Get a variable from one wordpress template file to

Question

I have a template file (trendingPosts.php) for showing 2 latest posts with the tag 'trending'. In the while loop for displaying these 2 posts, I take their ID's in an array so I can exclude them from the main wordpress loop later:

<div id="trendingWrap" class="clearfix">

<?php
$trending = new WP_Query();
$trending->query("showposts=2&tag=trending");
while($trending->have_posts()) : $trending->the_post();
$wp_query->in_the_loop = true;
$currentTrending[] = $post->ID;
?>

    <div class="trendingStory">
        <h2 class="trendingTitle"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" alt="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
    </div><!-- end trendingStory -->

<?php endwhile; ?>

</div><!-- end trendingWrap -->

The problem is that I have an index.php in which I include the loop.php via get_template_part( 'loop', 'index' ); and I am unable to get the $currentTrending[] array that I made in trendingPosts.php. I need to get that array in my loop.php

Moreover, in my loop.php, I am excluding the 2 posts in the following way.

if(have_posts()): while(have_posts()) : the_post(); 
    if( $post->ID == $currentTrending[0] || $post->ID == $currentTrending[1] ) continue;

Is this the right way to exclude posts? if anybody has a better way of doing this whole thing. Please let me know. Of course nothing works until I manage to get that array in loop.php so that is the main issue.

Thanks! I appreciate all the help.

Answer 1

Try moving your current trending code to the theme's functions.php, so that you can call on it whenever you need.

function getCurrentTrending() {
  $trending = new WP_Query();
  $trending->query("showposts=2&tag=trending");
  while($trending->have_posts()) : $trending->the_post();
    $wp_query->in_the_loop = true;
    $currentTrending[] = $post->ID;
  endwhile;
  return $currentTrending;
}

You can then fetch that array from any template file:

$currentTrending = getCurrentTrending();

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You can easily create variables that you can access everywhere by using the $GLOBALS superglobal array.

Once set

$GLOBALS['mytheme_thisismyvar'] = 22;

You can then access it everwhere in the other templates:

$myvar = $GLOBALS['mytheme_thisismyvar'];

And use it where it suits. This works with sub-templates regardless how they get loaded.

Because the whole program shares this superglobal array, take care that you do not overwrite existing values.