Getting selection of posts based on loop variables via Ajax

Question

For a theme I'm building I'm looking to dynamically load in a selection of posts with Ajax depending on if a user selects a category or a year ('show all posts in 2012').

I've seen many different approaches described on how to implement Ajax in WordPress but they all do one aspect (like infinite scroll for instance). I was wonder if there is one integrated solution that allows to give a variable to the loop via Ajax and a specific selection of posts is returned?

Answer 1

You can easily add whatever variables you want to your AJAX call.

Using jQuery you can set a AJAX action like this:

jQuery.post(
    'your-url-to-admin-ajax.php',
    {
        action: 'your_called_function',
        argument: 'year' or 'category',
        some_other_var: 'some value'
    },
    function( response ) {
        if(response) {
        } else {
        }
    }
);

Then in your functions.php add this:

add_action( 'wp_ajax_nopriv_your_called_function', 'your_called_function' );
add_action( 'wp_ajax_your_called_function', 'your_called_function' );
function your_called_function() {
    $argument = $_POST['argument'];
    $otherVar = $_POST['some_other_var'];
    // now you can do the loop with your argument

    // important to add exit(), or it won't work
    exit();
}

In detail here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tutorial-ajax-wordpress/