Title: Dynamic variable for custom taxonomy in loop?
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Dynamic variable for custom taxonomy in loop?

 *  Resolved [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/)
 * I have a custom page template that loops through all custom posts with the post_type
   of “product_listing” AND the custom taxonomy “product_cat” of “shirts” and returns
   4 posts per page (as seen below:)
 *     ```
       <?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'product_listing', 'product_cat' => 'shirts', 'posts_per_page' => 4 ) ); ?>
       ```
   
 * It is the client’s responsibility to manage those categories. I’d like to assign
   a variable to display in place of “shirts” so that I don’t have to modify the
   template each time the client adds a new product category (such as shoes, pants,
   etc.).
 * I am not a programmer by any means. Does anybody have a snippet of code that 
   would work for this? Or perhaps an article I could read more about assigning 
   dynamic variables in the loop? Thanks!

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812858)
 * It is easy to **use** a variable in the query:
 * `<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'product_listing', 'product_cat'
   => $prod_cat, 'posts_per_page' => 4 ) ); ?>`
 * The hard part is: How do you set the variable to the desired value? What are 
   the critera you would use to set the variable to ‘shirts’ rather than ‘shoes’?
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812862)
 * Thanks vtxyzzy –
 * Well in my template I’m looping through ALL custom posts with the post_type of“
   product_listing” and I want to display 4 of each different ‘category’ (for lack
   of better words).
 * I have my custom taxonomy of “product_cat” set up so the client can go into the
   dashboard and add ‘categories’ to her hearts content. Since this is a simple 
   kind of online catalog, she has several products for each ‘category’ and I’m 
   trying to code my template to display the 4 most recent posts from each one on
   the homepage. I can DO it, if I use the code posted in my original post. The 
   problem then becomes that if she ads a new taxonomy in the dashboard, I have 
   to go in and add a new loop in the index.php template file – which is FINE but
   I’m trying to make this automatic and instantaneous.
 * So I guess to answer your question, the variable would have to be set from whatever
   taxonomy the client used. So if she creates a ‘category’ of “shoes”, the code
   would already be able to handle that without me having to add ‘product_cat’ =
   > ‘shoes’ to my code in a new loop.
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812869)
 * Sounds like you will need to add an ‘outer’ loop to loop through all the ‘product_cat’
   values.
 * Can you put the code for the template in a [pastebin](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/)
   and post a link to it here?
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812879)
 * I don’t really _have_ working code yet. So far, all I had was it grabbing ALL
   the “product_listing” posts and displaying them. She has too many products for
   that, otherwise there’ll be 100 posts on the page! Here’s what I had so far:
 *     ```
       <!-- BEGIN CODE FOR PRODUCT AREA -->
       		<div id="products">
       		<!-- post begin -->
       		<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'product_listing', 'posts_per_page' => 100 ) ); ?>
       		<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
       		<div class="product-tease" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
       			<div class="upper">
       				<h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
       				<p align="center"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a></p>
       				<?php the_excerpt('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?>
       			</div>
       			<span class="btn-readon"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>">Read On</a></span>
       			</div>
       		<?php endwhile; ?>
       		<br clear="all" />
       		<!-- post end -->
       		<br clear="all" />
       		  <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
       		  <?php rewind_posts(); ?>
       		</div>
       ```
   
 * (I’m also using several other loops, one is in the header, one above this, to
   display other posts/categories and things. Here is the entire index.php file 
   minus calls to header/footer: [http://wordpress.pastebin.com/0URzVLr0](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/0URzVLr0))
 * And this is part of my functions.php file for the custom post_type and taxonomies:
   [http://wordpress.pastebin.com/w3pL9WNX](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/w3pL9WNX)
 * Thanks so much for taking a peek!
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812892)
 * I can’t really test this, but it should be close:
 *     ```
       <!-- BEGIN CODE FOR PRODUCT AREA -->
          <?php $prod_cats = get_terms('product_cat');
          foreach ($prod_cats as $prod_cat) {
             $cat_name = $prod_cat->name; ?>
       		<div id="products">
       		<!-- post begin -->
       		<?php $loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'product_listing', 'posts_per_page' => 4, 'product_cat' => $cat_name ) ); ?>
       		<?php while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); ?>
       		<div class="product-tease" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
       			<div class="upper">
       				<h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
       				<p align="center"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a></p>
       				<?php the_excerpt('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?>
       			</div>
       			<span class="btn-readon"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>">Read On</a></span>
       			</div>
       		<?php endwhile; ?>
       		<br clear="all" />
       		<!-- post end -->
       		<br clear="all" />
       		  <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
       		  <?php rewind_posts(); ?>
       		</div>
          <?php } // End foreach $prod_cats ?>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812899)
 * Awesome awesome **AWESOME**!!!
 * Thanks SO MUCH!! It works! Now I just have to tweak it to add a “see more products
   from X category” and I’m golden! (and I can handle that)
 * Thanks again for all your help!
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812901)
 * If you have a WPQuestions account, I posted it on there and there are no answers
   yet. I could award the prize money to you if you post over there.
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812903)
 * Thanks for the offer, but I only do this for the fun of it.
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812922)
 * Well thank you so much.
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812924)
 * You are most welcome!
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1812971)
 * vtxyzzy,
 * Have another question regarding this issue. It seems that the loops cycles thru
   alphabetically. Is there some way to have it display a custom order? I could 
   add some custom fields if need be, but just wondering what the best option would
   be. Ideally I’d like it to be the client’s options, so she could change them 
   at her will, but if it’s something I need to set in the loop itself, she has 
   given me a specific list so I could order it that way.
 * Thanks so much again!
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1813001)
 * Please give me a little more information. I assume you are talking about the 
   order of the product_cat terms. The order can certainly be changed by modifying
   the code.
 * The most ‘user friendly’ way I can think of to do that would be to add a theme
   option that lets the user enter a comma separated list of names in the desired
   order. If you are interested in doing that, the [Option Tree plugin](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/option-tree/)
   gives you an easy way to add options.
 * Of course, you could always hard-code a list, but that means long-term maintenance
   headaches.
 * Let me know how you want to proceed.
 *  Thread Starter [lilqhgal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lilqhgal/)
 * (@lilqhgal)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1813004)
 * Thanks for the quick reply.
 * Yes, the order of the product_cat terms. Currently they’re ordered the same as
   they are in the dashboard: alphabetically a-z. Ideally, I would love for some
   interface to be in place in the admin category screen that would let the user
   drag to reorder, or perhaps simply have a box next to the name somewhere to type
   in a new display order. So Shirts could be 1, Purses could be 2, and Hair Accessories
   could be 3. Then the front end would display that order instead.
 * I checked the Option Tree plugin and it seems extremely strong but I’m not sure
   if I’m ready to take on a whole new learning curve right now!
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1813009)
 * Your idea for drag-and-drop or order number would be nice, but I don’t know of
   any way to do that short of a big programming effort.
 *  [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * (@vtxyzzy)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1813011)
 * I had another idea – since category descriptions are not normally seen by the
   viewer, what about using the category description to set the order?
 * The description could be the sort order followed by the normal description text.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

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## Tags

 * [custom taxonomy](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-taxonomy/)
 * [variables](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variables/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 15 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/dynamic-variable-for-custom-taxonomy-in-loop/#post-1813011)
 * Status: resolved

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