the_permalink() leads back to homepage

Question

I am trying to create my first wordpress theme. But I have run into som problems. When I click the link (the_permalink()) it leads back to the homepage. I get the right URL but the URL is showing the homepage, so I feel I am missing something.

So far I got a header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php, functions.php, style.css and index.php. The index file contains my loop.

I have also created a custom post type. And it is the custom post type I am looping in index.php.

What am I missing? Why does the permalink lead me to the homepage (loop page/index.php)? I have tried created single.php and single-customposttypeslug.php both empty so far. But that did'nt sovle my problem.

So what am I missing? I have been googling, searching SO and looked into the codex but I can't figure out what I am doing worng..

My permalinks looks like this websitename.com/index.php/property/test6/

The Loop:

<?php
/* START THE LOOP */
$loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'properties', 'posts_per_page' => 8 ) ); ?>
<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); 
/* GET METADATA */
$city = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'city_id', true );
$rentorsale = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'rentorsale_id', true );
$price = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'price_id', true );
$livingarea = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'livingarea_id', true ); 
$bedrooms = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'bedrooms_id', true ); 
$bathrooms = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'bathrooms_id', true ); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
    <div class="col-md-3"> <!-- START BS COL-MD-3 -->
        <div class="poststyle"> <!-- START POSTSTYLE -->
            <div class="postheader"> <!-- START POSTHEADER -->
                <h2><?php echo $city; ?></h2>
            </div> <!-- END POSTHEADER -->
            <div class="imgcontainer"> <!-- START IMGCONTAINER -->
                <?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
                <img src="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory'); ?>/img/1.jpg" alt="property" title="Real Estate"/>
                <div class="rentorsale"> <!-- START RENTORSALE -->
                    <p><?php echo $rentorsale; ?></p>
                </div> <!-- END RENTORSALE -->
                <div class="price"> <!-- START PRICE -->
                    <p><?php echo $price; ?> <i class="fa fa-usd"></i></p>
                </div> <!-- END PRICE -->
            </div> <!-- END IMGCONTAINER -->
            <table class="table"> <!-- START BS TABLE -->
                <tr>
                    <td>Size</td>
                    <td><?php echo $livingarea; ?></td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Bedrooms</td>
                    <td><?php echo $bedrooms; ?></td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Bathrooms</td>
                    <td><?php echo $bathrooms; ?></td>
                </tr>
            </table> <!-- END BS TABLE -->
        </div> <!-- END POSTSTYLE -->
    </div> <!-- END BS COL-MD-3 -->
</a>
<?php endwhile; wp_reset_query();
?>

Register custom post type:

    <?php

add_action( 'init', 'properties_post_type' );

function properties_post_type() {

    $args = array(

        'description'         => __( 'Post type to manage properties', ' ' ), // string
        'public'              => true, // bool (default is FALSE)
        'publicly_queryable'  => true, // bool (defaults to 'public').
        'exclude_from_search' => false, // bool (defaults to 'public')
        'show_in_nav_menus'   => false, // bool (defaults to 'public')
        'show_ui'             => true, // bool (defaults to 'public')
        'show_in_menu'        => true, // bool (defaults to 'show_ui')
        'show_in_admin_bar'   => true, // bool (defaults to 'show_in_menu')
        'menu_position'       => 6, // int (defaults to 25 - below comments)
        'menu_icon'           => null, // string (defaults to use the post icon)
        'can_export'          => true, // bool (defaults to TRUE)
        'delete_with_user'    => true, // bool (defaults to TRUE if the post type supports 'author')
        'hierarchical'        => false, // bool (defaults to FALSE)
        'has_archive'         => 'false', // bool|string (defaults to FALSE)
        'query_var'           => 'properties', // bool|string (defaults to TRUE - post type name)
        'capability_type'     => 'post', // string|array (defaults to 'post')
        'map_meta_cap'        => true, // bool (defaults to FALSE)

        'rewrite' => array(

            'slug'       => 'property', // string (defaults to the post type name)
            'with_front' => false, // bool (defaults to TRUE)
            'pages'      => true, // bool (defaults to TRUE)
            'feeds'      => true, // bool (defaults to the 'has_archive' argument)
            'ep_mask'    => EP_PERMALINK, // const (defaults to EP_PERMALINK)
        ),


        'supports' => array(
            'title',
            'editor',
            'excerpt',
            'author',
            'thumbnail',
            'trackbacks',
            'custom-fields',
            'revisions',
            'page-attributes',
            'post-formats',
        ),

        'labels' => array(
            'name'               => __( 'Properties',                   ' ' ),
            'singular_name'      => __( 'Property',                    ' ' ),
            'menu_name'          => __( 'Properties',                   ' ' ),
            'name_admin_bar'     => __( 'Properties',                   ' ' ),
            'add_new'            => __( 'Add New',                    ' ' ),
            'add_new_item'       => __( 'Add New Property',            ' ' ),
            'edit_item'          => __( 'Edit Property',               ' ' ),
            'new_item'           => __( 'New Property',                ' ' ),
            'view_item'          => __( 'View Property',               ' ' ),
            'search_items'       => __( 'Search Properties',            ' ' ),
            'not_found'          => __( 'No properties found',          ' ' ),
            'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No properties found in trash', ' ' ),
            'all_items'          => __( 'All properties',               ' ' ),
            'archive_title'      => __( 'Properties',                   ' ' ),
        )
    );

    /* Register the post type. */
    register_post_type(
        'properties', 
        $args      // Arguments for post type.
    );
}

?>

Answer 1

index.php is not the template for the homepage, it's the fallback template. Right now every page you load is falling back to the catch all index.php template, but your index.php doesn't have a main loop, and isn't set up as the fallback catch all template. Instead it's doing its own new query and displaying the results.

So no, you're not being redirected to the homepage, rather, you're displaying the homepage on every page. Move your homepage code into a homepage template, e.g. home.php or a page template called home. index.php should be the last resort fallback, with a generic main loop.

I recommend you take a look at the template hierarchy to see how WordPress decides which template to load, and what you can implement