Chip Bennett

Yes, it is certainly possible to code such a service.

I don’t think the question is really relevant for the WordPress support forums, though.

You should probably know the correct people to whom to complain. Perhaps the WHOIS record for that domain might be helpful.

But given that the site in question is still running WordPress 2.9.2, hasn’t posted anything since 2009, and is using a Theme linked to a spam site, I doubt contacting the owner would be very helpful.

Hi @bijay,

First, for Theme Review-related questions or issues, please use the Theme-Trac ticket system first. If your Theme is not-approved in a ticket, please post comments in that ticket, to try to resolve the issue. It is the fastest, easiest, and most-efficient way to ensure we answer your questions.

Second, regarding jQuery Isotope: the license isn’t GPL-compatible. The developer claims that Isotope can be used under the terms of the MIT license – as long as it isn’t used commercially. While the developer is fully within his rights to use such license terms, they don’t make sense, and they’re not compatible with the GPL.

Both GPL and MIT don’t impose usage restrictions; but the Isotope imposes a use restriction: commercial use requires a license purchase. I’m not even sure that the developer would have an actionable copyright infringement case if someone who uses Isotope under the “Open Source” license distributes his non-commercial code to someone else, who then uses that code for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, the official Theme Directory must protect end users against such license ambiguity.

*headdesk*

I feel your pain. 🙂

Okay, what’s happening here: WordPress executes in a specific order, based on a series of actions, that fall roughly in this order:

1. Initialize WordPress (init, etc.)
2. Read the URL query parameters (parse_request)
3. Parse the URL query parameters, and build the database query (parse_query)
4. Run the database query, and fetch the posts that match the parameters (pre_get_posts, posts_selection, posts_found)
5. Determine which template file to use to output the posts (template_include)
6. Redirect to that template (template_redirect)

From that point, the template takes over (the stuff in your template file is executed).

So, as you can see, pre_get_posts and posts_found happen *well before* your template code gets executed. By the time the code in your template is executed, you’re past the opportunity to modify the main query properly.

So, if you want to modify the main query properly – i.e. at pre_get_posts, you have to tell WordPress about your callback before the action fires. (Likewise with the posts_found filter.)

The functions.php file executes at plugins_loaded, which happens before the abridged list above. That’s why it’s suitable for adding callbacks for pre_get_posts and posts_found.

WordPress will then use your callbacks, and adjust the query accordingly, before it ever runs the query. That way, pagination and all the normal loop things just work out-of-the-box, auto-magically.

Then, when you get in the template file, WordPress already knows how to handle the query – if it didn’t, it wouldn’t have selected that particular template file. At that point, you just want to let WordPress do its thing; if you attempt further manipulation of the query at that point, you’ll just confuse things, and stomp on your already carefully-crafted query.

So, the *right* way to do that in your template file would be:

1) A *custom* loop for the first post
2) Callbacks for pre_get_posts and found_posts, moved to functions.php

By *custom* loop, I mean something like:

$latest_totd = new WP_Query( /* args here */ );
if ( $latest_totd->have_posts() ) : while ( $latest_totd->have_posts() ) : $latest_totd->the_post();
    // Custom, first-post loop markup here
endwhile; endif;
// IMPORTANT
wp_reset_postdata();

Then, just output your normal loop:

if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
    // Normal loop markup here
endwhile; endif;

That’s all you need for your template file. The rest goes in functions.php.

Your pre_get_posts callback:

function totd_pre_get_posts( $query ) {
    // target the main query on the totd_cat tax template
    if ( $query->is_tax( 'totd_cat' ) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        // apply offset here
        // Use your current code
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'totd_pre_get_posts' );

Then, your found_posts filter:

function totd_found_posts( $found_posts, $query ) {
    // Same query conditionals
    if ( $query->is_tax( 'totd_cat' ) && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        // Put your found_posts callback stuff here
    }
}
add_filter( 'found_posts', 'totd_found_posts', 10, 2 );

And you should be good to go.

Okay, let’s back up just a bit. I want to make sure I’m understanding what you’re wanting to do, and where it’s failing. Because that seems to be an awful lot of query manipulation for what’s actually getting rendered.

It looks like you just want taxonomy-totd_cat.php to be used to display the taxonomy term archive index? If so, you shouldn’t need any of the query manipulation you’re doing.

What happens if you just output a loop, with all of the various query manipulations removed?