Post on 05-Jul-2015
Customizing the Custom Loop
Welcome
Code: http://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012
Meet the guys
Alexander Sapountzis
• Worked with WordPress for 2 Years
• Worked at Bloomberg Businessweek
• He's the one with the beard
Jeff Marx
• Worked with WordPress for 7 years
• Worked at Gannett Newspapers
• Not the guy from the Sopranos (even though he looks like him)
What is CBS Local?
Network of local sites for news and media, consolidating CBS' media content
• Radio
• TV
• News
• Original Content
www.cbslocal.com
We use WordPress!
After the five-minute install
• You get a cool theme
• Single Column
• Sidebar
• ...but it's boring
We need to customize this so it's cool!
What comes next?
• Featured Posts
• Category Boxes
• Cool stuff
• Not boring!
(pay attention, this will be on the test)
How do we do this?
The Global Query
• Runs once on every page
• Returns all relevant posts based on paramso Home Page Query returns all postso Category Page Query returns all for that categoryo Single Post Page Query returns a single, lonely post
• Global query feeds default loopo default loop is hard coded on theme template files and
contains post information from the global query
• This comes built into WordPress
WordPress does all this for free
...what's the problem? Why bother with custom loops?
Because you may need to:
• Categorize content
• use Custom Post Types
• not have a boring site
Introduce The Loops
• query_posts()
• WP_Query
• get_posts()
Each is used in different ways, but you really only need one: WP_Query
query_posts()
• Modifies the Global Query (that's bad)
• Can cause unpredictable behavior
• Will very likely be removed from WordPress (we hope soon)
• Ignore tutorials that use this
Remember: using query_posts() is like trying to hammer a nail in with your forehead; painful and messy
get_posts()
• Safer but not ideal
• Limited - Not as powerful or useful
• Some template tags are not included
This is like the little brother of WP_Query. It uses WP_Query behind the scenes, but hides quite a bit from you
WP_Query
• Returns everything you need
• Template tags will work
• Plays nice with the Global Query
• High in fiber http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
query_posts() and get_posts() actually use this internally, but either do other things that you don't want or won’t give you what you want.
Cut out the middle man!
Standard Loop
Examples of the standard loop (before we make it all fancy)
https://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012/blob/master/twentyten_jeff/standard-loop.php
Custom Loop Examples
Homepage:https://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012/blob/master/twentyten_jeff/loop-index.php
Sidebar:https://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012/blob/master/twentyten_jeff/sidebar.php
Pagehttps://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012/blob/master/twentyten_jeff/page_dc.php
Performance Gotchas
• Use caching and transients to improve performance
• Limits load by minimizing database calls
• Always cache your site when using custom loops!
Links:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/http://codex.wordpress.org/Transients_API
Got Questions?
@jeffreymarx
@asapountzis
Code Samples/Resources:
https://github.com/jmarx/Wordcamp-NYC-2012