Fields are not displayed on front end under custom php code in Advanced Custom Fields and Flexible Content field WordPress

Question

I use Advanced Custom Fields WordPress plugin and the Flexible Content fields. So in one of the fields I need to include a php file, so I do it like this:

<?php elseif( get_row_layout() == 'block_3_posts' ): ?>
<div class="cb-blog-content block_3_posts"><?php require_once 'thecategorypoststobe.php'; ?></div>

What does this file do? It shows a three most viewed posts from a category. All this is located on a custom single post page. So all the posts are shown successfully but below them all the other Flexible Content fields (if I place them there) are not shown. Above the three posts all fields are displayed normally, but below - not. What could be the reason? I tried make separate loops, put the code directly without the require_once - nothing worked. As for the rest of the functionality - everything works fine, the fields move and alternate, but not under these three posts. This is the code from thecategorypoststobe.php file -->

<?php 

function catch_that_image() {
        global $post, $posts;
        $first_img = '';
        ob_start();
        ob_end_clean();
        $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+?src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*?>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
        $first_img = $matches[1][0];
      
        if ( empty( $first_img ) ) {
                $first_img = "/path/to/default.png";
        }

        return $first_img;
}

$category_id = $cbcategory[0]->cat_ID;
         
$args_views = array( 
        'post_type'      => 'post',
        'cat'            => $category_id, 
        'posts_per_page' => 3,
        'meta_key'       => 'views',
        'orderby'        => array( 'meta_value' => 'DESC' ),
);

 
$wp_query = new WP_Query( $args_views );
if ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) : 
        while( $wp_query->have_posts() ) : $wp_query->the_post(); 
        ?>

        <div class="cb-content-most-viewed">
                <div class="cb-img-container-most-viewed">
                        <?php
                        if ( get_the_post_thumbnail( get_the_ID()) != '' ) {
                                echo '<a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '" class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
                                        the_post_thumbnail();
                                echo '</a>';
                        } else {
                                $image_url = catch_that_image(); 
                                $image_id = attachment_url_to_postid( $image_url );
                                $alt = get_post_meta( $image_id, '_wp_attachment_image_alt', true );

                                echo '<a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '" class="thumbnail-wrapper">';
                                echo '<img src="';
                                echo catch_that_image();
                                echo '" alt="' . $alt . '" />';
                                echo '</a>';
                        } 

                echo '</div>'; // .cb-img-container-most-viewed
                ?>

                <div class="preview-content">
                        <?php
                        if ( ! empty( $thecbcategory ) ) {
                                echo '<a href="' . get_category_link($category_id) . '"><div class="category-name">' . $thecbcategory . '</a></div>';
                        } 
                        ?>

                        <h3 class="h3-title-blog">
                                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="Читать дальше">
                                        <?php echo mb_strimwidth( get_the_title(), 0, 60, '...' ); ?>
                                </a>
                        </h3>

                        <div class="cb-post-views">
                                <img src="/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/views.svg" alt="">
                                <?php echo do_shortcode('[views]'); ?>
                        </div>
                </div>
        </div>

        <?php 
        endwhile; 

        wp_reset_postdata();
endif;  

Answer 1

Recommend changing $wp_query to a different name: because it's a custom WP_Query, best not to use a variable name that WP core uses.

You likely don't need wp_reset_postdata(), but I could be mistaken on that (I've not needed to wp_reset_postdata() recently).