Archive pages with filtering, sorting, and search capabilities.

Core Components

Archive Template

Location: /inc/archives/archive.php
Filter: extrachill_template_archive

Handles all archive types:

• Category archives
• Tag archives
• Taxonomy archives (location, festival, artist, venue)
• Author archives
• Date archives

Archive Header

Location: /inc/archives/archive-header.php
Hook: extrachill_archive_header

Displays:

• Archive title (plain text, not wrapped in links)
• Optional archive actions area: do_action( 'extrachill_archive_header_actions' )
• Taxonomy description (first page only)
• Author bio (author archives, first page only)
• extrachill_after_author_bio action hook (passes $author_id)

Filter Bar

Component: /inc/components/filter-bar.php, /inc/components/filter-bar-defaults.php
Styles: /assets/css/filter-bar.css
Hook: extrachill_archive_above_posts
Function: extrachill_filter_bar()

The theme uses a universal filter bar component for archives and search results.

Item registration:

• Core list: apply_filters( 'extrachill_filter_bar_items', [] )
• Override output: apply_filters( 'extrachill_filter_bar_override', '' )
• Extensibility: do_action( 'extrachill_filter_bar_start' ), do_action( 'extrachill_filter_bar_end' )

Item types:

• dropdown: renders a <select> and submits the form, or redirects when redirect => true
• search: renders the text input + submit button

Default theme behavior (see /inc/components/filter-bar-defaults.php):

• Search results: sort dropdown + search input only
• Blog archive (extrachill_blog_archive query var): category dropdown (redirect URLs)
• Hierarchical terms:
  • Category archives with children: child category dropdown (redirect URLs)
  • location taxonomy archives with children: child location dropdown (redirect URLs)
• Artist dropdown: only on categories song-meanings and music-history
• Sort dropdown: always present on archives
• Search input: always present and rendered last/right on archives

Sorting System

Location: /inc/archives/archive-custom-sorting.php

Sorting is applied via pre_get_posts for the main query when:

• Not in admin
• is_archive() OR get_query_var( 'extrachill_blog_archive' )

Note: /inc/archives/archive-custom-sorting.php does not run for is_search(), even though search results use the same archive template.

URL Parameters

Sort Dropdown

The theme default sort dropdown is registered by extrachill_build_sort_dropdown() (/inc/components/filter-bar-defaults.php):

<select id="filter-bar-sort" name="sort">
    <option value="recent">Sort by Recent</option>
    <option value="oldest">Sort by Oldest</option>
    <option value="random">Sort by Random</option>
    <option value="popular">Sort by Popular</option>
</select>

Sort Options

All four options available in a single dropdown for unified user experience:

• recent: Default WordPress ordering (newest first) – default selected option
• oldest: Chronological ordering (oldest first)
• random: Random post order using orderby rand
• popular: Sort by view count using ec_post_views meta key with meta_value_num orderby (descending order)

Query Modification

/inc/archives/archive-custom-sorting.php hooks pre_get_posts and adjusts the main query according to $_GET['sort'].

• oldest: orderby=date, order=ASC
• random: orderby=rand
• popular: meta_key=ec_post_views, orderby=meta_value_num, order=DESC

It also reads get_query_var( 'artist' ) and calls $query->set( 'artist', $artist ) when present.

artist is a registered custom taxonomy (/inc/core/custom-taxonomies.php) with query_var => true and rewrite => [ 'slug' => 'artist' ].

Artist Filtering

Categories: Song Meanings, Music History

Artist Filter Dropdown

Implemented in: /inc/components/filter-bar-defaults.php (via extrachill_filter_bar_items)

• Dropdown name: artist
• Query var: artist
• Only added on is_category( 'song-meanings' ) and is_category( 'music-history' )
• Options constrained to artist terms attached to posts in the current category

Child Terms Dropdown

Implemented in: /inc/components/filter-bar-defaults.php (via extrachill_filter_bar_items)

Displays child categories/terms for hierarchical taxonomies:

• Category archives: child categories
• Location taxonomy archives: child locations

URL Preservation

• The filter bar uses a GET form, so selected values are naturally preserved in the URL.
• Redirect-mode dropdowns navigate directly to a term URL (and do not preserve query args unless the option URL includes them).

Pagination query-arg preservation depends on the pagination implementation (see extrachill_pagination()).

Blog Archive Functionality

Query Var: extrachill_blog_archive
Purpose: Provides blog archive functionality without requiring custom page templates (replaces legacy /all/ template)
CSS Loading: Archive styles load when get_query_var('extrachill_blog_archive') returns true
Template: Uses standard archive template with query modifications

Archive Types

Category Archives

URL: /category-slug/
Template: Archive template via router
Breadcrumb: Home › Parent Category › Current Category

Tag Archives

URL: /tag/tag-slug/
Template: Archive template via router
Breadcrumb: Home › Current Tag

Taxonomy Archives

URLs:

• /location/location-slug/
• /festival/festival-slug/
• /artist/artist-slug/
• /venue/venue-slug/

Notes:

• artist is a taxonomy archive (/artist/{slug}/).
• The filter-bar ?artist={slug} dropdown is only shown on the song-meanings and music-history category archives.

Breadcrumb: Home › Taxonomy Name › Current Term

Author Archives

URL: /author/username/
Template: Archive template via router

Date Archives

URLs:

• /2024/ (year)
• /2024/01/ (month)
• /2024/01/15/ (day)

Template: Archive template via router

Post Cards

Location: /inc/archives/post-card.php
Usage: Displays individual post cards in archive loops

Filter Bar Hooks

// Filter bar displays automatically via extrachill_archive_above_posts
// (theme hooks extrachill_filter_bar() to this action)
do_action( 'extrachill_archive_above_posts' );

Pagination

Archive pages use theme pagination:

extrachill_pagination();

Features:

• Post count display
• Previous/Next navigation
• URL parameter preservation (depends on extrachill_pagination())
• Page number links

Using Archive Features

Sort Archives:

/category-slug/?sort=oldest
/category-slug/?sort=random
/category-slug/?sort=popular
/artist/artist-name/?sort=recent (default)

Artist taxonomy archives:

/artist/artist-slug/

Filter by Artist (only where the theme shows the dropdown):

/song-meanings/?artist=artist-slug
/music-history/?artist=artist-slug

Combine Parameters (same constraint):

/song-meanings/?artist=artist-slug&sort=popular
/music-history/?artist=artist-slug&sort=oldest

Extending Archive UI

// Add custom markup inside the filter bar
add_action( 'extrachill_filter_bar_end', function () {
	if ( is_tax( 'venue' ) ) {
		$term = get_queried_object();
		echo '<div class="venue-nav">';
		echo '<a href="/venues/' . esc_attr( $term->slug ) . '/events/" class="button-2">View Events</a>';
		echo '</div>';
	}
} );

// Add custom actions next to the archive title
add_action( 'extrachill_archive_header_actions', function () {
	// Output buttons/links/etc.
} );

// Add content after author bio (author archives, first page only)
add_action( 'extrachill_after_author_bio', function ( $author_id ) {
	// Output author-specific UI.
}, 10, 1 );

Performance Considerations

• Artist filtering queries only posts in current category
• hide_empty prevents displaying empty terms
• Query modifications run via pre_get_posts (WordPress best practice)
• URL parameters preserved for pagination/filtering compatibility (depends on pagination implementation)
• Popular sorting uses the ec_post_views post meta key (meta_value_num)