below, note the underscore in thematic_category_loop (I don’t yet understand why this works, so if anyone can point me to an explanation?…).

    function remove_categoryloop() {
	remove_action('thematic_categoryloop','thematic_category_loop');
}
add_action('init', 'remove_categoryloop')

    2. My problem here was confusion between WordPress hooks and Thematic hooks. So to recreate the posts in the loop, I replaced <!– the loop –> above with these hooks:

    thematic_postheader();
    thematic_content();
    thematic_postfooter();

    My full code (replacing <!– the loop –> above) is: 

    while ($feat_query->have_posts()) : $feat_query->the_post(); ?>
  		<div id="post-<?php the_ID();
			echo '" ';
			if (!(THEMATIC_COMPATIBLE_POST_CLASS)) {
				post_class();
				echo '>';
			} else {
				echo 'class="';
				thematic_post_class();
				echo '">';
			}
  		  	thematic_postheader(); ?>
	        <div class="entry-content">
	        	<?php thematic_content(); ?>
	        </div><!-- .entry-content -->
	        <?php thematic_postfooter(); ?>
		</div><!-- #post -->

	<?php endwhile;

    Anyway, I hope this can be useful to someone else, and save them the many hours of head scratching that it’s taken me to get to grips with this simple problem!

    Thanks

    Thread Starter andrewharvey

    (@andrewharvey)

    On a related note, I’d still love to know if there is a more efficient way to build the posts in my loop.

    The div=”id” code above is copied directly from the archive.php file in thematic.

    As this code already exists in the theme, is there a simple way to call it without needing to duplicate it?

    Hmmm, still trying to get to understand all this!!

    Hi Andrew –

    This Guide could help in a general sense: https://thematicmondo.com/2011/03/new-guide-understanding-thematic-hook-and-widget-locations/

    You are right that there are both Thematic action hooks that relate to different locations in your child themes (see guide), and also WordPress hooks which are more extensive — see: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Plugin_API/Action_Reference

    You should also note that the range of what is possible is broad, limited only by the functions you write.

    Lastly, as to your specific solution for adding a second loop — thanks for posting it. We sometimes use a query to pull content from a particular category — as in this example to get posts from category 13 and place them on the home page:

    if (is_home()) {
    query_posts( $query_string . '&cat=13&monthnum=' . date( 'n', current_time( 'timestamp' ) ) );
    }

    (from: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/query_posts)

    Cheers –
    Scott

    Thread Starter andrewharvey

    (@andrewharvey)

    Hi Scott, thanks for pointing me towards some useful guides. I particularly like your example query. I had been trying to figure out how to add a date filter to my featured loops.

    Many thanks!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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