List archived posts by subcategory

Question

I would like to override the default post archives, via category.

In some cases (not all), I have 2 level-categories, such as:

Parent Category: "Video"

• Subcategory "Comedy"
• Subcategory "Action"

But some other categories, are just single-level.

Currently, no matter which category you choose, you get a list of posts, no matter whether its a main- or sub- category.

What I would like to do, is when entering the category listing, there is a test of sub-categories exist, and if so, the posts should be lists as such:

Heading: Video

Comedy

• post 1
• post 2
• post 3

Action

• post 4
• post 5
• post 6

If however, there are no subcategories, than the default listing is displayed:

Heading: Books

• post 7
• post 8
• post 9

How can this be done?

I have very basic PHP knowledge, and have a PHPCode script installed, but I'm not sure how to access the archive/category page.

If its relevant, I am using Avada (child) theme.

Answer 1

In your Avada's child theme update your category.php, if its there or else create new file with that name and add the code as below:

<?php
$current_cat = get_queried_object();

echo 'Heading: '.$current_cat->name;

$subcategories = get_categories(
    array( 'parent' => $current_cat->term_id )
);
if(!empty($subcategories)){
    foreach($subcategories as $cat){
        echo '<br>'.$cat->name.'<br>';
        $cat_posts = get_posts( array(
            'posts_per_page' => -1,
            'category'       => $cat->term_id
        ) );

        if ( $cat_posts ) {
            foreach ( $cat_posts as $post ) :
                echo $post->post_title.'<br>';
            endforeach;
        }
    }
}else{
    $cat_posts = get_posts( array(
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'category'       => $current_cat->term_id
    ) );

    if ( $cat_posts ) {
        foreach ( $cat_posts as $post ) :
            echo $post->post_title.'<br>';
        endforeach;
    }
}

It'll print exactly as you asked for.

Update: To get the posts as links, we can add tags like this:

Change everywhere:

echo $post->post_title.'<br>';

To:

echo '<a href="'.get_permalink().'">'.$post->post_title.'</a><br>';

It'll make posts as links.

Answer 2

You can try something like this:

It checks, if category has parent

<?php if ( have_posts() ) {
$this_category = get_category($cat);
?>
 <!-- If category is parent, list stuff in here -->
 <?php if ($this_category->category_parent == 0){ ?>
  <p>i am parent category</p>

 <!-- If category is child, list stuff in here -->
 <?php } elseif ($this_category->category_parent != 0) { ?>
  <p>i am child category</p>

 <?php } else { ?>
  <p>i am post in category</p>
<?php } else {
get_template_part( 'loop-templates/content', 'none' );
}
?>