get_posts() returns all posts rather than the ones specified with 'post_author' =>

Question

I want to retrieve an array with the posts of a certain user for a custom post type category.

However, get_posts($arg) returns ALL posts of this custom post type, although I specified the post_author

<?php $pages = get_posts(array('post_type'  => 'profile','post_author' => $post->post_author)); ?>

<?php var_dump ($pages); ?>

In this example $post->post_author is 11. However, the result of the code above is:

array(3) { 
[0]=> object(WP_Post)#343 (24) { 
["ID"]=> int(2326)
["post_author"]=> string(2) "11" 
..etc.} 
[1]=> object(WP_Post)#352 (24) { 
["ID"]=> int(2324) 
["post_author"]=> string(1) "0" 
 ...etc.}
[2]=> object(WP_Post)#395 (24) { 
["ID"]=> int(2322)
["post_author"]=> string(1) "0" 
...etc.} 

Why does get_posts() returns posts of authors whose ID is not 11?

Answer 1

post_author is not a valid parameter for get_posts. You really need to look at WP_Query's argument list to see that, as get_posts() is really just a wrapper around that class.

• author (int) - use author id.
• author_name (string) - use 'user_nicename' (NOT name).
• author__in (array) - use author id (available with Version 3.7).
• author__not_in (array) - use author id (available with Version 3.7).

http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Author_Parameters

What you want is author without the post_ part. Try that, and it should work.

Answer 2

As it is totally unclear where $post->post_author comes from, the most likely issue is, that you are either not referring to the $GLOBALS['post'] instance of WP_Post or that you have another query after your main loop, which replaces the main query.

You best shot probably will be to use wp_reset_query(). This will realign the $GLOBALS['wp_query'] object which holds the current query with $GLOBALS['wp_the_query'] again, which holds the main query and afterwards call wp_reset_postdata() to rewind the main query.

If that doesn't help, then the chance that some plugin (or you) or the theme used query_posts(), which overwrites the global $wp_the_query object and therefore messes up your loop.