Title: WP_Query in plugin causing post title issues
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# WP_Query in plugin causing post title issues

 *  [r0bbiem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/r0bbiem/)
 * (@r0bbiem)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/)
 * I’m building my first plugin to add some custom meta boxes to the edit page of
   a custom post type called ‘tracks’.
 * It seems when I use WP_Query to create an array of post titles (these come from‘
   artists’ which are also custom post types), some strange things happen; the title
   field becomes populated with one of the artist names (the last one), and the 
   permalink info becomes visible and suggests that the post is now incorrectly 
   defined as an ‘artist’ with an address such as mysite/artists/artist-name.
 * I’m not quite sure what’s going on, tried using wp_reset_postdata() and wp_reset_query()
   after the while loop but that didn’t change anything.
 * Any help greatly appreciated, here’s my code
 *     ```
       $artistList = array();
       $genresList = array();
   
       add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'getArtists' );
       add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'getGenres' );
       add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'cd_meta_box_add' );  
   
       function getArtists()
       {
       	global $post, $artistList;
       	$loop = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'artists' ) );
       	while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();
       	array_push($artistList, get_the_title());
       	endwhile;
       	wp_reset_postdata();
       	wp_reset_query();
       }
   
       function getGenres()
       {
       	global $genresList;
       	$terms = get_terms('genres');
       	$count = count($terms);
       	if ( $count > 0 ){
       		foreach ( $terms as $term ) {
       	    	array_push($genresList, $term->name);
       	    }
       	}
       }
   
       function cd_meta_box_add()
       {
           add_meta_box( 'artist-mb', 'Artist', 'initArtistMb', 'tracks', 'normal', 'high' );
           add_meta_box( 'vimeoLink-mb', 'Vimeo Link', 'initVimeoMb', 'tracks', 'normal', 'high' );
           add_meta_box( 'youtubeLink-mb', 'YouTube Link', 'initYoutubeMb', 'tracks', 'normal', 'high' );
           add_meta_box( 'genre-mb', 'Genre', 'initGenreMb', 'tracks', 'normal', 'high' );
       }
   
       function initArtistMb()
       {
       	global $artistList;
       	echo '<select name="name" id="artist-combo">';
       	$count = sizeof($artistList);
       	echo '<option>Select an Artist...</option>';
       	for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++)
       	{
       		echo '<option>', $artistList[$i], '</option>';
       	}
       	echo '</select>';
       }
   
       function initVimeoMb()
       {
       	?>
           <label for="my_meta_box_text">URL:</label>
           <input type="text" name="vimeo_link" id="vimeo_link" />
           <?php
       }
   
       function initYoutubeMb()
       {
       	?>
           <label for="my_meta_box_text">URL:</label>
           <input type="text" name="youtube_link" id="youtube_link" />
           <?php
       }
   
       function initGenreMb()
       {
       	global $genresList;
       	echo '<select name="name" id="genre-combo">';
       	$count = sizeof($genresList);
       	echo '<option>Select a Genre...</option>';
       	for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++)
       	{
       		echo '<option>', $genresList[$i], '</option>';
       	}
       	echo '</select>';
       }
       ```
   

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

 *  Thread Starter [r0bbiem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/r0bbiem/)
 * (@r0bbiem)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497930)
 * Another update, I still haven’t solved this problem, tried replacing the contents
   of my getArtists() function with this;
 *     ```
       $artistPosts = get_posts('post_type=artists');
       	foreach($artistPosts as $post) :
       	array_push($artistList, get_the_title());
       	endforeach;
       ```
   
 * Thought that by avoiding the loop the problems might disappear but my posts still
   seem to be mis-categorized somehow by the use of this function.
 * Anyone out there?
 *  [Jeremy Pry](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jpry/)
 * (@jpry)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497957)
 * Hi r0bbiem,
 * Unfortunately I don’t have any other information to help, but I’ve discovered
   this same problem in a different way. The only workaround I’ve found is to ditch
   the WP_Query, but of course that leaves us without being able to do what we need
   to do.
 * Here’s the link to the forum topic I just started: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-admin-bar-breaks-post-editor?replies=1](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-admin-bar-breaks-post-editor?replies=1)
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497958)
 * Hey all,
    I don’t have an answer either, but this is starting to sound quite 
   strange. There shouldn’t be any way to get WP_Query to return something like 
   you are describing, especially since your code appears on a quick read to be 
   perfectly acceptable. But yet somehow your code seems to be causing it, since
   no one not using your plugins seem to be having an issue. My best guess is there
   is a name collision or something similar conflicting with other plugins. Neither
   plugin is doing anything wrong on it’s own, but together they are wreaking havoc
   with something, perhaps the cache?
 * You might try disabling all plugins except yours to see if the issue persists.
   There could also be a conflict with your current theme, so if disabling plugins
   does not help, you might try swapping themes as well. It will be interesting 
   to see if my half-baked theory bears any fruit.
 *  [Jeremy Pry](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jpry/)
 * (@jpry)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497959)
 * bcworkz,
 * Thanks for chiming in, but this isn’t a plugin or theme conflict. I did extensive
   troubleshooting to narrow down the exact source of the issue to the call to WP_Query,
   and then afterwards discovered this thread of someone else having the same issue,
   albeit with a slightly different method of using WP_Query.
 *  Thread Starter [r0bbiem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/r0bbiem/)
 * (@r0bbiem)
 * [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497960)
 * Thanks for all the input, in the end I solved the problem by moving the array
   declarations into functions.php and then accessing them as global variables.
 * Here’s the working code: [pastebin.com/vHuCdL5P](http://pastebin.com/vHuCdL5P)
 * Since then I’ve also discovered get_option() and update_option() as described
   here [http://bit.ly/aeVE97](http://bit.ly/aeVE97) and to me this seems like a
   more robust way of dealing with site-wide variables such as these.
 * I’ve learned a lot through this process, still not clear on what was causing 
   my initial problem but this should help anyone experiencing the same kind of 
   issues.

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

The topic ‘WP_Query in plugin causing post title issues’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [loop](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/loop/)
 * [title](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/title/)
 * [wp_query](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wp_query/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [r0bbiem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/r0bbiem/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-in-plugin-causing-post-title-issues/#post-3497960)
 * Status: not resolved

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