Using custom post types within a section of a template

Question

I'm trying to get the hang of custom post types and I am trying to get them to loop through the post types within a page template. I'm already using the MultiEdit plugin to display certain content regions within my template. Overall, here is what my template page looks like:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Home Template
MultiEdit:Icons,NameTitle,CategoriesTitle
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<?php query_posts( 'post_type=homecategories'); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<div class="main">

<section>


<div class="icons">
<?php multieditDisplay('Icons'); ?>
</div><!--end icons-->

<div class="slider">

    <?php the_content(); ?>

    </div><!--end slider-->

    <div class="title">
    <?php multieditDisplay('NameTitle'); ?>
    </div>

<div class="categories">

    <?php multieditDisplay('CategoriesTitle'); ?>


    <!--this is where I want the custom posts to loop through-->

    <div class="items">


    <!--image of the custom post type-->
    <img src="" />

    <span><!--title of custom post type--></span>

    </div>
    <!--end of the custom posts loop-->


</div><!--end categoires-->

    <div class="news">

    </div><!--end news-->


        <?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>',      '</p>');     
?>      
</section>
</div><!--end main-->       
    <?php //comments_template(); ?>
    <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
<?php //get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

If I keep it like this the only thing that shows is the entries from the custome post type and nothing else. And what I am trying to accomplish is get it to only display the custom post types within this section in the template:

 <div class="items">


<!--image of the custom post type-->
<img src="" />

<span><!--title of custom post type--></span>

</div>
<!--end of the custom posts loop-->

Like I mentioned, I'm still getting the hang of using and implementing custom post types and I'm not really sure if this is the right way to go or not.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Looping through posts

First of all, you need to have two separate loops - one for whatever it is that it's displaying right now and second one for your custom post type. Right now the block where you want your custom posts to appear is located within the first loop, and that's not good. I suggest that you read up on The Loop, and especially check some examples of multiple loops.

By the way, one can have nested loops, but that's most likely not your case.

Templates

Also, from your comment not sure if that's what you need, but for templating you can always take advantage of WordPress template hierarchy. That way you can have a separate template file for each of your custom post types, and then you fully control how each custom post appears.

For listing posts you need to look at the Custom Post Types display section.