Alternative to query_posts?

  • I’m using query_posts quite a bit on my site as it seems to offer the most flexibility when processing the values of custom fields.

    I was wondering if there was any way to make my code more efficient? In the example below I’m using query_posts to pull a list of all posts with a post type of “press” and then sorting them into lists by year of publication date. It feels quite resource-heavy though as the page load time is on the long side.

    FYI: I’m using the WP-Types plugin for the management of custom post types and the display of additional fields on the post screen.

    <section id="press-archive">
    <ul>
    	<?php
    	query_posts('posts_per_page=-1&post_type=press&order=desc&orderby=meta_value_num&meta_key=wpcf-publication-date');
        $current_year = '';
        while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
        	global $post;
        	$this_year = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'wpcf-publication-date', true );
        	$this_year = date('Y', $this_year);
        	if (($this_year != $current_year)) :
        		if ($current_year != '')
                    echo '</ul>' . "\n";
        			echo '</li>' . "\n";
        			echo '<li class="year">' . "\n";
        			echo '<h2 class="header">' . $this_year . '</h2>' . "\n";
                    echo '<ul>' . "\n";
        			$current_year = $this_year;
        		endif;
        		echo '<li id="' . $this_year . '">' . "\n";
                ?>
                    <span class="source"><?php echo(types_render_field("source", array())); ?></a> &mdash; <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a> <span class="publication-date">(<?php echo(types_render_field("publication-date", array("format" => "jS F"))); ?>)</span>
                </li>
        <?php
        endwhile;
        if ($current_year != '') echo '</li>' . "\n";
        wp_reset_postdata();
        ?>
    </ul>
</section>

    Any help on making this less resource-heavy would be fantastic. Thank you.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • review https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/1753/when-should-you-use-wp-query-vs-query-posts-vs-get-posts?rq=1

    Thread Starter Bonnie

    (@bonnie)

    Thanks for the link! I’d like to think that makes sense to me, but it doesn’t… yet. I’m guessing I can’t just replace every occurrence of query_posts with get_posts, and I wouldn’t know where to start. May need to do more reading. I feel a bit out of my depth with this one!

    Thread Starter Bonnie

    (@bonnie)

    Hmm, just been reading up on this and still can’t find a way to order by a custom field with get_posts… does anyone have any ideas?

    can’t just replace every occurrence of query_posts with get_posts

    I personally would prefer using WP_Query() instead of get_posts() as it keeps more-or-less the same syntax;

    can’t find a way to order by a custom field with get_posts…

    get_posts() alledgedly takes the same parameters as WP_Query() or query_posts()

    Thread Starter Bonnie

    (@bonnie)

    Using WP_Query now successfully – thank you! I’ve also realised WP_Query has another feature (multiple custom field handling) that I was struggling with when using query_posts, so that’s brilliant. I’m so pleased. Thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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