Nothing appears using get_the_excerpt() in category.php

Question

Using the category.php template file and I can get all other information about a post except the excerpt or the content. Here's the code I'm using:

$cat = get_queried_object();
$posts = get_posts(array('posts_per_page' => 15, 'offset' => 0, 'category' => $cat->term_id));

                foreach($posts as $post)
                {
                    $postID = $post->ID;
                    $title = get_the_title($postID);
                    $link = get_permalink($postID);
                    $date = get_the_date('M. j, Y', $postID);
                    $authors = coauthors_posts_links(null, null, null, null, false);
                    $excerpt = get_the_excerpt($postID);
                    $thumb = get_the_post_thumbnail($post, array('class' => 'front-page-tease-sm'));

                    echo '<div class="category-post">';

                    // Left box - date
                    printf('<div class="date">%1$s</div>', esc_attr($date));

                    // Middle box flex - headline, author, and excerpt
                    echo '<div class="category-post-info">';
                    printf('<a class="category-headline" href="%1$s">%2$s</a>', esc_attr($link), esc_html($title));
                    printf('<div class="category-author">By %1$s</div>', $authors);
                    printf('<div class="category-tease">%1$s</div>', $excerpt);
                    echo '</div>';

                    // Right box - thumbnail
                    printf($thumb);

                    echo '</div>';
                }

This code does exactly what I expect it to do except for when it comes to excerpts. It prints nothing for the excerpt, not even HTML tags.

Answer 1

I have checked the code. There are some issues in your code :

1. There is not any method 'coauthors_posts_links' but WordPress provides a method the_author_posts_link();.
2. Also for the 'get_the_post_thumbnail()' function 2nd parameter must be image size like

   $thumb = get_the_post_thumbnail($post, 'thumbnail',array('class' => 'front-page-tease-sm'));

I have updated the code. For 'coauthors_posts_links()' no idea what you want to do here ?

$cat = get_queried_object();
$posts = get_posts(array('posts_per_page' => 15, 'offset' => 0, 'category' => 1));

                foreach($posts as $post)
                {
                    $postID = $post->ID;
                    $title = get_the_title($postID);
                    $link = get_permalink($postID);
                    $date = get_the_date('M. j, Y', $postID);
                    $authors = '';
                    $excerpt = get_the_excerpt($postID);
                    $thumb = get_the_post_thumbnail($post, 'thumbnail',array('class' => 'front-page-tease-sm'));

                    echo '';

                    // Left box - date
                    printf('%1$s', esc_attr($date));

                    // Middle box flex - headline, author, and excerpt
                    echo '';
                    printf('%2$s', esc_attr($link), esc_html($title));
                    printf('By %1$s', $authors);
                    printf('%1$s', $excerpt);
                    echo '';

                    // Right box - thumbnail
                    printf($thumb);

                    echo '';
                }

Answer 2

I'm going to say you have a filter running on the excerpt.

Have you tried just echoing it instead of print?

<?php echo 'here is my excerpt: '.$excerpt;?>

Also if there is a filter somewhere and you can't find it, you could try:

//$excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); // This doesn't work

// Let's do it like the get_the_excerpt filter function in the core does
// Get Excerpt directly without filters.
$excerpt = $post->post_excerpt;

// Choose what to do based on whether it's empty or not
if ($excerpt != '') echo $excerpt;
else echo 'some fallback';