Can PHP 'include' be used to duplicate PHP + ACF section in WP? - php

Question

I'm creating a custom WP theme - within the site, there is an employee section. Using 'Advanced Custom Fields' repeater, I've made it possible for WP users to go to a page and add/change/delete employee members.
I'm wanting this employee section to be added to other places on the website, but only needs to be updated in one place - rather than having to go into several pages to make the same changes.
I'm relatively new to WP dev and PHP, but here's what I've tried:
I've created a new php file with only the employee section:
<?php /* Template Name: StaffSection */ ?>
<h1>Testing</h1><!-- This line runs fine -->
<?php<!-- None of this runs -->
// check if the repeater field has rows of data
if( have_rows('employees') ):
// loop through the rows of data
while ( have_rows('employees') ) : the_row(); ?>
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 gap">
<a href="<?php the_sub_field('employee-link'); ?>">
<img class="leadership-img" src="<?php the_sub_field('employee-image'); ?>">
<h4 class="position"><?php the_sub_field('employee-name'); ?></h4>
</a>
<p class="position"><?php the_sub_field('employee-title'); ?></p>
</div>
<?php endwhile;
else :
// no rows found
endif; ?>
On the page that I'm wanting to 'include' this section on:
<section id="leadership" class="section">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="row leadership-section">
<?php include 'staff-section.php'; ?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
Within WP, I've created a new WP page and linked it to the 'StaffSection' template that I created. I have 'Advanced Custom Fields' on that page to pull content that WP users define.
I know the 'include' function is working with that test h1 tag, but any idea why it isn't reading the php repeater loop below that?

Answer 1

It could be that if ( have_rows('employees') )... etc etc is returning false because there is no 'employees' repeater that belongs to the post object defined within the loop.
One solution I use to make a field that is displayed across many pages is to create a secondary query to retrieve the repeater.
For instance, we can do this.
1. create a post with the category 'employees'
2. Go to ACF and set the logic so the repeater only appears on posts with category 'employees'
3. Query post object with category 'employees'
4. Access repeater from within the query
<?php
$repeater_query = new WP_Query(array('category_name' => 'employees'))
if ($repeater_query->have_posts() ) {
while ($repeater_query->have_posts() ) {
$repeater_query->the_post();
// check if the repeater field has rows of data
if( have_rows('employees') ):
// loop through the rows of data
while ( have_rows('employees') ) : the_row(); ?>
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 gap">
<a href="<?php the_sub_field('employee-link'); ?>">
<img class="leadership-img" src="<?php the_sub_field('employee-image'); ?>">
<h4 class="position"><?php the_sub_field('employee-name'); ?></h4>
</a>
<p class="position"><?php the_sub_field('employee-title'); ?></p>
</div>
<?php endwhile;
else :
// no rows found
endif;
}
} wp_reset_postdata();
I hope this helps. Cheers