How to run WP loop inside PHP echo

Question

PHP is not my area of expertise and I have been banging my head against a wall for 2-3 days now trying to figure this out.

I need to run a custom WordPress query, to display some posts on a page, and in order to do it I have installed the PHP Everywhere plugin to convert PHP to shortcodes.

I have this loop (it could probably use some work too) and it works fine on its own, but the way the plugin works I need to run multiple instances of this loop with different category IDs, to show posts from different categories on the same page.

This is the loop I have now:

<?php
    if ( get_query_var( "paged" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "paged" ); }
    elseif ( get_query_var( "page" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "page" ); }
    else { $paged = 1; }
    $the_query = new WP_Query("cat=20&posts_per_page=5&paged=" . $paged); 
?>

<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : ?>

<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>

<div class="post_square">
    <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="post_image" style="background-image: url(<?php the_post_thumbnail_url(); ?>);"></a>
    <div class="post_text">
        <div class="post_title"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
        <div class="post_meta">By <?php $author = the_author_meta("display_name"); ?> / <?php echo get_the_date("F j, Y"); ?></div>
    </div>
</div>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php
    next_posts_link( "Older Entries", $the_query->max_num_pages = 3 );
    previous_posts_link( "Newer Entries" );
?>

<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

<?php else:  ?>
<p><?php _e( "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" ); ?></p>

<?php endif; ?>

The plugin requires me to format my PHP as follows, to run multiple instances on the same page:

<?php
    if($instance=="1"){
        echo("Instance 1");
    }
    if($instance=="2"){
        echo("Instance 2");
    }
?>

My problem is re-writing my original PHP code to fit within the echo of the second loop.

I tired this code below, but it's not working:

<?php
    if ( $instance=="1" ) {
        if ( get_query_var( "paged" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "paged" ); }
        elseif ( get_query_var( "page" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "page" ); }
        else { $paged = 1; }
        $the_query = new WP_Query("cat=20&posts_per_page=5&paged=" . $paged);
        if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
        while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
        echo '<div class="post_square">
                    <a href="'. the_permalink() .'" class="post_image" style="background-image: url('. the_post_thumbnail_url(); .');"></a>
                    <div class="post_text">
                        <div class="post_title"><a href="'. the_permalink() .'">'. the_title(); .'</a></div>
                        <div class="post_meta">By '. $author = the_author_meta("display_name"); .' / '. echo get_the_date("F j, Y"); .'</div>
                    </div>
                </div>';
        endwhile;
        next_posts_link( "Older Entries", $the_query->max_num_pages = 3 );
        previous_posts_link( "Newer Entries" );
        wp_reset_postdata();
        else:
            _e( "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" );
        endif;
    }
    if ( $instance=="2" ) {
        echo 'this is two';
    }
?>

I get 3 syntax error warnings, inside Dreamweaver, but I don't know PHP well enough to know which '.' it's referring to:

I'm at a loss. I've tried numerous ways to do this, but it's beyond me...

Can you be more specific than "not working?" What exactly happens? — Scott C Wilson
– Scott C Wilson, Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 18:14
You can't have a variable assignment as part of an echo. At a minimum you'll need to remove $author = from your echo inside the while loop and just leave the WP author_meta call. — dukedevil294
– dukedevil294, Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 18:25
@ScottCWilson I added a screenshot of the warnings I get in DW - unexpected '.' — Manly
– Manly, Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 15:04
alse, those ; shouldn't be in that echo. There's just a lot of minor mistakes in there — Nanne
– Nanne, Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 15:06

Argus Duong · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-16 01:59:06Z

2

Look like you have to remove ; character after () in line 10, 12, 13. The fixed code is:

<?php
    if ( $instance=="1" ) {
        if ( get_query_var( "paged" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "paged" ); }
        elseif ( get_query_var( "page" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "page" ); }
        else { $paged = 1; }
        $the_query = new WP_Query("cat=20&posts_per_page=5&paged=" . $paged);
        if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
        while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
        echo '<div class="post_square">
                    <a href="'. the_permalink() .'" class="post_image" style="background-image: url('. the_post_thumbnail_url() .');"></a>
                    <div class="post_text">
                        <div class="post_title"><a href="'. the_permalink() .'">'. the_title() .'</a></div>
                        <div class="post_meta">By '. $author = the_author_meta("display_name") .' / '. echo get_the_date("F j, Y") .'</div>
                    </div>
                </div>';
        endwhile;
        next_posts_link( "Older Entries", $the_query->max_num_pages = 3 );
        previous_posts_link( "Newer Entries" );
        wp_reset_postdata();
        else:
            _e( "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" );
        endif;
    }
    if ( $instance=="2" ) {
        echo 'this is two';
    }
?>

Update

Don't use an echo-ed functions of WordPress inside your echo. You can read more about the different between the_permalink and get_the_permalink here. So the better, the working code is:

<?php
    if ( $instance=="1" ) {
        if ( get_query_var( "paged" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "paged" ); }
        elseif ( get_query_var( "page" ) ) { $paged = get_query_var( "page" ); }
        else { $paged = 1; }
        $the_query = new WP_Query("cat=20&posts_per_page=5&paged=" . $paged);
        if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
        while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
        echo '<div class="post_square">
                    <a href="'. get_the_permalink() .'" class="post_image" style="background-image: url('. get_the_post_thumbnail_url() .');"></a>
                    <div class="post_text">
                        <div class="post_title"><a href="'. get_the_permalink() .'">'. the_title() .'</a></div>
                        <div class="post_meta">By '. $author = get_the_author_meta("display_name") .' / '. get_the_date("F j, Y") .'</div>
                    </div>
                </div>';
        endwhile;
        next_posts_link( "Older Entries", $the_query->max_num_pages = 3 );
        previous_posts_link( "Newer Entries" );
        wp_reset_postdata();
        else:
            _e( "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" );
        endif;
    }
    if ( $instance=="2" ) {
        echo 'this is two';
    }
?>

edited Jan 16, 2018 at 1:59

answered Jan 12, 2018 at 15:07

Argus Duong

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3 Comments

Manly Over a year ago

Thanks! This works and is pulling in the posts' info, but for some reason it completely ignores the html structure of where I want the info to show up. It's giving me the post URLs, author meta, image URL, but lists them as one continuous string, instead of placing them where I did in the "echo" structure

Argus Duong Over a year ago

@Manly your problem is the_permalink() is echo a string, so you are echo a echo. The simple fix is change the_permalink() to get_the_permalink(), the_post_thumbnail_url() to get_ the_post_thumbnail_url(). Change echo get_the_date("F j, Y") to get_the_date("F j, Y") too.

Manly Over a year ago

You are a lifesaver, thank you! I wish I could upvote this again :)

Scott C Wilson · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-12 17:45:35Z

1

Here's what you want:

 echo '<div class="post_square">
                    <a href="'. the_permalink() .'" class="post_image" style="background-image: url('. the_post_thumbnail_url() .');"></a>
                    <div class="post_text">
                        <div class="post_title"><a href="'. the_permalink() .'">'. the_title() .'</a></div>
                        <div class="post_meta">By '. $author = the_author_meta("display_name") .' / '. get_the_date("F j, Y") .'</div>
                    </div>
                </div>';

edited Jan 12, 2018 at 17:45

answered Jan 12, 2018 at 17:24

Scott C Wilson

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