WP_Query

Custom queries for the Query Loop block with PHP The Query Loop block covers the common cases: post type, categories, tags, author, order. Many sites need one more condition: only upcoming events by a date field, products in stock, posts with a featured flag. A block variation with a namespace and two filters, one for…

A custom widget with WP_Widget: posts from one category Classic themes still use widget areas, and since WordPress 5.8 these areas are edited with blocks. Widgets built on the WP_Widget class keep working: they appear in the block widget editor as a “Legacy Widget” block with their own form. For a theme that must support…

date_query in WP_Query: filter posts by date range, weekday and modified date WP_Query has a date_query parameter that goes far beyond the simple year and monthnum arguments. It takes a list of date conditions joined with AND or OR, can compare single parts of a date (year, month, week, day, hour) or ranges (after and…

WordPress 5.8 Query Loop block: a ready-made “Events” variation WordPress 5.8 added the Query Loop block: a list of posts with a query chosen in the block settings (post type, categories, order, number) and a layout built from blocks such as Post Title, Post Excerpt and Post Featured Image. Editors can build post lists without…

Query terms with get_terms() and WP_Term_Query get_terms() is to terms what get_posts() is to posts, and WP_Term_Query is the class behind it. Both accept the same arguments: the taxonomy, a parent, empty or not, ordering by name, count or a meta value, meta conditions, and what to return. Lists of categories in a sidebar, a…

Query posts by a custom taxonomy term in WordPress Categories and tags are the built-in taxonomies, but most projects also register their own: genre, location, brand. Sooner or later you need all posts of one term: portfolio items of one project type, products of one brand, the latest articles in a genre. The tool for…

WordPress conditional tags: is_single, is_singular, is_main_query, in_the_loop Conditional tags are the functions starting with is_, in_ and has_ that tell a theme or a plugin what the current request is: a single post, an archive, a search, the admin. They read the global WP_Query, so they give correct answers only after WordPress has parsed the…

The global $post: get_the_ID(), get_queried_object_id() and setup_postdata() Template tags like the_title(), get_the_ID() and the_content() have no post argument: they read the global $post. Inside the main loop that is the current post. Outside it, in a sidebar widget, a shortcode in a widget, a hook in the header or after another loop, the global may…

Make secondary WP_Query loops cheaper: no_found_rows, cache flags and fields A default new WP_Query() does more than select posts. It also counts all matching posts for pagination (SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS plus SELECT FOUND_ROWS()), loads the meta of all found posts into the cache and loads their terms. For the main query of an archive that is what…