wp_query not returning posts

  • Resolved livingstonescreative

    (@livingstonescreative)


    6 years, 2 months ago

    I’m having trouble getting a shortcode to display custom post types. My shortcode returns ‘Not Found’ even if I leave the query as vague as just entering the post_type and posts_per_page arguments. What am I missing?

    Here is my shortcode : 

    // shortcode to display simple CPT block
function cpt_type_query($atts, $content = null){
  extract(shortcode_atts(array( 
   'posts_per_page' => '5',
   'post_type' => 'cpt_type'
  ), $atts));

  global $post;

  $posts = new WP_Query($atts);
  $out = '<p><i>Not Found</i></p>';
  if ($posts->have_posts())
        while ($posts->have_posts()):
            $posts->the_post();

            $out = '<div class="sf-result-item">
                      <a href="'.get_permalink().'">
                        <h2>'.get_the_title().'</h2>
                        <p>'.get_the_excerpt().'</p>
                      </a>';
            $out .='</div>';

        endwhile;

  wp_reset_query();
  return html_entity_decode($out);
}
add_shortcode('cpt_type', 'cpt_type_query');
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Contributor Michael Beckwith

    (@tw2113)

    The BenchPresser

    Honestly, I’d avoid using $posts as a variable name and also avoid doing the global $post part just because of WP’s sometimes wonky use of globals as a whole. Also just in case it’s not a “dummy” example, make sure that your 'post_type' attribute is actually ending up being the post type you intend.

    Lastly, I would check and make sure that your $atts variable actually has what you need in it. You extract the values, but it’s hard to say if $atts actually gets populated.

    Thread Starter livingstonescreative

    (@livingstonescreative)

    Thanks for the reply. Looks like I misunderstood what the extract function was doing. I thought this set default variables if a variable couldn’t be found within the $atts, rather than it placing those in variables that could then be used within the function itself.

    I therefore redrafted the function to make use of those variables and this now works fine. 

    // shortcode to display simple CPT block
function cpt_type_query($atts, $content = null){

  // define attributes and their defaults
  extract( shortcode_atts( array (
      'slug' => '',
      'per_page' => -1,
  ), $atts ) );

  // define query parameters based on those attributes
  $args = array(
      'post_type' => 'cpt_type',
      'order' => 'date',
      'orderby' => 'title',
      'posts_per_page' => $per_page, 
      'name' => $slug,
  ); 

  $cpt_posts = new WP_Query($args);  // using $args NOT $atts
  $out = '<p><i>Not Found</i></p>';

  if ($cpt_posts->have_posts())
        while ($cpt_posts->have_posts()):
            $cpt_posts->the_post();

            $out = '<div class="sf-result-item">
                      <a href="'.get_permalink().'">
                        <h2>'.get_the_title().'</h2>
                        <p>'.get_the_excerpt().'</p>
                      </a>';
            $out .='</div>';

        endwhile;

  wp_reset_query();
  return html_entity_decode($out);
}
add_shortcode('cpt_type', 'cpt_type_query');
    Plugin Contributor Michael Beckwith

    (@tw2113)

    The BenchPresser

    Awesome to hear that you got it working.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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