Tag template not returning posts [closed]

Question

I have the following code which SHOULD print out the title of all posts with the associated tag (in this case the tag is 'icon'):

<?php
    $tagname = get_query_var('tag');
?>

 <?php 
    if( is_tag()  ){
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
    query_posts( array('post_type'=>array( 'photo', 'post'),'paged'=>$paged, 'tag'=>$tagname ) );
    }
?>

<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
<div class="item">      

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php printf( esc_attr__( 'Permalink to %s', 'twentyten' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ); ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

</div>
</div><!-- #post-## -->

<?php endwhile; // End the loop. Whew. ?>

    <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

I can confirm that $tagname contains the value of 'icon' when echoed. The problem is, no posts are being returned when I know there are 8 posts with the tag 'icon'!

Why is that?

Answer 1

The is_tag() conditional tag returns true if fed an existing tag slug or an array of existing tag slugs.

If used without an argument, as you currently are doing, it returns true when on a tag archive page.

I am assuming your above custom loop is not an archive page?! If so, is_tag() returns false and your query isn't run.

Also note that, if this is a secondary loop/query, you should use the WP_Query class instead. Read why.