In this part of the series, we’ll move on to the element of WordPress that makes content from the database show up on the pages of your site: queries and loops. We’ll take a quick look at the standard loop then move on to identify ways to customize it and write your own bespoke queries. You’ll learn about:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The standard loop, what it does and why you should treat it with respect.<\/li>\n
- The components of a query and loop.<\/li>\n
- The methods for creating custom queries and when to use each (including one you shouldn’t use).<\/li>\n
- Modifying\u00a0the loop in a template\u00a0part\u00a0file.<\/li>\n
- Using
WP_Query<\/code> to create advanced custom queries, including worked examples which you’ll create using plugins that hook to the theme we’ve already coded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSo, let’s start with the standard loop.<\/p>\n
Missed a tutorial in our WordPress Development for Intermediate Users series? You can catch up on all seven posts here:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Theme Development in Detail<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Making Your Themes Customizer-Ready<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Building Plugins<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Custom Post Types and Taxonomies<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Queries and Loops<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Custom Fields and Metadata<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Internationalization<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\nThat’s right, tons of WordPress knowledge, peer review, instructor feedback and certification, for free for WPMU DEV members<\/span>Start Learning<\/span><\/a>\n
The Loop Defined<\/h3>\n
Here’s how the Codex defines the Loop<\/a>:<\/p>\n
The Loop\u00a0is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Loop does five things:<\/p>\n
- \n
- It runs a query to fetch content from the database based on a set of criteria (more of which shortly).<\/li>\n
- It checks\u00a0if the query has found any content.<\/li>\n
- It runs through the first post (other item of content) and outputs the content from that post defined by the code in the loop.<\/li>\n
- It runs through step three again for each post that’s been retrieved (where relevant).<\/li>\n
- It stops and (sometimes) resets itself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
You’ve already worked with a loop if you’ve been following along with this series: in part one of this series<\/a>, we created a loop.php<\/em> file for our theme to contain the Loop, and edited one version of it. You’ll have seen from that example that your theme doesn’t just have to run one version of the loop; it can run multiple versions depending on the content being viewed. So you could have one loop for single posts, one for archives, another for pages and so on. You can also define loops according to the category, post type and more, by using the relevant template file.<\/p>\n
You can code your loop directly into a template file or you can use a template part such as loop.php<\/em>. I find using a template part gives me more control over my code and also lets me use the same loop in multiple template files, by including them using the
get_template_part()<\/code> function. You learned about this in part one of this series \u2013 if you need a refresher, go back to that.<\/p>\nLet’s take a look at the different parts of the loop. Use the single.php<\/em> and loop.php<\/em> files you created in Part 1 as a guide: if you don’t have your own copy of those, you’ll find them\u00a0in the source files<\/a> for the series.<\/p>\n
Fetching Data: the Query<\/h4>\n
In a standard loop, you use this line to fetch data from the database:<\/p>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Making Your Themes Customizer-Ready<\/a><\/li>\n
- WordPress Development for Intermediate Users: Theme Development in Detail<\/a><\/li>\n
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