Lesson 6 – Using Secondary WordPress Loops

What is a WordPress Loop?

• The process of getting information from the database and displaying it on the page
• Loops in action
  • The page loop – simple loop, retrieves one piece of information
  • The single post loop – the same
  • Blog page loop – retrieves several posts and loops through them
  • Archive page loop
• The main loop
  • Retrieves the primary content of the page
  • Can contain secondary loops
• Secondary loops
  • Any other loop besides the main loop
  • Examples of secondary loops
    • comments
    • widgets
    • byobwebsite examples

Example #1 – Add a List of Posts From a Single Category

• Create the function
• Define the Query Parameters
  • category
• Write the query
• Configure the output
  • Post title
• Clean up
• Define the hook
• Test
• Add Genesis HTML

Anatomy of a Secondary WordPress Loop

• Several ways to create a secondary loop
  • query posts – this is the main query object
  • WP Query – the preferred method
    • Creates a new query
    • Separate from the main query
• 4 parts of a Secondary Loop
  • Define the query parameters
    • 2 methods of annotation
      • query string
      • associative array
    • variable
    • associative array
  • The query
  • Display the results
  • Clean up
• WordPress Query Parameters
  • Taxonomy Parameters
    • Category parameters
    • Tag parameters
    • Custom taxonomy
  • Page type parameters
    • Post
    • Page
    • Post type
    • Archives
  • Post meta parameters
  • Pagination parameters

Example #2 – Add LINKS to the List of Posts From a Single Category

• Category query parameters
• get_the_title()
• the_permalink()
• Add a heading
• Add multiple loops with different criteria

Example #3 – Create a grid of Post Thumbnails in Genesis

• get_the_post_thumbnail() function
• Link the image to the post
  • get_permalink();
  • get_the_title();
• The hook
• Set priority
• Set pagination
• Borrow Genesis HTML

Example #4 – Display a Grid of Custom Posts on the Front Page

• Custom post type query
• Display the ‘output’ element of the array
• Link the image to the post
  • get_permalink();
  • get_the_title();

Example #5 – Create a Grid of Portfolio Images

• thesis_post_image_info function
• Display the ‘output’ element of the array
• Link the image to the post
  • get_permalink();
  • get_the_title();

Question and Answer