Moving WordPress php code for ordering events by date and grouping by category into Timber Twig templates

Question

I'm moving a standard WordPress theme into Twig templates using the Timber plugin.

My goal is to list a custom post type called cpt_shows (events) by date but have them listed and grouped by artist. For example:

Artist A
event - April 1
event - May 1
event - June 1

Artist B
event - April 1
event - May 1
event - June 1

Artist C
event - April 1
event - May 1
event - June 1

I had this working without using twig with the following code in my original template:

$today = current_time('Ymd');
$args = array(
    'orderby' => 'post_title',
    'category_name'  => 'events',
     'exclude' => 28
);
$cats = get_categories( $args );

foreach( $cats as $cat ) :
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'cpt_shows',
        'meta_query' => array(
            array(
                'key' => 'date',
                'compare' => '>=',
                'value' => $today,
                'type' => 'NUMERIC,'
            )
        ),
        'meta_key' => 'date',
        'orderby' => 'meta_value',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'category__in'        => array( $cat->term_id ),
        'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
    );
    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
        echo '<h2><a href="' . get_category_link( $cat->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $cat->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $cat->name.'</a></h2> ';
        while( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();
            ?>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br>
            <?php
        endwhile;
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
endforeach;

What I can't wrap my head around is how to move this into my Twig template because i have templating in my logic code, specifically the 'category__in' => array( $cat->term_id ), is being set in the loop. I've tried things in Twig like

    {% for cat in categories %}
        {% for post in loopSetupinContext %}

without success. Is there a better way to do this intially? In shortL i have a solution for my output but i'm unsure how to move it into Timber/Twig.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

DarkBee DarkBee · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-14T09:03:21

Here is an example of what I meant in the comments. I did not test the code, so it could contain some syntax errors. I changed the Twig_SimpleFilter to Twig_SimpleFuction.

function add_to_twig($twig) {
    /* this is where you can add your own fuctions to twig */
    $twig->addExtension(new Twig_Extension_StringLoader());
    $twig->addFunction(new Twig_SimpleFunction('events', 'events_listing'));
    return $twig;
}

function events_listing() {
    $today = current_time('Ymd');
    $args = array(
        'orderby' => 'post_title',
        'category_name'  => 'events',
        'exclude' => 28
    );
    $cats = get_categories( $args );


    //init the array
    $data = array();
    foreach( $cats as $cat ) {
        $args = array(
            'post_type'     => 'cpt_shows',
            'meta_query'    => array(
                                    array(
                                        'key' => 'date',
                                        'compare' => '>=',
                                        'value' => $today,
                                        'type' => 'NUMERIC,'
                                    )
                            ),
            'meta_key'      => 'date',
            'orderby'       => 'meta_value',
            'order'         => 'ASC',
            'posts_per_page'=> -1,
            'category__in'  => array( $cat->term_id ),
            'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
        );
        $query = new WP_Query( $args );
        if ($query->have_posts()) {
            //Prepare the array to keep track of the category
            //And init an extra array for keeping the posts together
            $data[$cat->term_id] = array(
                'category'  =>  array(
                                    'url'   => get_category_link( $cat->term_id ),
                                    'title' => sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $cat->name),
                                    'text'  => $cat->name,
                                ),
                'posts'     =>  array(),
            );
            while( $query->have_posts() ){
                $query->the_post();
                //append the post to the array
                $data[$cat->term_id]['posts'][] = array(
                    'url'   => the_permalink(),
                    'text'  => the_title(),
                );
            }
            wp_reset_postdata();
        }
    }
    return $data;
}

twig

{% for event in events() %}
    <h2><a href="{{ event.category.url }}" title="{{ event.category.title }}">{{ event.category.text }}</a></h2>
    {% for post in event.posts %}
        <a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.text }}</a><br />
    {% endfor %}    
{% endfor %}

Moving WordPress php code for ordering events by date and grouping by category into Timber Twig templates

2 Answers