adding custom meta as well as looping through posts

Question

I am grabbing two sets of custom meta and looping through the posts, order goes: custom meta1, posts, custom meta2. but for some reason the second set of custom meta wont show up if I add the posts loop.

does custom meta have to be within the loop? it seems to work if there is no loop call.

here is what my code looks like:

<div class="col_1 maxheight">
  <h1><a href="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Title_Home.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-14" title="Title_Home" src="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Title_Home.png" alt="" width="235" height="25" /></a></h1>
  <p class="BodyHeader">
    <?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column1title', true) ) : ?>
    <?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column1title', true) ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
  </p>
  <?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column1', true) ) : ?>
  <?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column1', true) ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
  <br /><br />
  <a href="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/eco-friendly_img.jpeg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11" title="eco-friendly_img" src="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/eco-friendly_img.jpeg" alt="" width="200" height="218" /></a>
</div>
<div class="separator maxheight"></div>



<div class="col_2 maxheight">
  <h1></h1>
  <p class="BodyHeader">Latest News</p>



<?php
$args = array( 'post_type' => 'post');
$post_query = new WP_Query($args);
if($post_query->have_posts() ) {
  while($post_query->have_posts() ) {
    $post_query->the_post();
?>
    <p class="BodySubHeader"><a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
    <p><?php the_content(); ?></p>
    <?php
  }
}
?>
</div>

<div class="separator maxheight"></div>
<div class="col_3 maxheight">
  <h1></h1>
  <p class="BodyHeader">
  <?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column3title', true) ) : ?>
  <?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column3title', true) ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
  </p>
  <?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column3', true) ) : ?>
  <?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'column3', true) ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
  <br /><br />
  <a href="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/MissionStatement_small_web.jpeg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15" title="MissionStatement_small_web" src="http://localhost/AMR/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/MissionStatement_small_web.jpeg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a>
</div>

it is on a page so I think $post->ID is setting ID to last post hence, not pulling any meta because there is no meta for last post. but not sure how to get around this.

Answer 1

You have to wp_reset_postdata() after your custom loop to restore the global $post variable.