Custom Post Type Archive Page: Set Posts Per Page, Paginate

Question

I have a custom post type called video. Would like to paginate its archive page, showing only 3 posts on each page.

There is also a custom loop on the archive page that outputs all the video posts (for a thumbnail gallery).

This is the archive-video.php:

<?php while( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
    MAIN LOOP...
<?php endwhile; wp_reset_query(); ?>

<?php next_posts_link(); previous_posts_link(); >

<?php $custom_loop = new WP_Query( array('post_type' => 'video', 'posts_per_page' => '-1' ) );
<?php while ( $custom_loop->have_posts() ) : $custom_loop->the_post(); ?>
    CUSTOM LOOP...
<?php endwhile; ?>

I've tried to set the posts_per_page to 3 using pre_get_posts (code here). The pagination would work perfectly, but the custom loop now outputs only 3 posts and not all the posts!

Anyone with a hard-coded/non-plugin solution? Have been googling to no avail... Any advice/help would be most appreciated!!!

Answer 1

The code in the link you posted will (using pre_get_posts) will always change the number of posts_per_page to 3 if you are querying posts from that type. So a better solution would be to not use that code and simply above you code, before :

<?php while( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

add:

if ( get_query_var('paged') )
    $paged = get_query_var('paged');
elseif ( get_query_var('page') )
    $paged = get_query_var('page');
else
    $paged = 1;
query_posts(array('post_type' => 'video', 'posts_per_page' => '3', 'paged' => $paged ));

and this will only effect that query and not all queries of that post type.

Update:

the structure of your code should look like this:

if ( get_query_var('paged') )
    $paged = get_query_var('paged');
elseif ( get_query_var('page') )
    $paged = get_query_var('page');
else
    $paged = 1;
query_posts(array('post_type' => 'video', 'posts_per_page' => '3', 'paged' => $paged ));
while( have_posts() ) : the_post(); 
    //MAIN LOOP...
endwhile; wp_reset_query(); 

next_posts_link(); previous_posts_link(); 

$custom_loop = new WP_Query( array('post_type' => 'video', 'posts_per_page' => '-1' ) );
while ( $custom_loop->have_posts() ) : $custom_loop->the_post();
    //CUSTOM LOOP...
endwhile;
wp_reset_query(); 

Answer 2

I would use the pre_get_posts hook in your case and I would filter the main query. Add the following code to your functions.php

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', function ( $query ) {
  if ( $query->is_post_type_archive( 'video' ) && $query->is_main_query() && ! is_admin() ) {
    $query->set( 'posts_per_page', 3 );
  }
} );

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Try 'paged' => $paged, after new WP_Query( array('post_type' => 'video', and change 'posts_per_page' => '-1' to 'posts_per_page' => '3'