Attachment Loop Stopped Working

Thank you for telling me about this. So it looks like [attached] is not working inside the loop? I’ll look into it and let you know what I find out.

In the meantime, can you tell me the output of this?

[loop id="35475" status="any"]
  [if attached]
    The post has attachments.
  [else]
    The post doesn't have attachments.
  [/if]
[/loop]

I just want to narrow down where the issue is coming from.

I tested [loop] with specific ID and [attached] – they’re working on my end. I wonder what is different in your case.. The last several plugin updates just added new parameters for [loop] and didn’t change anything with [attached] – so I don’t think that’s where it’s coming from.

Has anything changed with the post itself?

The if/else loop you sent doesn’t return anything. Nothing had changed with the post itself for at least several weeks. (It displays links to class syllabi, I update at the beginning of each semester and that’s it till the next.) We have another page which lists attachments to 4 subpages with the same loop syntax which is also not working.

We installed W3 Total Cache last week – are you aware of any conflicts between your plugin and that one?

The page links in my first post got screwed up –
This page should have two lists of links to attachments: https://www.sierranevada.edu/academics/teacher-education/ted-resources/class-syllabi/
One of the subpages with the attached loop on the page: https://www.sierranevada.edu/academics/teacher-education/ted-resources/class-syllabi/2015-spring-ted-syllabi-reno/

Thanks, Susan

I see, that’s odd that the code above didn’t return anything – it should have displayed one or the other message.

Does it display any field from this specific post?

[loop id="35475" status="any"]
  Post title: [field title]
  Post ID: [field id]
  [if attached]
    The post has attachments.
  [else]
    The post doesn't have attachments.
  [/if]
[/loop]

If this displays nothing, then it means [loop] is not finding the post for some reason. Can you confirm that it’s the correct post ID?

The [loop] uses a native WordPress function to get posts, and I’m not aware of any plugin conflict with W3 Total Cache.

Just to narrow down the issue, does this display anything?

Post title: [content id="35475" status="any" field="title"]

If this displays nothing and it’s the correct post ID, that sounds like it could be another plugin interfering with the normal process of getting posts.

Post ID is correct.

The code you posted above works. [content id=””] is in use in many places and working. (I like your plugin!) [attached] without the loop (to display on the same page) works.

This doesn’t work, if that says anything:
[loop id=”35475″ status=”any”]
[field title]
[/loop]

Yes, this last point is very strange, and I think it must be related to the issue. Why isn’t the [loop] finding the post.. I’ll check the loop function to see if I can find anything that could be causing this.

Is there anything about this specific post? I’m guessing you use status=”any” because the post is in draft status. So I’ll see if this could be related. Does it make a difference if the post is published?

Also, if you could help me figure this out, could you test the same code with another post?

Getting weirder and weirder. Must be some kind of conflict.

[loop id=”35470″]
[field title]
[/loop]
returns the title ONLY if 35470 not hierarchical (a normal post) or is a top level page or special post. It doesn’t matter what the relationship is between 35470 and the page the loop is on, if 35470 has a parent the loop returns nothing.

[loop id=”35470”][attached count=”5″ orderby=”title”]
• [field title]

[/attached][/loop]

is returning a list, but none of the parameters of [loop] and [attached] are registering. It’s a list of many (probably all) of the images which are attached in the site, not ordered by title. It doesn’t include attached documents, which we have a lot of. It doesn’t matter if 35470 is a page, post, or special post type, or whether it’s an orphan, patriarch, or the baby of a big family.

Also, debug.log is not registering any fatal php errors, or anything including “custom-content-shortcode”.

Thank you for the detailed feedback – this is very helpful in finding the cause of the issue.

I think the clue is in the first point you mentioned:

..returns the title ONLY if 35470 is not hierarchical (a normal post) or is a top level page or special post..if 35470 has a parent the loop returns nothing.

It must be related to hierarchical posts.

The second point is weird too..

It’s a list of many (probably all) of the images which are attached in the site.

So, in the first case it’s returning nothing, and in the second, returning all! I’ll get back to you with what I find.

I believe I’ve isolated the issue in the first point. There was a default parameter that was getting only top-level posts, excluding any children, grandchildren, or further descendants. In the latest plugin update, I changed it so descendants are included by default. This changes behavior from previous versions, so I put a note in the upgrade notice. Hopefully, people will read it, in case it affects how they use the [loop].

For the second point – I’m not sure if it is the same issue as the first. Please try the newest version to see if it is corrected also.

Installed the upgrade. The issue with the loop only pulling the titles of top-level pages is fixed. The situation with the attachments hasn’t changed.

Thanks, Susan

Hello, sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

I’ve tested both [loop] and [attached], and they’re working correctly on my end. I used the exact same code (except for the post ID).

[loop id="35470”][attached count="5" orderby="title"]
[field title]
[/attached][/loop]

So, if that’s not working, it must be something specific to your setup – possibly a plugin conflict..?