Listing all custom post types using a specific term on the said term's template page, in groups

Question

I have a custom tag-like taxonomy called PEOPLE registered to all post types - both the default and custom ones.

I have created a template for a single term named taxonomy-people.php and I'm intending to use it to describe a specific term and query each post type for instances of that term.

I have almost managed to do that, there's a single issue left: I don't know how to get WP_Query to show only results for the current term WITHOUT having to make a specific template for each of the terms, as I will end up having a three-digit number of terms under PEOPLE.

Here's the code that works if I specify a term. What should I replace 'people' => 'dave-lee' with in order to use the same template for each of the terms under PEOPLE?

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div class="eight columns" id="content">

<div class="post">

<div class="inside">

<p class="term-description">
<?php $termDescription = term_description( '', get_query_var( 'taxonomy' ) ); if($termDescription != '') : ?> <?php echo $termDescription; ?> <?php endif; ?>
</p>


<h3>News mentioning <?php $term =   $wp_query->queried_object; echo ''.$term->name.'';?></h3>

<ul>
<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'post', 'people' => 'dave-lee', 'posts_per_page' => 20 ) ); ?>
<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
<li class="archivepostlink"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?>      </a><br />
<?php _e('Published on','jf'); ?> <?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</ul>

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

<h3>Releases <?php $term =  $wp_query->queried_object; echo ''.$term->name.'';?> contributed to:</h3>

<ul>
<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'release', 'people' => 'dave-lee', 'posts_per_page' => 20 ) ); ?>
<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
<li class="archivepostlink"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?>    </a><br />
<?php _e('Published on','jf'); ?> <?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile;?>
</ul>

 <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

 <h3>Songs featuring <?php $term =  $wp_query->queried_object; echo ''.$term->name.'';?>:</h3>

<ul>
<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'song', 'people' => 'dave-lee', 'posts_per_page' => 20 ) ); ?>
<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
<li class="archivepostlink"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br />
<?php _e('Published on','jf'); ?> <?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile;?>
</ul>

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

<h3>Articles, reviews and other pages mentioning <?php $term =  $wp_query->queried_object; echo ''.$term->name.'';?>:</h3>

<ul>
<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'page', 'people' => 'dave-lee',     'posts_per_page' => 20 ) ); ?>
<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
<li class="archivepostlink"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?>    </a><br />
<?php _e('Published on','jf'); ?> <?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></li>
<?php endwhile;?>
</ul>

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

<p>If you think <?php $term =   $wp_query->queried_object; echo ''.$term->name.'';?> was/were a part of something else that has not been listed here, drop a line.</p>
 </div>
 </div>
 </div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Thank you.

Answer 1

Your code, when working, will consume sooo much resources. When implemented in this way - throught custom page template, WordPress will call for a content of that page (1 query) and after that it will call a query for each custom post type - another 4 queries. That's a lot, really.

I would suggest you to take the advantage of pre_get_posts hook, where you can alter the query before any query is run. There you can specify what post types shold be queried. You can use something like this:

function extend_post_type( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_archive() && isset($query->query_vars['people']) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'release', 'song', 'page') );
        $query->set( 'posts_per_page', -1 );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'extend_post_type' );

In this way, you'll get the query full of post_types from people taxonomy. Now it's time to loop the whole query and sortout the content by post type.

I would use something like that:

if ( have_posts() ) {
    while( have_posts() ) { the_post();
        if ( get_post_type() == 'post' ){
                $posts_html .= '<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ).'">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
        }elseif( get_post_type() == 'page' ){
                $pages_html .= '<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ).'">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
        }elseif( get_post_type() == 'song' ){
                $songs_html .= '<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ).'">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
        }elseif( get_post_type() == 'release' ){
                $releases_html .= '<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ).'">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
        }
    }
    $term = get_term_by('slug', get_query_var( 'people' ), 'people' );
    echo '<h2>News for "'.$term->name.'"';
    echo $posts_html;
    echo '<h2>Releases for "'.$term->name.'"';
    echo $releases_html;
    echo '<h2>Songs for "'.$term->name.'"';
    echo $songs_html;
    echo '<h2>Pages for "'.$term->name.'"';
    echo $pages_html;
}

This approach uses only one query request and thus is resources friendly.

Answer 2

If you have taxonomy people, and people like Bobby Lee, Michael Jordan, Matt Mullenweg.

whenever someone goes to the page: http://domain.tld/people/bobby-lee, he will get all the posts that are in that taxonomy. No matter the post type.

Iva said:

I don't know how to get WP_Query to show only results for the current term WITHOUT having to make a specific template for each of the terms

If you go to: http://etfovac.com/tehnologije/torenti/ You will see that taxonomy tehnologije spans two post types (tutorials and wordpress) and that both are being displayed for the term torenti in the tehnologije taxonomy.

Therefore, my response is: Do not mess with WP_Query. Default Query will pull all the posts that contain specific term.

Answer 3

Don't use WP_Query, use query_posts instead to modify the query.

WP_Query overrides everything.