This is How to Group Posts by Categories in Custom Taxonomy Archive Page in WordPress
One of the most common challenges WordPress developers face is organizing content on custom taxonomy archive pages. When you have a large number of posts associated with a specific custom taxonomy term, it can be overwhelming for users to browse through the content.
This is where grouping posts by categories can be incredibly useful. By separating posts into their respective categories, you can provide a more intuitive and user-friendly navigation experience for your website visitors.
However, implementing this functionality is not as straightforward as it may seem. There is no built-in WordPress solution for grouping posts by categories on custom taxonomy archive pages. In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process to achieve this functionality.
Understanding Custom Taxonomies in WordPress
Before we dive into the solution, let's quickly review the concept of custom taxonomies in WordPress.
Custom taxonomies are a way to categorize and organize content beyond the default WordPress taxonomies (categories and tags). They allow you to create your own taxonomic structures to suit the specific needs of your website or application.
Some common use cases for custom taxonomies include:
- Products: You can create a "Brand" taxonomy to group products by their respective brands.
- Events: You can create a "Event Type" taxonomy to categorize events by their type (e.g., conference, workshop, webinar).
- Blog Posts: You can create a "Topics" taxonomy to group blog posts by their subject matter.
In the context of this article, we'll focus on a custom taxonomy for blog posts, where we'll group the posts by their associated categories.
Grouping Posts by Categories on Custom Taxonomy Archive Page
To group posts by categories on a custom taxonomy archive page, we'll need to leverage the WordPress template hierarchy and custom PHP functions. Here's a step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Create the Custom Taxonomy
First, let's create the custom taxonomy that we'll be working with. In this example, we'll assume you've already created a custom taxonomy called "Topics" for your blog posts.
You can create the custom taxonomy programmatically in your WordPress theme's functions.php
file or by using a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) or Custom Post Type UI.
Here's an example of how to create the "Topics" custom taxonomy in your functions.php
file:
function my_custom_taxonomies() {
$labels = array(
'name' => _x( 'Topics', 'taxonomy general name', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'singular_name' => _x( 'Topic', 'taxonomy singular name', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'search_items' => __( 'Search Topics', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'all_items' => __( 'All Topics', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'parent_item' => __( 'Parent Topic', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent Topic:', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'edit_item' => __( 'Edit Topic', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'update_item' => __( 'Update Topic', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Topic', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'new_item_name' => __( 'New Topic Name', 'your-theme-domain' ),
'menu_name' => __( 'Topics', 'your-theme-domain' ),
);
$args = array(
'hierarchical' => true,
'labels' => $labels,
'show_ui' => true,
'show_admin_column' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => array( 'slug' => 'topics' ),
);
register_taxonomy( 'topics', array( 'post' ), $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_custom_taxonomies' );
This code will create a new custom taxonomy called "Topics" with the slug "topics". You can customize the labels and other settings to match your specific requirements.
Step 2: Create the Custom Taxonomy Archive Template
Next, we need to create a custom template for the "Topics" taxonomy archive page. This template will be responsible for grouping the posts by categories.
Create a new file in your WordPress theme's directory called taxonomy-topics.php
. This file will override the default taxonomy archive template for the "Topics" taxonomy.
Inside the taxonomy-topics.php
file, add the following code:
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-12">
<h1><?php single_term_title(); ?></h1>
<p><?php echo term_description(); ?></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<?php
// Get all the categories associated with the current taxonomy term
$categories = get_terms( array(
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'hide_empty' => false,
'parent' => 0, // Get only top-level categories
) );
foreach ( $categories as $category ) {
// Get the posts for the current category and current taxonomy term
$posts = get_posts( array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'tax_query' => array(
array(
'taxonomy' => 'topics',
'field' => 'slug',
'terms' => get_queried_object()->slug,
),
array(
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'field' => 'term_id',
'terms' => $category->term_id,
),
),
'order' => 'DESC',
'orderby' => 'date',
) );
// If there are posts for the current category, display them
if ( $posts ) {
?>
<div class="col-12">
<h2><?php echo $category->name; ?></h2>
<ul>
<?php foreach ( $posts as $post ) { ?>
<li><a href="<?php echo get_permalink( $post->ID ); ?>"><?php echo $post->post_title; ?></a></li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
</div>
<?php
}
}
?>
</div>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
This template file does the following:
- Retrieves all the top-level categories associated with the current taxonomy term (in this case, the "Topics" term).
- For each category, it retrieves the posts that belong to both the current taxonomy term and the current category.
- If there are any posts for the current category, it displays the category name as a heading and a list of post titles linked to their respective pages.
By using this template, the posts on the custom taxonomy archive page will be grouped by their associated categories, making it easier for users to navigate and find the content they're looking for.
Step 3: Enhance the User Experience
To further improve the user experience, you can consider the following additional modifications:
- Add Category Descriptions: You can display the category description (if available) below the category name to provide more context for the user.
<h2><?php echo $category->name; ?></h2>
<p><?php echo $category->description; ?></p>
-
Implement Collapsible Categories: If you have a large number of categories, you can make the categories collapsible to save space and improve the overall layout. You can use JavaScript or CSS to achieve this functionality.
-
Provide Sorting Options: Allow users to sort the posts within each category by various criteria, such as date, popularity, or alphabetically. This can be done by modifying the get_posts()
arguments.
-
Implement Pagination: If the number of posts per category is large, you can add pagination to the template to improve the user experience and prevent the page from becoming too long.
-
Add Breadcrumbs: Incorporate breadcrumbs into the template to help users understand their current location within the website hierarchy.
By implementing these enhancements, you can create a more polished and user-friendly custom taxonomy archive page that effectively groups posts by categories.
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Conclusion
Grouping posts by categories on custom taxonomy archive pages in WordPress is a common requirement, but it's not a built-in feature. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can easily implement this functionality and improve the overall user experience on your website.
Remember, the key to a successful implementation is to leverage the WordPress template hierarchy and custom PHP functions to achieve the desired result. With a bit of coding and some user experience considerations, you can create a highly effective and intuitive custom taxonomy archive page for your WordPress website.
If you need further assistance or want to explore how Flowpoint.ai can help you identify and fix technical issues impacting your website's conversion rates, feel free to reach out to us.