Custom shortcode not displaying categories and correct date

Question

I wrote a short code to work with an event plugin (the plugin creates the custom post type of event). I want to pull all future events from the database that use a specific category and list them on the page in order of the event date. The events are showing up but the category selection is not working and it is also showing past events.

Here is my shortcode:

/* Exhibitions Shortcode */
add_shortcode( 'event_list', 'eventList' );
function eventList( $atts ) {
    ob_start();
    $query = new WP_Query( array(
        'post_type' => 'event',
        'tax' => '',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'date_query' => array(
        array(
        'column' => 'event_start_date',
        'after' => date('F j, Y'),
        ),
        ),
        'posts_per_page' => '',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        'orderby' => 'event_start_date',
    ) );
    if ( $query->have_posts() ) { ?>
    <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>
    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="eventListing">
    <div class="column oneThird">
           <?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { the_post_thumbnail(); } ?>
            </div>
            <div class="column twoThird last">
           <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3></a>
           <?php echo get_the_content( $more_link_text, $stripteaser ); ?>
            </div>
            </div>
            <?php endwhile;
            wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
    <?php $myvariable = ob_get_clean();
    return $myvariable;
    }
}
/* END Exhibitons */

the shortcode in use is [event_list tax="exhibitions" posts_per_page="3"]

UPDATED CODE With Categories working:

/* Exhibitions Shortcode */
add_shortcode( 'event_list', 'eventList' );
function eventList( $atts ) {
    ob_start();
    $query = new WP_Query( array(
        'post_type' => 'event',
        'tax_query' => array(
            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'event-categories',
                'field' => 'slug',
                'terms' => $atts['tax'],
            ),  
        ),
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'date_query' => array(
            'after' => date('F j, Y'),
            'column' => 'event_start_date',
        ),
        'posts_per_page' => $atts['posts_per_page'],
        'order' => 'ASC',
        'orderby' => 'event_start_date',
    ) );
    if ( $query->have_posts() ) { ?>
    <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>
    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="eventListing">
    <div class="column oneThird">
           <?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { the_post_thumbnail(); } ?>
            </div>
            <div class="column twoThird last">
           <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3></a>
           <?php echo get_the_content( $more_link_text, $stripteaser ); ?>
            </div>
            </div>
            <?php endwhile;
            wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
    <?php $myvariable = ob_get_clean();
    return $myvariable;
    }
}
/* END Exhibitons */

Answer 1

Just by looking at your code I see a few places I'd investigate.

1) I don't see any use of the $atts that come through the shortcode. Specifically the 'tax' and 'post_per_page' attributes.

So try changing this;

'tax' => '',

to this:

'tax_query' => array(
    array(
        'taxonomy' => 'category',
        'field'    => 'slug',
        'terms'    => '$atts['tax']',
    ),
),

And same with the empty posts_per_page:

'posts_per_page' => '$atts['posts_per_page']',

Looks liek you got issue 1 fixed. Good job. :)

2) To fix the date issue we probably need to know how the custom field created by the events plugin is storing the event date.

EDIT: Yep. So it appears the plugin that created the custom post types also created a custom DB table. and if you are to get the event_start_date you'll need to refer to that custom table.

Answer 2

this will work with an theme but a couple things to note, the code is looking for a custom post type of 'event' and it is sorting the order of the events by 'event_start_date' if you were to change those to match whatever plugin you are using you could totally use it! you could also add those as attributes in the the shortcode itself but i am not a huge fan of super long shortcodes myself.