Working on my first WordPress theme, I created a page template for authors based on this tutorial which is itself based on the twenty-fourteen theme.

What I could not understand is this :

$post_count = count_user_posts( $contributor_id );

From this code example (check especially the first 10 lines for my first question which will very possibly automatically answer my final questions):

<?php
// Output the authors list.
$contributor_ids = get_users( array(
  'fields'  => 'ID',
  'orderby' => 'post_count',
  'order'   => 'DESC',
  'who'     => 'authors',
));

foreach ( $contributor_ids as $contributor_id ) :
$post_count = count_user_posts( $contributor_id );
  // Move on if user has not published a post (yet).
  if ( ! $post_count ) {
    continue;
  }
?>

<div class="contributor">
  <div class="contributor-info">
    <div class="contributor-avatar"><?php echo get_avatar( $contributor_id, 132 ); ?></div>
    <div class="contributor-summary">
      <h2 class="contributor-name"><?php echo get_the_author_meta( 'display_name', $contributor_id ); ?></h2>
      <p class="contributor-bio">
        <?php echo get_the_author_meta( 'description', $contributor_id ); ?>
      </p>
      <a class="button contributor-posts-link" href="<?php echo esc_url( get_author_posts_url( $contributor_id ) ); ?>">
        <?php printf( _n( '%d Article', '%d Articles', $post_count, 'twentyfourteen' ), $post_count ); ?>
      </a>
    </div><!-- .contributor-summary -->
  </div><!-- .contributor-info -->
</div><!-- .contributor -->

<?php
endforeach;
?>

I have checked the Codex for count_user_posts( ) but I could not understand how the code is aligned with the documentation as the output of the foreach loop $contributor_id is not only the ID but also post_count,desc and authors.

These are supposed to be the second parameters which are optional and are

Single post type or array of post types

as the Codex specifies below:

$post_type (array|string) (Optional) Single post type or array of post types to count the number of posts for. Default value: ‘post’

So how the values of "post_count" ,"desc" and “authors”. fit with the Codex documentation?

Same question for:

get_avatar( $contributor_id, 132 )

and

get_the_author_meta( 'display_name', $contributor_id )

Working on my first WordPress theme, I created a page template for authors based on this tutorial which is itself based on the twenty-fourteen theme.

What I could not understand is this :

$post_count = count_user_posts( $contributor_id );

From this code example (check especially the first 10 lines for my first question which will very possibly automatically answer my final questions):

<?php
// Output the authors list.
$contributor_ids = get_users( array(
  'fields'  => 'ID',
  'orderby' => 'post_count',
  'order'   => 'DESC',
  'who'     => 'authors',
));

foreach ( $contributor_ids as $contributor_id ) :
$post_count = count_user_posts( $contributor_id );
  // Move on if user has not published a post (yet).
  if ( ! $post_count ) {
    continue;
  }
?>

<div class="contributor">
  <div class="contributor-info">
    <div class="contributor-avatar"><?php echo get_avatar( $contributor_id, 132 ); ?></div>
    <div class="contributor-summary">
      <h2 class="contributor-name"><?php echo get_the_author_meta( 'display_name', $contributor_id ); ?></h2>
      <p class="contributor-bio">
        <?php echo get_the_author_meta( 'description', $contributor_id ); ?>
      </p>
      <a class="button contributor-posts-link" href="<?php echo esc_url( get_author_posts_url( $contributor_id ) ); ?>">
        <?php printf( _n( '%d Article', '%d Articles', $post_count, 'twentyfourteen' ), $post_count ); ?>
      </a>
    </div><!-- .contributor-summary -->
  </div><!-- .contributor-info -->
</div><!-- .contributor -->

<?php
endforeach;
?>

I have checked the Codex for count_user_posts( ) but I could not understand how the code is aligned with the documentation as the output of the foreach loop $contributor_id is not only the ID but also post_count,desc and authors.

These are supposed to be the second parameters which are optional and are

Single post type or array of post types

as the Codex specifies below:

$post_type (array|string) (Optional) Single post type or array of post types to count the number of posts for. Default value: ‘post’

So how the values of "post_count" ,"desc" and “authors”. fit with the Codex documentation?

Same question for:

get_avatar( $contributor_id, 132 )

and

get_the_author_meta( 'display_name', $contributor_id )

• loop

1 Answer 1

Those parameters are optional, as the codex states:

$post_type

(string) (optional) Post type to count the number of posts for.

    Default: "post"

So it's optional, not required. If it isn't passed in, then the default value is "post".

Optional parameters are a part of PHP, e.g.

function print_number( $number=5 ) {
    echo $number;
}
print_number( 2 ); // prints 2
print_number(); // prints 5

Note that this doesn't mean all parameters are optional. Check the parameter in the docs for the function you're using to see if it's optional, and what its default is