Title: Code for posts in functions.php so can't change loop
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Code for posts in functions.php so can't change loop

 *  [SforSteph](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sforsteph/)
 * (@sforsteph)
 * [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/code-for-posts-in-functionsphp-so-cant-change-loop/)
 * Hi there,
 * I’ve gone round and round in circles all day with this, so hopefully someone 
   can help!
 * I’m setting up a completely different (from the main site) template for the blog
   for a client, and the theme was designed by someone else some time ago.
 * The blog page that was already set up was very simple, and the blog template 
   that existed was (strangely..) a copy of the custom home page, so I’ve tried 
   to replace it (the blog template page) with a simple loop, just to get going.
 * Loop:
 *     ```
       <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
   
       	<div <?php post_class(); ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
       		<h1><?php the_category(); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>
       		<?php the_content(); ?>
       	</div>
   
       	<div class="navigation">
       		<div class="next-posts"><?php next_posts_link(); ?></div>
       		<div class="prev-posts"><?php previous_posts_link(); ?></div>
       	</div>
   
           <?php endwhile; else: ?>
           <p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
           <?php endif; ?>
       ```
   
 * However, the previous designer did something I’ve never seen before: they have
   this code in functions.php:
 *     ```
       if (!function_exists('show_blog')){
           function show_blog(){
               $args = array(
                   'numberposts'     => 3,
                   'offset'          => 0,
                   'orderby'         => 'post_date',
                   'order'           => 'DESC',
                   'post_type'       => 'post',
                   'post_status'     => 'publish' );
   
               $posts = get_posts($args);
               foreach($posts as $key=>$value):
       ?>
           <div style="width: 700px;">
               <h2><a href="<?=get_bloginfo('wpurl');?>/<?=$value->post_name;?>"><?=$value->post_title?></a></h2>
   
               <?=nl2br($value->post_content)?>
   
               <br/>
               <br/>
               <br/>
               <br/>
           </div>
       <?php
               endforeach;
           }
           add_shortcode('showblog', 'show_blog');
       }
       ```
   
 * To get the posts to show up as expected under /blog, I need to:
 * – keep that code in functions.php
    – have the loop on the blog template (eg template-
   blog.php) – have the shortcode [showblog] on the page ‘Blog’
 * But this isn’t giving me much freedom with styling and arranging how the posts
   are shown – I need to do this on the blog template (so I can include comments,
   categories, navigation etc etc).
 * Does anyone know what the previous designer has done here, and how I can take
   out this code from the functions file, and just have the normal loop show the
   posts in the blog template.
 * Am I being completely stupid?!

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## Tags

 * [functions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/functions/)
 * [shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/shortcode/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [SforSteph](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sforsteph/)
 * Last activity: [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/code-for-posts-in-functionsphp-so-cant-change-loop/)
 * Status: not resolved

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