[Closed] Please help an idiot

[Author]

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[michaelwalsh]

Hello,

So, to put it bluntly, my understanding of WP is mixed: i've built numerous sites, but my understanding of the core concepts is weak - likely because i do a lot of other things besides web development, and so it's rarely in the forefront of my mind for very long. Which is bad.

Anyway, as such, i have a question that will probably be laughably simple, but which i'd be very grateful if somone could answer for me:

I tend to call lists of posts using cos like this:

<?php
$articles = array(
'numberposts' => 3,
'orderby' => 'post_date',
'order' => 'DESC',
'post_type' => 'articles',
'post_status' => 'publish'
);
$lastposts = get_posts( $articles );
foreach($lastposts as $articles) : ?>

...My understanding is that this is essentially outside of "the loop".

When I try to use, for example, something like this:
<?php echo (types_render_field("score", array("raw"=>"false", "output"=>"html"))); ?>

I get nothing at all returned. I believe that this is because i'm not in the Loop, and so, for want of better phrasing, WP doesn't know where to look.

I don't get any errors, just nothing at all.

.....A friend of mine is a competent programmer and so at some point he'll get my email asking for help, but on the off chance that takes a few days or what not, I'd really, really, really appreciate some help in understanding where I'm going wrong with this.

Thanks in advance - apologies for what is likely a fairly dumb question.

[Caridad]

Dear Michael,

Try doing the loop like this:

<?php
$articles = array(
'numberposts' => 3,
'orderby' => 'post_date',
'order' => 'DESC',
'post_type' => 'articles',
'post_status' => 'publish'
);
$my_query = new WP_Query($articles);
while ($my_query->have_posts()) {
$my_query->the_post();
<!-- Do stuff... -->
}
?>

Please let me know if there is anything else that I can assist you with.

Regards,
Caridad

[michaelwalsh]

Thanks CaridadZ, will try that a little later and let you know! Thanks very much for the suggestion, even if it turns out not to solve it!

[Caridad]

Dear Michael,

When you try it, let me know if it works.

Thanks,
Caridad

[michaelwalsh]

Success! thank you - sorry for the slow reply -- including the new method alongside other code kept me rather busy!

Thanks again - brilliant! 🙂 That said, I'm sure I'll be back with other questions soon enough..