Echo a shortcode div after every 3 posts

Question

In my wordpress home.php file, I have placed an increment loop with the help of a few stackexchange threads:

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
    <?php $count = 0; ?>
    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
        <?php $count++; ?>
    <?php if ($count == 3) : ?>
        <?php if (function_exists ('adinserter')) echo adinserter (1); ?>
        <?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
        <?php $count = 0; ?>    
    <?php else : ?>
        <?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
 <?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Where, inside the content.php file, I have the following:

<div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-3">
            <?php
            if ( has_post_thumbnail()) {
                echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($post->ID) . '" >';
                the_post_thumbnail('my_feature_image', array( 'class' => "img-responsive" ));
                echo '</a>';
            }
            ?>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-9">
            <h3 class="article-list-header"><strong><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></strong></h3>
            <h4 class="article-list-subheader"><?php the_time('l, F jS, Y'); ?></h4>
            <p><?php the_content(); ?></p>
    </div>
</div>

As you can see above, I have tried to place this: <?php if (function_exists ('adinserter')) echo adinserter (1); ?> after every three posts which doesn't seem to work no matter what value I add to the count. It echo the php function at random positions and it also doesn't seem to work on the next page of my infinite scroll homepage.

Can I please get some pointers on what I'm doing wrong here.

Answer 1

First, let's clean up this tag SPAM nightmare so we can read it and then simplify the code:

function adinserter() {
  return 'abcdefg';
}

if (have_posts()) { 
  $count = 0; 
  while (have_posts()) { 
    the_post(); 
    $count++; 
    get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); 
    if ($count == 3) { 
      if (function_exists ('adinserter')) {
        echo adinserter (1); 
      }
      $count = 0; 
    }
  } 
}

You were duplicating code by having get_template_part() inside and else conditional and also inside the if itself. That code runs all the time. It doesn't need to be in a conditional at all.

Next, your code works except for the placement of the echo function. Placing that before get_template_part() made the first add come out between posts #2 and #3-- which is what I assume you mean by the code being inserted "at random positions". The rest dropped in correctly. The way you had the if/else written this may have been hard to spot, but as soon as I cleaned that up the answer was fairly obvious.

So far, not much WordPress to it. The WordPress is this: you don't need the counter. There is one built into the Loop. It is provided for you.

if (have_posts()) { 
  while (have_posts()) { 
    the_post(); 
    get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); 
    if ($wp_query->current_post !== 0 && ($wp_query->current_post+1)%3 == 0) { 
      if (function_exists ('adinserter')) {
        echo adinserter (1); 
      }
    }
  } 
}

As far as why it doesn't work with your infinite scroll, I can't say as I don't know how your infinite scroll works.