separate page for podcast episodes

First you will need to exclude the podcast posts from the site’s main posts page template. In your child theme’s functions.php file, try adding:

function exclude_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '-9' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

where 9 is the id of the Podcast category.

Thanks, Esmi. I’ll give this a shot in just a bit. Then on to phase two.

Esmi, I came up against this problem: copying function.php into my child theme breaks the site. I know there’s a workaround, and am researching that now. Once I figure out how to get function.php into my child theme, I’ll resume here. thanks.

copying function.php into my child theme breaks the site.

Do not copy the parent’s functions.php file into the child. Just create an empty file in a plain text editor, add <?php to the top of it, save it as functions.php and upload it to your child theme.

OK. I think I’m over that hump. I’ve got that exclusion code running now in the child functions.php. (It’s the only thing in that file.) Seems to be working.

So–I suppose we’re ready for the next step. Is it creating a page for the Podcast?

Yep. You’ll need to create a custom page template in your child theme. I’d suggest starting with:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Podcasts
*/
get_header(); ?>

<div id="primary" class="site-content">
<div id="content" role="main">

<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php get_template_part( 'content', 'page' ); ?>
<?php comments_template( '', true ); ?>
<?php endwhile; // end of the loop. ?>

</div><!-- #content -->
</div><!-- #primary -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer();

Call this new file podcasts.php. Then edit functions.php again and try adding:

function only_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_page_template( 'podcasts.php' ) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '9' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'only_category' );

[EDITED]

Excellent, thank you. Let me see if I can implement…

I’m having trouble with that, Esmi.

I created that custom page template, uploaded it into my child theme directory. I then went into my child functions.php, adding the code you sent, so it looked like this:

<?php 

function exclude_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '-9' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

function exclude_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_page_template( 'podcasts.php' ) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '9' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

?>

When I updated to save that change, the site went away and I got this error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/mdgarvey/public_html/oldanswers/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve-child/functions.php:10) in /usr/home/mdgarvey/public_html/oldanswers/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1121

You seem to have introduced a leading space or non-visible character into your functions.php file. Try reviewing Solving “headers already sent” warnings.

I went through the code, re-saved and re-uploaded functions.php and podcasts.php. Then, this time, after I added the new snippet to functions.php and updated, I got shut down and this error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare exclude_category() (previously declared in /usr/home/mdgarvey/public_html/oldanswers/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve-child/functions.php:3) in /usr/home/mdgarvey/public_html/oldanswers/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve-child/functions.php on line 14

Sorry! My bad! Change the second instance of function exclude_category to function only_category

OK. Just did that. So far so good, I think. I noticed, that last line of your snippet:

add_action( ‘pre_get_posts’, ‘exclude_category’ );

Is “exclude_category” right there? Or should that, too, change to “only_category”?

Good catch! That should be changed too. ??

well.. I changed it to only_category (last line of that snippet), updated, and got this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method WP_Query::is_page_template() in /usr/home/mdgarvey/public_html/oldanswers/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve-child/functions.php on line 11

Darn! I hoped that is_page_template() would work with pre_get_posts(). ??

Try:

function only_category( $query ) {
    if ( is_page_template( 'podcasts.php' ) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '9' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'only_category' );