WordPress: Display Posts by Year Set in Advanced Custom Fields

Question

I am trying to organize posts by year, based on what's been entered in the Advanced Custom Fields date picker (not the year published). I've been able to come very close to what I'm looking for using the year checker found on: http://alex.leonard.ie/2009/08/27/wordpress-grouping-posts-by-monthyear/

What I'm trying to accomplish is:

2015

Past Exhibition
Past Exhibition
Etc.

2014

Past Exhibition
Past Exhibition
Etc.

2013

Past Exhibition
Past Exhibition
Etc.

The only problem is, while I am successfully able to print the year, only one exhibition under each year is listed.

    <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
    <?php
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
    $today = date('Ymd');

    $past_args = array(
        'paged' => $paged,
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'post_type' => 'exhibitions',
        'meta_query' => array (
            array (
                'key' => 'end_date',
                'value' => $today,
                'compare' => '<',
                'type' => 'DATE'
            )
        ),
        'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
        'order' => 'DESC'                   
    );
    query_posts( $past_args );
    ?> 


    <!-- PAST EXHIBITIONS -->
    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

    <?php   
        $date = get_field('end_date');
        $past_year = DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd', $date);
        $year = $past_year->format('Y');

        if ($year !== $today) { ?>
            <article class="year-<?php echo $year; ?> child-page four columns">
            <h2><?php echo $year; ?></h2>
            <ul>
                <li>
                    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
                        <?php the_title(); ?>
                    </a>
                </li>
            </ul>
            </article>
        <?php }

        $today = $year; ?>

    <?php endwhile; ?>
    <?php endif; ?>

What am I missing/doing wrong?

I turned debugging on and realized $year_check isn't actually defined anywhere (and it's not explained in the article I posted), so I used the $today variable in its place, but I run into the same issue. — alyssaster
this may not help to solve your question, but you should add <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?> right after <?php endwhile; ?> — Stickers
and you should define $year_check or update your code above if you made some. — Stickers

alexleonard alexleonard · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-12T08:36:45

The answer is quite simple actually. Take the post content etc out of the if statement.

You want to only print the year once, but show all posts.

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php   
    $date = get_field('end_date');
    $past_year = DateTime::createFromFormat('Ymd', $date);
    $year = $past_year->format('Y');

    if ($year !== $today) { ?>
        <h2><?php echo $year; ?></h2>
    <?php } ?>
    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
    <?php $today = $year; ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

You'll have to do some playing around to get your ul and article elements opening and closing where you want, but by using the if statement only for echoing the year, the rest of your loop should proceed as normal.

WordPress: Display Posts by Year Set in Advanced Custom Fields

1 Answers