[Support request] Custom Post Type Not Displaying Properly on Category/Tag Archives

[Goran Dragutinovic]

The problem:

– Custom post type messes up the normal display of my category and tag archive structure
– Instead of 2 column structure and meta being displayed as: img > category link > title > author
– It gives each entry it’s own line and the meta is reduced to: img > category > title
– Also, on category and tag archives, the thumbnail from entry from the custom post is showing up as around 1.5x bigger than others + left-aligned, and the meta is to the right.
– But all the other category archive entries have the img on top of the other meta
– note on the above: I do have a code in my function.php to “add avatar to author byline” but removing it does nothing
– custom post types share categories and tags with default post types.

Things I’ve done so far:

– created a custom post type

function my_custom_post() {
    
    $args = array(

        'labels' => array(
            'name' => 'My CPTS',
            'singular_name' => 'My CPT',

        ),
        'hierarchical' => false,
        'public' => true,
        'has_archive' => true,
        'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-universal-access',
        'supports' => array(
            'title',
            'editor',
            'author',
            'thumbnail',
            'excerpt',
            'author',
            'custom-fields',
            'comments',
            'revisions',
            'post-formats'
        ),
        'taxonomies' => array('category', 'post_tag'),
        'show_in_rest' => true
        //'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'cpt'), <- I could make this whatever I want it to say

    );

    register_post_type('my-cpt', $args);
}

add_action('init', 'my_custom_post');

– hooked into the query to show custom post types in home and category archives

function add_cpt_to_category_archive( $query ) {
  if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
    if ( is_archive() || is_category() || is_home() ) {
      // Add CPT to the category
      $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'my-cpt' ) );
    }
    if ( $query->is_search() ) {
      // Add CPT to the search
      $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'my-cpt' ) );
    }
  }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'add_cpt_to_category_archive' ); 

What I’m looking to achieve:

– custom post types being fed into the category/home/search archives consistent with default post types layout/style
– custom post types and default post types to show up together in archives and search queries

[David]

Hi there,

can you share a link to where we can see the problem?

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Sure, see pm.

The Test Post is the custom type one.

I’m also seeing that the custom post type archive includes non-custom post type posts.

See link #3.

[Tom]

Let’s tackle the columns issue first. Try this:

add_filter( 'generate_blog_columns', function( $columns ) {
    if ( ! is_singular() && 'your-cpt' === get_post_type() ) {
        return true;
    }

    return $columns;
} );

Does that provide consistent results?

Let us know 🙂

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Yes that fixes the issue of the column.

[Tom]

Awesome. So what’s left to figure out? You’re wanting to add post meta to these cpt items as well?

Let me know 🙂

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Yes, the post meta is acting strangely. For example

When the CPT is the latest post in the loop, then all the meta gets stripped from all posts in that archive. Example: https://theeldergeek.com/movies/

But when it is not the latest item in the loop, the meta does not get stripped.
Example: https://theeldergeek.com/shows/

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Also:
– on category and tag archives, the thumbnail from entry from the custom post is showing up as around 1.5x bigger than others
– additionally, the custom post type category ‘geek-bios’ show non-custom post types as well. Is there a way to fix this to show only custom post types without creating a separate custom post type archive page?

[Tom]

You will likely need to enable post meta on your CPTs:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/generate_entry_meta_post_types/
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/generate-footer-meta-post-types/

As for the thumbnail – where are you defining the size?

For the CPT archive – it will only show posts from its CPT if it’s set up correctly. If that’s not the case, perhaps you’re using a function somewhere altering the query?

[Goran Dragutinovic]

You will likely need to enable post meta on your CPT. – Worked

As for the thumbnail – where are you defining the size? Nowhere. Assumed it would inherit.

For the CPT archive. – two relevant functions are at the top of this thread. I will comb through the files again to see if I changed/added anything else anywhere,

[Tom]

It should inherit the image size from Customize > Layout > Blog – what do you have set up as your image values in there?

Let us know 🙂

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Well, that helped me realize that as usual, it was my fault.
The test post feat img was of a diff size than the others. Thanks!

Everything is solved now except for the CPT Archive.

Basically, it’s being treated as All Post and not isolating only my CPT published posts.

I’ve combed through the files and can’t see anything that I’ve changed anywhere pertinent.

[Tom]

The CPT archive should only contain posts from that CPT by default – that’s just how WordPress works. Perhaps one of your plugins is interfering with the query?

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Hi Tom,

Is that the case even if I don’t have a separate archive for the CPTs and/or don’t have a separate taxonomy setup for them either (currently just have ‘taxonomies’ => array(‘category’, ‘post_tag’)?

[Goran Dragutinovic]

Hey Tom, more info I just came across.

//Hooks into the query to show custom post types into the category archive

function add_cpt_to_category_archive( $query ) {
  if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
    if ( is_archive() || is_category() || is_home() ) {
         // Add CPT to the category
         $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'geek-bios' ) );
    }  
    if ( $query->is_search() ) {
         // Add CPT to the search
         $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'geek-bios' ) );
    } 
  }
}

add_action('pre_get_posts', 'add_cpt_to_category_archive' );

I removed is_archive() from the above 2nd if statement and it seems to have done the trick.

Also removed the 3rd if statement as it is showing up in search even without that code.

Thoughts?

[Author]

Posts