[Resolved] Template tags for parent/child category separated

[William]

Hi there,
Love Generate Press – however, I’ve found an issue that I hope you can provide some code to get around.

For the elements, I want to have the parent category of the post appear and below it the child category – this is always the case

What can I do to achieve this with template tags? I know custom fields can do this, but it requires updating every post with custom fields which is not a long term solution.

Kind regards,

Will

[Tom]

Hi there,

You would likely need to build a shortcode for this.

Is there always only one parent category? What if there is more than one category for the post?

[William]

Hi there,

Shortcode or custom field?

There will always be one parent category, and multiple child categories (book author is parent category and the book titles/s the child categories)

Kind regards,

Will

[Tom]

A shortcode would be best.

For example:

add_shortcode( 'child_categories', function() {
    ob_start();

    $current_category = get_the_category();

    if ( isset( $current_category[0]->term_id ) ) {
        $categories = get_categories(
            array( 'cat_is_ancestor_of' => $current_category[0]->term_id )
        );

        var_dump($categories);

        if ( $categories ) {
            echo '<ul class="child-categories">';
            foreach( $categories as $category ) {
                echo '<li>' . $category->cat_name . '</li>';
            }
            echo '</ul>';
        }
    }

    return ob_get_clean();
} );

[William]

Hi there,

I’ve added the above code, but it does not seem to work?

I would really appreciate having code that works above to display just the parent category of a post, as well as the child category of the post.

Many thanks,

Will

[Tom]

The code above should display the child categories of the current category. It won’t display the parent category.

Did the above code output anything at all? Can you link me to a page where it should be displaying?

[William]

I’ve added the code you sent me as a snippet to run on all pages, and then added the shortcode [child_categories] to an element that appears next to the h1 title as a test on posts such as:

https://bookanalysis.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/analysis/ <– however, nothing appears for this as of yet.

As well as this, I added the [child-categories] on a parent category page, but that does not seem to show anything too:

https://bookanalysis.com/albert-camus/

I only need the child_categories shortcode for post pages, so that it is [Book title] (child category) by [Book author] (parent category) on all posts such as:

https://bookanalysis.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/analysis/

Where currently, it displays the categories as [Book title], [Book author]

Many thanks for your help up to now,

[Tom]

Got it. Can you share the HTML you’re adding into the Page Hero on “The Stranger” post as of right now? I should be able to tweak it.

Let me know 🙂

[William]

Sure thing! It’s here (ignore the last bit – was going to stick buttons for affiliate links but commented out for the moment) :

<table style=”width: 100%;” border=”0″>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style=”width: 100%;”>

<h2 style=”font-size:42px; font-weight:bold;”>{{post_terms.category}}</h2>

<h1 style=”font-size:30px;”>{{post_title}} [child_categories]</h1>

</td>
<td style=”width: 0%;”>

<! –– [wps_double_button left_btn_text=”Buy the book” left_url=”http://bookanalysis.com/purchase/book/{{custom_field.book_title}}” left_btn_target=”blank” left_icon=”book” left_background=”#1abc9c” left_color=”#ffffff” right_btn_text=”Listen on Audible” right_url=”http://bookanalysis.com/purchase/audio/{{custom_field.book_title}}” right_btn_target=”blank” right_icon=”file-audio-o” right_background=”#02a4ef” right_color=”#ffffff” size=”27″ radius=”0″] ––>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

[William]

I stuck the child categories in at any point to see if it works, which unfortunately it doesn’t seem to show up as of yet.

[Tom]

Thanks.

So, The Stranger, Albert Camus are both parent categories (there are two).

Analysis is the post title, and the child categories are supposed to show up next to it.

Can you try the updated code?: https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/template-tags-for-parent-child-category-separated/#post-1305635

[William]

Hi there,
‘Albert Camus’ is a parent category – ‘The Stranger’ is currently set as the child category to ‘Albert Camus’.

‘Analysis’ is the post title – I currently have the child category shortcode next to it to see if it works.

Unfortunately, the code still does not spit out anything, parent/child categories are still joined by the single category shortcode.

[Tom]

Let’s debug a little. Does anything output with the updated code?: https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/template-tags-for-parent-child-category-separated/#post-1305635

[William]

Unfortunately not it seems

[William]

I’m happy to provide access the wp-admin if that would help you out?

[Author]

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