Displaying content from several custom taxonomies on a single archive page

Question

Hello,

What am I trying to achieve?

Building an archive page to display organised content from several custom taxonomies.

First, I'm giving you the elements I'm working with.

I created custom post types and taxonomies using the CPT UI plugin.

I have 3 custom post types:

artist
community
museum

Then, I have 3 custom taxonomies:

communities (attached to the Community post type)
museums (attached to the Museum post type)
countries (attached to the Artist, Community and Museum post types)

The communities taxonomy has several terms: ex: Art Associations, Art Fairs, Art Festivals… The museums taxonomy has the following terms: Alternative Spaces, Galleries, Museums. The countries taxonomy contains country names of course.

I also created a countries navigation menu that I activated in my theme and set it to display for the countries taxonomy.

I set custom fields to input the information for each custom post using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.

Now, I'm going to describe as clearly as I can what I'm trying to do.

For each country I want to display the following (in that order):

The Artists profiles.
Then, the Communities profiles separated by terms in ascending order.
Then the Museums profiles, also separated by terms in the same fashion.

Then there is a side menu to allow visitors to jump from one section of the page to another like on the twitter bootstrap site.

What I've done so far.

I've been trying to get this to work for about 3 weeks now but I'm no php master. And even though I tried, I don't think I'm going to find the answer on my own.

First, I created a taxonomy.php file where I tried the regular WordPress loop. This is displaying all the posts for a specific country like I want, but I can't find a way to separate each section/post type and display the terms for the custom taxonomies. Code below.

First the code to call the menu on index.php

<?php if (is_tax('countries')) : ?>
    <nav class="categories-nav tk-proxima-nova-extra-condensed" role="navigation">
        <h1>Countries:</h1> 
        <?php
            if (has_nav_menu('countries_navigation')) :
                wp_nav_menu(array('theme_location' => 'countries_navigation', 'menu_class' => 'nav category-selector'));
            endif;
        ?>
    </nav>
<?php endif ?>

Then the code for the regular WordPress loop in taxonomy.php

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
        <article <?php post_class('col-sm-6 col-lg-4'); ?>>
            <div>
                My content using custom fields.
            </div>
        </article>
    <?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Then I tried something that only displays content for one country, see code below:

<?php 
$terms = get_terms( 'communities', array(
    'orderby'    => 'name',
    'order'      => 'ASC',
    'hide_empty' => 0
) );
?>
<?php
foreach( $terms as $term ) {

    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'community',
        'countries' => 'denmark',
        'communities' => $term->slug
    );
    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {

        echo'<h2>' . $term->name . '</h2>';

        while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

        <article <?php post_class('col-sm-6 col-lg-4'); ?>>
            <div>
                My content using custom fields.
            </div>
        </article>

        <?php endwhile;

        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
} ?>

The last code example is displaying only the terms for Communities and for one country only. Is there someone out there who can tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1 · 2014-10-20T18:53:18Z

October 20, 2014 6:53pm

Sebastien, the last bit of code I posted was messed up. I for got to include the line that created a new WP_Query. I've included that fix in the code posted below. Theoretically, this should work and be what you need.

<?php
/*
* taxonomy-country.php
*
* This template is for displaying all artists, communites, and museums associate with 
* a give county.
*
* @author 
*/



/**
 * Will hold the country term object for the custom query used later
 * 
 * (default value: get_queried_object() )
 * 
 * @var int
 * @access public
 */
$country_id = get_queried_object(); 


/**
 * This will hold the slugs of your custom post types. I guessed their slug so please
 * make sure and replace them with the correct values as needed.
 *
 * (default value: array("artist", "community", "museum"))
 * 
 * @var string
 * @access public
 */
$post_types = array("community"=>"Communities", "museum"=>"Museums");

get_header();
?>

<h1 class="page-title"><?php echo $country_id->name ;?></h1>

            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => "artist",
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
                //forgot to add this last time
            $query = new WP_Query( $args );
         ?>



            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h2>Artists</h2>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php get_template_part( "templates/content", "artist" ); ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>



<?php foreach($post_types as $post_type => $title) : //loops through each post type, creates custom query, and displays it. ?>
    <h2><?php echo $title; ?></h2>
    <?php 
            $terms =  get_terms( strtolower($title), array(
                'orderby'    => 'name',
                'order'      => 'ASC',
                'hide_empty' => 1 //leave this true because it hides empty terms
            ) );

        ?>

        <?php foreach( $terms as $term): ?>
            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => $post_type,
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        "relation" => "AND",
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        ),
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => strtolower($title),
                            'terms' => $term->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
                // forgot to add this last time
                $query = new WP_Query( $args );
            ?>

            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h3><?php echo $term->name; ?></h3>
                <p><?php echo $term->description; ?></p>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php 
                        // this get a template named content-slug where slug is the slug of the post type.
                        // so if the slug is artist then the template needs to be content-artist.php 
                        get_template_part( "templates/content", $post_type ); //this get a template named content-slugOfPostType so  ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        <?php endforeach; ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 2 · 2014-10-02T19:34:56Z

October 2, 2014 7:34pm

I did this real quick as an example. It's based on the idea that you want the artist, community, and museum post for each country. Hope this helps, and feel free to let me know if you need it modified.

<?php
/*
* taxonomy-country.php
*
* This template is for displaying all artists, communites, and museums associate with 
* a give county.
*
* @author 
*/



/**
 * Will hold the country term object for the custom query used later
 * 
 * (default value: get_queried_object() )
 * 
 * @var int
 * @access public
 */
$country_id = get_queried_object(); 


/**
 * This will hold the slugs of your custom post types. I guessed their slug so please
 * make sure and replace them with the correct values as needed.
 *
 * (default value: array("artist", "community", "museum"))
 * 
 * @var string
 * @access public
 */
$post_types = array("artist"=>"Artists", "community"=>"Communities", "museum"=>"Museums");

get_header();
?>

<h1 class="page-title"><?php echo $country_id->name ;?></h1>
<?php foreach($post_types as $post_type => $title) : //loops through each post type, creates custom query, and displays it. ?>

    <?php 
        $args = array(
            'post_type' => $post_type,
            'tax_query' => array(
                array(
                    'taxonomy' => 'country',
                    'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                )
            ),
        );
        $query = new WP_Query( $args );
    ?>

    <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
        <h2><?php echo $title; ?></h2>
      <!-- the loop -->
      <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>
            <h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="btn btn-primary">Read More</a>
            <hr>
      <?php endwhile; ?>
      <!-- end of the loop -->

      <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

    <?php else:  ?>

    <?php endif; ?>


<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 3 · 2014-10-16T12:16:42Z

October 16, 2014 12:16pm

Sebastien Thiroux, sorry for taking so long to get back to you. In the last piece of code I posted there is a syntax error on line 89. I forgot to put a comma between the relation argument and the first taxonomy argument:

'tax_query' => array(
                        "relation" => "AND"
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        ),
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => strtolower($title),
                            'terms' => $term->term_id,
                        )
                    ),

If you put a comma after the "AND" the script should run. In the future, a white screen on a php script usually means there is a syntax error somewhere. Most of the time it's because you forgot a semi-colon, closing ")", or a comma. To help debug this you can either turn on error reporting for wordpress, or use an online php validator. Here is the debugged code:

<?php
/*
* taxonomy-country.php
*
* This template is for displaying all artists, communites, and museums associate with 
* a give county.
*
* @author 
*/



/**
 * Will hold the country term object for the custom query used later
 * 
 * (default value: get_queried_object() )
 * 
 * @var int
 * @access public
 */
$country_id = get_queried_object(); 


/**
 * This will hold the slugs of your custom post types. I guessed their slug so please
 * make sure and replace them with the correct values as needed.
 *
 * (default value: array("artist", "community", "museum"))
 * 
 * @var string
 * @access public
 */
$post_types = array("community"=>"Communities", "museum"=>"Museums");

get_header();
?>

<h1 class="page-title"><?php echo $country_id->name ;?></h1>

            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => "artist",
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
            ?>




            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h2>Artists</h2>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php get_template_part( "templates/content", "artist" ); ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>



<?php foreach($post_types as $post_type => $title) : //loops through each post type, creates custom query, and displays it. ?>
    <h2><?php echo $title; ?></h2>
    <?php 
            $terms =  get_terms( strtolower($title), array(
                'orderby'    => 'name',
                'order'      => 'ASC',
                'hide_empty' => 1 //leave this true because it hides empty terms
            ) );

        ?>

        <?php foreach( $terms as $term): ?>
            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => $post_type,
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        "relation" => "AND",
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        ),
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => strtolower($title),
                            'terms' => $term->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
            ?>

            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h3><?php echo $term->name; ?></h3>
                <p><?php echo $term->description; ?></p>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php 
                        // this get a template named content-slug where slug is the slug of the post type.
                        // so if the slug is artist then the template needs to be content-artist.php 
                        get_template_part( "templates/content", $post_type ); //this get a template named content-slugOfPostType so  ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        <?php endforeach; ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 4 · 2014-10-20T16:44:55Z

October 20, 2014 4:44pm

Hi, so did that resolve it for you? You might try a resource like this http://generatewp.com/wp_query/ for help creating each individual query. I would say practice getting each one individually first working as template includes and then we can get everything working together.

Answer 5 · 2014-10-02T18:46:02Z

October 2, 2014 6:46pm

Sebastien, just to clarify, you want a country taxonomy page ( say Denmark) to display all the artists custom posts, communities custom post, and museums custom posts associated with that country?

Answer 6 · 2014-10-02T19:29:23Z

October 2, 2014 7:29pm

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for replying. That is exactly what I'm trying to do, and Denmark is actually one of the countries. You must have seen one of my questions around the web.

I've been working on templates using query_posts after I send my question today and it's almost working except for the Artist part that is not working because it doesn't have custom taxonomies associated with it, so the country restriction doesn't work. A solution would be to create a dummy taxonomy just to add the fetch terms like the other loops. This is not a very elegant solution. But the worse part is that I need to replicate a template for each country and those share the same code except for the country name. I also read several times that query_posts was a solution to avoid. So it's still not what I'm looking for.

See what I came up with below:

<div class="container">
<?php query_posts('post_type=artist'); ?>
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
<div class="row">
    <h2>Artists</h2>
    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

        <?php get_template_part('templates/content', 'artists'); ?>

    <?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
<?php query_posts('post_type=community'); ?>
<?php 
//start by fetching the terms for the communities taxonomy
$terms = get_terms( 'communities', array(
    'orderby'    => 'name',
    'order'      => 'ASC',
    'hide_empty' => 0
) );
?>
<?php
// run a query for each community
foreach( $terms as $term ) {

    // Define the query
    $args = array(
        'countries' => 'denmark',
        'communities' => $term->slug
    );
    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {

        echo'<div class="row"><h2>' . $term->name . '</h2>';

        while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

            <?php get_template_part('templates/content', 'communities'); ?>

        <?php endwhile;
        echo "</div>";

        // restore orginal query
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
} ?>

<?php query_posts('post_type=museum'); ?>
<?php 

//start by fetching the terms for the museums taxonomy
$terms = get_terms( 'museums', array(
    'orderby'    => 'name',
    'order'      => 'ASC',
    'hide_empty' => 0
) );
?>
<?php
// run a query for each museum
foreach( $terms as $term ) {

    // Define the query
    $args = array(
        'countries' => 'denmark',
        'museums' => $term->slug
    );
    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {

        echo'<div class="row"><h2>' . $term->name . '</h2>';

        while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

            <?php get_template_part('templates/content', 'museums'); ?>

        <?php endwhile;
        echo "</div>";

        // restore orginal query
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
} ?>
</div>

Do you have a solution? a suggestion?

Answer 7 · 2014-10-02T20:23:06Z

October 2, 2014 8:23pm

Thank you so much for your help. Your code is so simple, and thanks also for the comments. This is really showing me that I need to find time to learn php.

My page is almost complete. The only elements I'm missing are the terms to separate the different types of Communities and the different types of Museums. That's why I had 3 loops in my code, so I could get the terms each time around. Is there a way to do that in your template?

Answer 8 · 2014-10-02T20:43:01Z

October 2, 2014 8:43pm

Exactly! Right now I'm reading your code and I tried to add other arrays in the tax_query array, but every time I break the code. I'm pretty sure it's possible though.

Answer 9 · 2014-10-02T21:14:35Z

October 2, 2014 9:14pm

Ok so I couldn't find a way in my limited time to get it to run in one loop so I made two. One is for the artists and has no terms, and the other is for communities and museums which are separated by name a sorted by terms.

<?php
/*
* taxonomy-country.php
*
* This template is for displaying all artists, communites, and museums associate with 
* a give county.
*
* @author 
*/



/**
 * Will hold the country term object for the custom query used later
 * 
 * (default value: get_queried_object() )
 * 
 * @var int
 * @access public
 */
$country_id = get_queried_object(); 


/**
 * This will hold the slugs of your custom post types. I guessed their slug so please
 * make sure and replace them with the correct values as needed.
 *
 * (default value: array("artist", "community", "museum"))
 * 
 * @var string
 * @access public
 */
$post_types = array("community"=>"Communities", "museum"=>"Museums");

get_header();
?>

<h1 class="page-title"><?php echo $country_id->name ;?></h1>

            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => "artist",
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
            ?>




            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h2>Artists</h2>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php get_template_part( "templates/content", "artist" ); ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>



<?php foreach($post_types as $post_type => $title) : //loops through each post type, creates custom query, and displays it. ?>
    <h2><?php echo $title; ?></h2>
    <?php 
            $terms =  get_terms( strtolower($title), array(
                'orderby'    => 'name',
                'order'      => 'ASC',
                'hide_empty' => 1 //leave this true because it hides empty terms
            ) );

        ?>

        <?php foreach( $terms as $term): ?>
            <?php 
                $args = array(
                    'post_type' => $post_type,
                    'tax_query' => array(
                        "relation" => "AND"
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => 'country',
                            'terms' => $country_id->term_id,
                        ),
                        array(
                            'taxonomy' => strtolower($title),
                            'terms' => $term->term_id,
                        )
                    ),
                );
            ?>

            <?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
                <h3><?php echo $term->name; ?></h3>
                <p><?php echo $term->description; ?></p>
              <!-- the loop -->
              <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>

                <?php 
                        // this get a template named content-slug where slug is the slug of the post type.
                        // so if the slug is artist then the template needs to be content-artist.php 
                        get_template_part( "templates/content", $post_type ); //this get a template named content-slugOfPostType so  ?>
                <hr>
              <?php endwhile; ?>
              <!-- end of the loop -->

              <?php //wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

            <?php else:  ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        <?php endforeach; ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

I think this should about be it. Good Luck!

Answer 10 · 2014-10-03T22:31:21Z

October 3, 2014 10:31pm

Hi Andrew, Sorry for getting back to you so late. Thank you for trying, the last code you sent me doesn't work. So I'm trying to understand why the first one was working and not this one. Maybe it'll give me some insight in what I should do to make this work.

Answer 11 · 2014-10-04T07:08:43Z

October 4, 2014 7:08am

I get a white screen. I have my header, then the rest of the page is blank. The footer disappears as well.

Answer 12 · 2014-10-15T21:42:00Z

October 15, 2014 9:42pm

Hi, I wanted to jump in here and see if you ever resolved this situation. I didn't follow all of the back and forth completely, but it seems like this can be handled by three separate custom queries.

Answer 13 · 2014-10-16T07:56:57Z

October 16, 2014 7:56am

Hi Zac, thank you for stepping in. I still didn't find a solution yet, which is really frustrating. I've been watching probably all your courses about WordPress, but i believe there is nothing covering such a topic. So I'm planning on taking the php classes when I will have time, in hope that I will learn more about loops and custom queries.

So far, Andrew helped me and the first code suggestion he sent me was working, only it was solving half of my problem. He then sent me another bit of code (the last one in the thread) that he thought would solve my problem, but it doesn't work. I get the header for the page, then the rest of the page is blank.

I'm going to work on it today, so I'll try to focus on what you said : three separate custom queries.

In the meantime, if you have a code exemple of what it should look like. I'm a visual learner, so that would definitely help me.

Do you want me to make a summary of what I'm trying to achieve?

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Displaying content from several custom taxonomies on a single archive page

What am I trying to achieve?

First, I'm giving you the elements I'm working with.

Now, I'm going to describe as clearly as I can what I'm trying to do.

What I've done so far.

13 Answers

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Zac Gordon

Zac Gordon

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Andrew Shook

Andrew Shook

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux

Zac Gordon

Zac Gordon

Sebastien Thiroux

Sebastien Thiroux