How do I query posts and have their related taxonomies returned in the results?

Question

I have created a custom post type that contains television channel data. Each channel has its own post. I have also created a custom taxonomy of channel groups. What I want to do is query all the data and display it all on a table on a single page like so:

Channel # | Channel Name | Basic Package | Delux Package | Elite Package
1         | NBC          | X             | X             | X
2         | ESPN Classic |               | X             | X

What I need is a query that will return the related taxonomies for each post. This is what I have so far:

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'my_channel',
    'numberposts' => -1,
    'order_by' => 'menu_order',
    'order' => 'ASC',
    'tax_query' => array(
        array(
            'taxonomy' => 'my_channel_package',
            'field' => 'slug',
            'terms' => array('basic', 'delux', 'elite'),
        ),
    ),
);

$posts_array = get_posts($args);

But the post array does not return the taxonomy data. Is my next option to query the database with custom SQL or am I missing a feature in the WordPress API?

Thanks! Jason

Answer 1

Welcome to WPSE Jason, get_posts is for querying posts, and the tax_query part of that allows you to select posts which belong to taxonomies of a certain criteria.

To get the taxonomy terms of a particular post, use get_the_terms, to which you pass the post's ID and a taxonomy. It returns an array of taxonomy term objects associated to that post, and belonging to that specified taxonomy.

Example usage:

<?php
$terms = get_the_terms( $post->ID, 'on-draught' );
//Echo a list of 'on-draught' terms for this post   
echo '<ul>';                    
if ( $terms && ! is_wp_error( $terms ) ) : 
    foreach ( $terms as $term ) {
        echo '<li>'.$term->name.'</li>';
    }
echo '</ul>';
?>