Genesis loop for one category in home

[marcello.vicidomini]

Hi all,
i'm trying to display a loop for just one category in the homepage. I've written a custom loop which is driving me a little bit crazy, since it seems to accept everything I define in the array except 'cat' (I'm sure i'm using the correct category ID, and I also tried with different IDs). So in spite of having

'cat' => 29

defined in the loop, all the categories keep appearing in the homepage 🙁

What am I doing wrong?

This is the code I have in my home.php file:

remove_action( 'genesis_loop', 'genesis_do_loop' );
add_action( 'genesis_loop', 'child_grid_loop_homepage' );
function child_grid_loop_homepage() {
	if ( function_exists( 'genesis_grid_loop' ) ) {
		genesis_grid_loop( array(
			'features' => 0,
			'feature_image_size' => 0,
			'feature_image_class' => 'alignleft post-image',
			'feature_content_limit' => 200,
			'grid_image_size' => 'homepage-featured-image',
			'grid_image_class' => 'alignleft post-image',
			'grid_content_limit' => 150,
			'more' => __( '[Continue reading...]', 'genesis' ),
			//* The next line is ignored and all the categories keep being included in the loop. Why?
			'cat' => 29,
			'post_per_page' => 6
		) );
	} else {
		genesis_standard_loop();
	}
}

Thanks a lot for your help! 😀

[Brad Dalton]

You can exclude categories using pre_get_posts

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[marcello.vicidomini]

Hello braddalton,

thanks a lot for your answer!
Don't you think that pre_get_posts would be impractical? It looks like each time you add a new category you have to edit the code. Or maybe I'm not getting something? Isn't there a way to include one category rather then excluding all the other ones?

Thanks again for your help 😀

[Brad Dalton]

Yes, you can see the examples on the Codex which you can include in the code.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[marcello.vicidomini]

Hello Brad,
I think I solved it, here's the code:

if ( function_exists( 'genesis_grid_loop' ) ) {

	//* Here's the line I added. I used the slug instead of the id, but if works with cat_ID too
	query_posts('category_name=blog');

	genesis_grid_loop( array(
		'features' => 0,
		'feature_image_size' => 0,
		'feature_image_class' => 'alignleft post-image',
		'feature_content_limit' => 200,
		'grid_image_size' => 'homepage-featured-image',
		'grid_image_class' => 'alignleft post-image',
		'grid_content_limit' => 0,
	) );
} else {
	genesis_standard_loop();
}

[Brad Dalton]

Never use query_posts http://en.wp.obenland.it/never-use-query-posts-again/

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[marcello.vicidomini]

Ok, that was clear 😀

Should I use WP_Query instead?

[Brad Dalton]

Why don't you simply display your category archive page on the front page?

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[marcello.vicidomini]

Because in the front page I have to display other elements too that are not from the category (an image slider), and then I have a different page showing the archive for the category.
So I thought to have the following structure:
* home.php: with a sidebar to include the slider as a widget, and a custom loop to show the last 6 posts from “Blog” category
* A link in the menu pointing to the “Blog” category archive page.

[Author]

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