WP_Query class ignores all arguments in custom post type

[arsalkeen]

WP_Query is ignoring all the arguments that I send while instantiating it in a custom post type archive page. It works fine when pagination link is 1, but it completely ignores all the arguments when pagination link is /page/2

However, when I use the same code as a template, it shows everything correctly. It only ignores the arguments on the custom post archive page.

Can you please post some minimal code which can be used to demonstrate the problem you're having?

Here goes the code...

I include a file with the following code in my functions.php to register the new post type.

//Adding custom post type eb_slider
add_action( 'init', 'create_service_post_type' );
function create_service_post_type() {
	
	$labels = array(
	    'name' => _x('Services', 'post type general name'),
	    'singular_name' => _x('Service', 'post type singular name'),
	    'add_new' => _x('Add New', 'slider'),
	    'add_new_item' => __('Add New Service'),
	    'edit_item' => __('Edit Service'),
	    'new_item' => __('New Service'),
	    'all_items' => __('All Services'),
	    'view_item' => __('View Service'),
	    'search_items' => __('Search Service'),
	    'not_found' =>  __('No services found'),
	    'not_found_in_trash' => __('No services found in Trash'), 
	    'parent_item_colon' => '',
	    'menu_name' => 'Services'
	
	);
	
	register_post_type( 'eb_service',
						array(
								'labels' 		=> $labels,
								'description' 	=> __( 'This is the post type to display services.' ),
								'public' 		=> true,
								'supports'		=> array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'author', 'custom-fields', 'excerpt'),
								'show_ui'		=> true,
								'menu_position'	=> 6,
								'capability_type'	=> 'post',
								'has_archive'	=> 'service',
								'rewrite'		=> array('slug' => 'service', 'with_front' => false, 'pages' => true),
								'query_var'		=> true,
								'hierarchical'	=> true
						)
	);
}

next is my archive-eb_service.php

<?php
/* Template Name: Service Archive Template */

get_header();

global $show_title;

?>

<div id="content_header">
	<div id="content_header_grid" class="container_12">
		<div id="demo_reel" class="grid_12">
			<?php if (function_exists('dimox_breadcrumbs')) dimox_breadcrumbs(); ?>
			<h1 class="pageTitle"><?php wp_title('', true, 'right'); ?></h1>
			<?php $show_title = false; ?>
		</div><!-- #demo_reel -->
		<div class="clear"></div><!-- .clear -->
	</div><!-- #content_header_grid -->
</div><!-- #content_header -->

<div id="content">
	<div id="content_grid" class="container_12">
		<div id="content_main" class="grid_9">
			<div id="sidebar_shadow_top" class="push_8"></div><!-- #sidebar_shadow_top -->
			<div id="content_middle" class="grid_9 alpha omega">
				<?php get_template_part('loop', 'service_archive'); ?>
			</div><!-- #content_middle -->
			<div class="clear"></div><!-- .clear -->
			<div id="sidebar_shadow_bottom" class="push_8"></div><!-- #sidebar_shadow_bottom -->
		</div><!-- #content_main -->
		
		<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
		
		<div class="clear"></div><!-- .clear -->
	</div><!-- #content_grid -->
</div><!-- #content -->

<?php get_footer(); ?>

This looks for loop-service_archive.php which is as follow:

<?php
	global $wp_query;
	
	
	if ( get_query_var('paged') ) {
		$paged = get_query_var('paged');
	} else if ( get_query_var('page') ) {
		$paged = get_query_var('page');
	} else {
		$paged = 1;
	}

	$args = array( 'post_type' => 'eb_service', 'posts_per_page' => 3, 'orderby' => 'meta_value_num', 'meta_key' => 'order', 'order' => 'ASC', 'paged' => $paged);
	
	$wp_query = new WP_Query( $args );
	
	
?>

<?php if($wp_query->have_posts()): ?>
	<?php while( $wp_query->have_posts() ): $wp_query->the_post(); ?>
	<div id="service-<?php the_id(); ?>" class="grid_3">
		<?php the_post_thumbnail('img_150x150'); ?>
		<div class="service_title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div><!-- .service_title -->
	</div><!-- #service-<?php the_id(); ?> -->
	<?php endwhile; ?>
	
	<div class="clear"></div>
	<?php if($wp_query->max_num_pages > 1): ?>
	<div id="nav_below">
		<?php posts_nav_link(); ?>
	</div>
	<?php endif; ?>
					
<?php endif; ?>

Now my problem in detail. Everything works fine when I visit the url ​http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/service where wordpress is my install directory and 'service' is the slug for my custom post type 'eb_service'. As per my arguments specified in $arg (loop-service_archive.php), 3 posts from this post type are displayed along with the next page link. However, when I click on the next page link, i get a 404. When I print_r($wp_query) in my 404.php i get the following information:

---

WP_Query Object ( [query_vars] => Array ( [paged] => 2 [post_type] => eb_service [error] => [m] => 0 [p] => 0 [post_parent] => [subpost] => [subpost_id] => [attachment] => [attachment_id] => 0 [name] => [static] => [pagename] => [page_id] => 0 [second] => [minute] => [hour] => [day] => 0 [monthnum] => 0 [year] => 0 [w] => 0 [category_name] => [tag] => [cat] => [tag_id] => [author_name] => [feed] => [tb] => [posts_per_page] => 10 [comments_popup] => [meta_key] => [meta_value] => [preview] => [s] => [sentence] => [fields] => [categoryin] => Array ( ) [categorynot_in] => Array ( ) [categoryand] => Array ( ) [postin] => Array ( ) [postnot_in] => Array ( ) [tagin] => Array ( ) [tagnot_in] => Array ( ) [tagand] => Array ( ) [tag_slugin] => Array ( ) [tag_slugand] => Array ( ) [ignore_sticky_posts] => [suppress_filters] => [cache_results] => 1 [update_post_term_cache] => 1 [update_post_meta_cache] => 1 [nopaging] => [comments_per_page] => 50 [no_found_rows] => [order] => DESC ) [tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object ( [queries] => Array ( ) [relation] => AND ) [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object ( [queries] => Array ( ) [relation] => ) [post_count] => 0 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 7 [max_num_pages] => 1 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => [is_404] => 1 [is_comments_popup] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash] => ba5989721f3f39b579a3afc5262e51af [query_vars_changed] => [thumbnails_cached] => [query] => Array ( [paged] => 2 [post_type] => eb_service ) [request] => SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_type = 'eb_service' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'private') ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 10, 10 [posts] => Array ( ) [queried_object] => stdClass Object ( [labels] => stdClass Object ( [name] => Services [singular_name] => Service [add_new] => Add New [add_new_item] => Add New Service [edit_item] => Edit Service [new_item] => New Service [view_item] => View Service [search_items] => Search Service [not_found] => No services found [not_found_in_trash] => No services found in Trash [parent_item_colon] => [all_items] => All Services [menu_name] => Services [name_admin_bar] => Service ) [description] => This is the post type to display services. [publicly_queryable] => 1 [exclude_from_search] => [capability_type] => post [map_meta_cap] => 1 [_builtin] => [_edit_link] => post.php?post=%d [hierarchical] => 1 [public] => 1 [rewrite] => Array ( [slug] => service [with_front] => [pages] => 1 [feeds] => 1 ) [has_archive] => service [query_var] => eb_service [register_meta_box_cb] => [taxonomies] => Array ( ) [show_ui] => 1 [menu_position] => 6 [menu_icon] => [permalink_epmask] => 1 [can_export] => 1 [show_in_nav_menus] => 1 [show_in_menu] => 1 [show_in_admin_bar] => 1 [name] => eb_service [cap] => stdClass Object ( [edit_post] => edit_post [read_post] => read_post [delete_post] => delete_post [edit_posts] => edit_posts [edit_others_posts] => edit_others_posts [publish_posts] => publish_posts [read_private_posts] => read_private_posts [read] => read [delete_posts] => delete_posts [delete_private_posts] => delete_private_posts [delete_published_posts] => delete_published_posts [delete_others_posts] => delete_others_posts [edit_private_posts] => edit_private_posts [edit_published_posts] => edit_published_posts ) [label] => Services ) [queried_object_id] => 0 )

---

Notice that it shows 'posts_per_page = 10' and 'paged = 2'. Now I get a 404 because there are only 7 posts in my database tagged with post_type = eb_service. Thus retrieving 10 posts on page 2 for this post_type returns a 404 as there is nothing found in the query. However, I have explicitly mentioned posts_per_page = 3 in $arg while instantiating WP_Query class. Also, even if I change the post_type from eb_service to anything xyz in $arg while instantiating WP_Query class in my loop_service_archive.php the $wp_query dump from 404 error screen still shows post_type = eb_service. Thus my conclusion, that the arguments that I specify while instantiating WP_Query class in the archive page for a custom post are being ignored if the navigated page is 2 or more for that matter. Everything remains okay if the navigated page is 1.

I hope this clarifies my problem. I have spent 4 days trying to debug the WP core and my code as well. Dont know where the problem lies :)

I'm not sure if this is fully related to your problem, but I had an issue kind of similar to what you're describing last week. The way I went about fixing the pagination problem on my CPT archive was to set 'rewrite' => true and leave 'has_archive' => 'slug' alone. Then WordPress rendered my CPT archive file of archive-post_type.php as /slug/ and /slug/page/2 etc. just fine. I found that using a rewrite array in register_post_type was causing the problem with pagination.

Replying to arsalkeen:

Now I get a 404 because there are only 7 posts in my database tagged with post_type = eb_service. Thus retrieving 10 posts on page 2 for this post_type returns a 404 as there is nothing found in the query.

That looks like a duplicate of #16168.

Yep, same problem as #16168, with same solution: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16168#comment:5

hmmm... I guess the filter approach should work. I myself was trying this as it made sense the default query was building up before my custom one and hence a 404, however I was unable to find the proper filter/action hook for this. And one more thing, using this approach, I will have to place my add_filter() call in the functions.php right...??? I am not sure that I am comfortable with that.

Anyways... will try this in the morning... its 1:25 AM here and I am dizzy... its eid holidays here :) I hope it does work :)

Thanks in advance everyone...

Ok great... its working... and in my functions.php I use a conditional statement to apply this filter if the $requestpost_type? = 'eb_service' and is_archive().

This should avoid any performance issues I guess. Need to test this though :)