Query parameters in Wordpress - Mini Project: Build & Apply

WordPress Query Parameters

📖 Scenario: You are building a WordPress site that shows a list of blog posts. You want to control which posts appear by using query parameters in your code.

🎯 Goal: Create a WordPress query using query parameters to display posts from a specific category and limit the number of posts shown.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an array called $args with specific query parameters

Add a variable $posts_per_page to control how many posts to show

Use WP_Query with the $args array to get posts

Complete the loop to display the post titles

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

WordPress developers often need to customize which posts appear on a page by using query parameters to filter posts by category, status, or other criteria.

💼 Career

Understanding WP_Query and query parameters is essential for WordPress theme and plugin developers to create dynamic and customized content displays.

1

Create the query parameters array

Create an array called $args with these exact entries: 'category_name' => 'news' and 'post_status' => 'publish'.

Wordpress

# Create the query parameters array
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use array() to create $args with keys and values exactly as shown.

2

Add a posts per page variable

Add a variable called $posts_per_page and set it to 5. Then add this to the $args array with the key 'posts_per_page'.

Wordpress

$args = array(
    'category_name' => 'news',
    'post_status' => 'publish'
);
# Add $posts_per_page variable and add it to $args
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define $posts_per_page as 5 and add it to $args with the key 'posts_per_page'.

3

Create the WP_Query object

Create a variable called $query and set it to a new WP_Query object using the $args array.

Wordpress

$args = array(
    'category_name' => 'news',
    'post_status' => 'publish'
);
$posts_per_page = 5;
$args['posts_per_page'] = $posts_per_page;
# Create WP_Query object with $args
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use new WP_Query($args) to create the query object.

4

Complete the loop to display post titles

Write a while loop that runs while $query->have_posts() is true. Inside the loop, call $query->the_post() and then output the post title using the_title().

Wordpress

$args = array(
    'category_name' => 'news',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'posts_per_page' => 5
);
$query = new WP_Query($args);
# Complete the loop to display post titles
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a while loop with $query->have_posts(), call $query->the_post() inside, then output the title with the_title().