category names that are to long don’t work in wp_query()

  • Resolved wscheer

    (@wscheer)


    15 years, 3 months ago

    So I have a site using the sidebar to display a all the posts in a specific category. I noticed that this only worked on certain categories. After a little investigation, I discovered that by shortening the length of nonworking categories, I could get them to work.
    Perhaps I’m going about this the wrong way, but here is my code:

    <?php //get the current category and put into $category var
$category = get_the_category();
echo "<h2 class='headline'>".$category[0]->cat_name."</h2>";
// some posts are in multiple categories, i'll just grab the first one
$cat = $category[0]->cat_name;
?>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query(); ?>

// for testing what the 'get_the_category()' output was
<?php echo "cat: ".$cat; ?>

// this was working for some categories but not others
<?php $recent->query('category_name='.$cat.'&showposts=-1'); ?>

<?php while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post(); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br />
<?php endwhile; ?>

    So basically here is what I was able to determine:
    category name: condos & beach houses —- too long
    category name: condos and beach houses — too long
    category name: condos beach houses —— works ok

    weird?

    anyone else ever come across this?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • I’ve had sites with much longer catgeory titles/slugs than that and not had a single problem. From what I can tell, the relvant db field in wp_terms can hold up to 200 characters.

    Are you pasting any of these titles in from elsewhere?

    Thread Starter wscheer

    (@wscheer)

    Actually, I found a fix.
    Instead of using “cat_name” you can use “category_nicename”. The nice name is the category slug. IE: Condos & Beach Houses -> condos-beach-houses
    There seems to be no issue with length using the slug.

    I have highlighted the change below with =================

    <?php //get the current category and put into $category var
$category = get_the_category();
echo "<h2 class='headline'>".$category[0]->cat_name."</h2>";
//
//
// ==========================================
$cat = $category[0]->category_nicename;
// ==========================================
//
//
?>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query(); ?>

// for testing what the 'get_the_category()' output was
<?php echo "cat: ".$cat; ?>

// this was working for some categories but not others
<?php $recent->query('category_name='.$cat.'&showposts=-1'); ?>

<?php while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post(); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br />
<?php endwhile; ?>

    Hope that helps someone

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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