Posts of specific category on page and excluded from index.htm

Question

hope things are going well.

I'm trying to create a member's only section specific for posts of about job opportunities. My goal is to have posts of this category displayed on this page and excluded from the index.php page. I have created a template page by altering archive.php. The category ID for this "employment opportunities" category is 9. I have used the following php code to succesfully only display posts from that category on the template page and exclude posts of this category from index.php:

<?php query_posts('cat=9'); ?>

My issues are these.

1. This template page is not keeping the same template formatting as index.php and archive.php, even though I have not changed the CSS in any way. The code for index.php, archive.php, and empopp-template.php are below.

index.php

<?php
/**
* Index Template
*
* This is the default template.  It is used when a more specific template can't be      found to display
* posts.  It is unlikely that this template will ever be used, but there may be rare    cases.
*
* 
* 
*/

get_header(); // Loads the header.php template. ?>

<div class="aside">

    <?php get_template_part( 'menu', 'secondary' ); // Loads the menu-     secondary.php template.  ?>

    <?php get_sidebar( 'primary' ); // Loads the sidebar-primary.php template.   ?>

</div>

<?php do_atomic( 'before_content' ); // oxygen_before_content ?>

<div class="content-wrap">

    <div id="content">

        <?php do_atomic( 'open_content' ); // oxygen_open_content ?>

        <div class="hfeed">

            <?php query_posts('cat=-9'); ?>

            <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>

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

                    <?php do_atomic( 'before_entry' ); // oxygen_before_entry ?>

                        <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?php hybrid_entry_class(); ?>">       

                        <?php do_atomic( 'open_entry' ); // oxygen_open_entry ?>



                        <div class="entry-header">

                            <?php echo apply_atomic_shortcode( 'entry_title', '[entry-title]' ); ?>

                            <?php echo apply_atomic_shortcode( 'byline', '<div class="byline">' . __( '[entry-published] &middot; by [entry-author] &middot; in [entry-terms taxonomy="category" before=""] [entry-edit-link before=" &middot; "]', 'oxygen' ) . '</div>' ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div class="entry-summary">

                            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                            <?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<p class="page-links">' . __( 'Pages:', 'oxygen' ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div>

                            <?php userphoto_the_author_thumbnail() ?>

                        </div>




                        <?php do_atomic( 'close_entry' ); // oxygen_close_entry ?>

                    </div><!-- .hentry -->

                    <?php do_atomic( 'after_entry' ); // oxygen_after_entry ?>

                <?php endwhile; ?>

            <?php else : ?>

                <?php get_template_part( 'loop-error' ); // Loads the loop-error.php template. ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        </div><!-- .hfeed -->

        <?php do_atomic( 'close_content' ); // oxygen_close_content ?>

        <?php get_template_part( 'loop-nav' ); // Loads the loop-nav.php template. ?>

    </div><!-- #content -->

    <?php do_atomic( 'after_content' ); // oxygen_after_content ?>

 <?php get_footer(); // Loads the footer.php template. ?>    

archive.php

<?php
/**
* Archive Template
*
* The archive template is the default template used for archives pages without a more     specific template. 
*
* 
* 
*/

get_header(); // Loads the header.php template. ?>

<div class="aside">

         <?php get_template_part( 'menu', 'secondary' ); // Loads the menu-     secondary.php template.  ?>

    <?php get_sidebar( 'primary' ); // Loads the sidebar-primary.php template.     ?>

</div>

<div class="content-wrap">

    <?php do_atomic( 'before_content' ); // oxygen_before_content ?>

    <div id="content">

        <?php do_atomic( 'open_content' ); // oxygen_open_content ?>

        <div class="hfeed">

            <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>

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

                    <?php do_atomic( 'before_entry' ); //    oxygen_before_entry ?>

                    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?  php hybrid_entry_class(); ?>">     

                        <?php do_atomic( 'open_entry' ); // oxygen_open_entry ?>

                        <div class="entry-header">

                            <?php echo   apply_atomic_shortcode( 'entry_title', '[entry-title]' ); ?>

                            <?php echo   apply_atomic_shortcode( 'byline', '<div class="byline">' . __( '[entry-published] &middot; by [entry-author] &middot; in [entry-terms taxonomy="category" before=""] [entry-edit-link before=" &middot; "]', 'oxygen' ) . '</div>' ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div class="entry-summary">

                            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                            <?php wp_link_pages( array(   'before' => '<p class="page-links">' . __( 'Pages:', 'oxygen' ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div>

                            <?php   userphoto_the_author_thumbnail() ?>

                        </div>


                        <?php do_atomic( 'close_entry' );   // oxygen_close_entry ?>

                    </div><!-- .hentry -->

                    <?php do_atomic( 'after_entry' ); // oxygen_after_entry ?>

                <?php endwhile; ?>

            <?php else : ?>

                <?php get_template_part( 'loop-error' ); // Loads   the loop-error.php template. ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        </div><!-- .hfeed -->

        <?php do_atomic( 'close_content' ); // oxygen_close_content ?>

        <?php get_template_part( 'loop-nav' ); // Loads the loop-nav.php template. ?>

    </div><!-- #content -->

    <?php do_atomic( 'after_content' ); // oxygen_after_content ?>

 <?php get_footer(); // Loads the footer.php template. ?>    

empopp-template.php

<?php
 /**
 * Template Name: Employment Opportunities
 *
 * Employment Opportunities Template. Used to display restricted posts with "employment opportunities"
 * category. Category number is 9
 *
 * 
 * 
 */

 get_header(); // Loads the header.php template. ?>

<div class="aside">

    <?php get_template_part( 'menu', 'secondary' ); // Loads the menu-secondary.php template.  ?>

    <?php get_sidebar( 'primary' ); // Loads the sidebar-primary.php template. ?>

</div>

<div class="content-wrap">

    <?php do_atomic( 'before_content' ); // oxygen_before_content ?>

    <div id="content">

        <?php do_atomic( 'open_content' ); // oxygen_open_content ?>

        <div class="hfeed">

            <?php 

                $args = array('cat' => 30);
                $category_posts = new WP_Query($args);

                if($category_posts->have_posts()) : 
                    while($category_posts->have_posts()) : 
                        $category_posts->the_post();
            ?>

                    <?php do_atomic( 'before_entry' ); // oxygen_before_entry ?>

                    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="<?php hybrid_entry_class(); ?>">       

                        <?php do_atomic( 'open_entry' ); // oxygen_open_entry ?>

                        <div class="entry-header">

                            <?php echo apply_atomic_shortcode( 'entry_title', '[entry-title]' ); ?>

                            <?php echo   apply_atomic_shortcode( 'byline', '<div class="byline">' . __( '[entry-published] &middot; by [entry-author] &middot; in [entry-terms taxonomy="category" before=""] [entry-edit-link before=" &middot; "]', 'oxygen' ) . '</div>' ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div class="entry-summary">

                            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                            <?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<p class="page-links">' . __( 'Pages:', 'oxygen' ), 'after' => '</p>' ) ); ?>

                        </div>

                        <div>

                            <?php     userphoto_the_author_thumbnail() ?>

                        </div>


                        <?php do_atomic( 'close_entry' ); // oxygen_close_entry ?>

                    </div><!-- .hentry -->

                    <?php do_atomic( 'after_entry' ); // oxygen_after_entry ?>

                <?php endwhile; ?>

            <?php else : ?>

                <?php get_template_part( 'loop-error' ); // Loads the loop-error.php template. ?>

            <?php endif; ?>

        </div><!-- .hfeed -->

        <?php do_atomic( 'close_content' ); // oxygen_close_content ?>

        <?php get_template_part( 'loop-nav' ); // Loads the loop-nav.php template. ?>

    </div><!-- #content -->

    <?php do_atomic( 'after_content' ); // oxygen_after_content ?>

<?php get_footer(); // Loads the footer.php template. ?>

The theme I'm using allows for a unique home page where you manually insert posts with various featured images into pre-defined sections. Since this page requires manual post selection, I selected in the settings to have posts go to a separate "news" page. The inclusion/exclusion of a specific category is for specific pages. If I can apply this pre_get_posts to these non-home pages then I should be golden. So far, both the and new one with wp_query is doing the job, but not inheriting the css elements. I really appreciate the help. Thank you. –

The link to the index.php page is http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/bta/news/. That is what ideally I would want the formatting to look like. This formatting is matched on searches and archives as well. The page where I applied the category query to is http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/bta/test/. Thank you for your time.

Could someone please let me know if I've perhaps used the query_posts incorrectly or alternate code to use wp_query (if necessary). My main goal is to have the formatting match. The query_posts appears near line 32 or about 1/3rd of the way down.

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

1. CSS/HTML issues are off-topic for this site, per the FAQ.

But, have you tried investigating with Firebug or Chrome's dev tools? The answer is obvious in seconds. This page http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/bta/test/ has large headings because of

.singular .entry-title {
  font-size: 2em;
  margin-bottom: 0.3em;
}

Since you are running a second loop on a singular page, the body class issue I proposed in the comments is catching you.

2. To best exclude a category from the index loop you should use pre_get_posts.

    function wpa_94196_exclude_category( $query ) {

      if ( is_home() && is_main_query() ) {
        set_query_var( 'cat', '-9' );
      }

    }

    add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wpa_94196_exclude_category' );