Single page theme

Question

I am trying to create single page theme.

What i have trouble with is understanding this whole wordpress query logic.

There is query object and supposedly i get all published posts like this:

$query = new WP_Query( array ( 
    'orderby' => 'menu_order', 
    'order' => 'ASC', 
    'post_type' => array( 'page' ), 
    'post_status' => array( 'publish' ) ) );

and can loop over them like this :

while ( $query->have_posts() ) {
    $query->the_post();
    echo '<li>' . the_title() . '</li>';
}

But then what? I cant even figure out that codex - where are all the functions of post object that i can use? Like the_title()? Where is that in codex?

What i want to achieve seemed pretty simple and straightforward - load all pages with nested subpages and then just print them out on single page similar to the loop above... But this codex is driving me crazy :P

But is this even best approach? Should i be defining my query somewhere else (as opposed to index.php like im doing now)? Should i be somehow using wordpress original page loading which displays pages using their templates (if they have one) or using something similar to content-page.php like the one that default themes have?

Alan

Answer 1

WordPress queries are indeed represented by WP_Query objects. The snippet example you have is secondary query, as opposed to main query - which is run by WP itself during core load and stored in global $wp_query variable.

Typically it is better (for performance and compatibility) to modify main query for set of posts that is main to page - see pre_get_posts hook documentation.

When you are running query loop, what happens is that WP fills number of global variables (main being $post) with data for current post. Functions that access those variables and output information (such as the_title()) are called template Tags and Codex has list of them that should get you started.

Answer 2

Usually "single page" refers to sites that manipulate content via Javascript. I can't tell if that is what you are trying to do. If fact, it kinda sounds like it isn't, so I am assuming that it isn't for now.

WordPress populates the query for all of the major pages. That default query is commonly called the "main query" and it stored in a global variable called $wp_query, which the Loop functions assume unless told otherwise. In other words, this...

if (have_posts()) {
  while (have_posts()) {

  }
} 

... is the same as this...

if ($wp_query->have_posts()) {
  while ($wp_query->have_posts()) {

  }
} 

You should not as a rule, nor should you need to, create a new query for those basic pages. If you need to alter the query, you would do so via pre_get_posts.

The other functions you refer to-- the_title, etc-- are "Template Tags"

Should I be somehow using wordpress original page loading which displays pages using their templates (if they have one) or using something similar to content-page.php like the one that default themes have?

Probably, yes. But again, I am not 100% sure what you are doing.

Answer 3

According to

What i want to achieve seemed pretty simple and straightforward - load all pages with nested subpages and then just print them out on single page

I guess he tries to create a One-Pager-Theme like http://dev.zeotheory.com/micropage/ . It would be very helpful to know how complex your theme will get. Basically you could start with altering the mainquery on your home page with pre_get_posts and the Conditional Tag is_home to show top level pages only. This could be done by adding this to your functions.php:

function show_all_pages_on_index( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set('post_type', 'page');
        $query->set('showposts', '-1');
        $query->set('post_parent', '0');
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'show_all_pages_on_index' );