Query Block: not rendering on front-end of site in page content

[ianstewart]

The query block appears to fail to render on the front-end of a site in page content as seen in the screenshot below, with the query block in page content on the left, and the published front-end result on the right.

• WordPress 5.6
• Gutenberg 9.7.4
• Theme: TT1 Blocks (also tested with "Q" theme)

[ntsekouras]

Hey @ianstewart - The problem here lies to the inherit query from URL option that defaults to true and therefore in a page/post context doesn't work as expected because the $wp_query is about the single page.

Can you try setting the above mentioned option to false, so as to close this issue?

I know this is confusing and easy to miss and I've made some explorations on detecting the FSE and page/post context, but needs more thinking and work on context detection..

[gziolo]

There is also this question of whether the query detected from the URL should only trigger filtering when it's one of the pages that display a list of posts. In the case of the single page type, it could use all possible posts by default — just an idea to explore. Finding sensible defaults is very important here.

I would like to hear thoughts from more people building FSE themes: @scruffian, @aristath, @carolinan.

[MaggieCabrera]

There is also this question of whether the query detected from the URL should only trigger filtering when it's one of the pages that display a list of posts. In the case of the single page type, it could use all possible posts by default — just an idea to explore. Finding sensible defaults is very important here.

I agree with that perception, it would be what I expected as a theme developer

[scruffian]

This caught me out too. I think that when "inherit query from URL" is turned on, the other options should be disabled. I also wonder if it should move to the block toolbar, so that its more obvious...

[aristath]

The problem here is the empty post_type argument in the query. Since it's empty, get_posts() defaults to post and so it doesn't work for pages.
For the sake of an example, I created an FSE theme with nothing but an index.html template in it. In that template I added a query block and nothing else. On the frontend: It worked for archives showing multiple posts. It worked for single posts by showing that single post. But on pages it was empty because it was a different post-type.

Currently debugging this to see if there's an easy way to define the post-type 👍

[aristath]

PR in #28351

[aristath]

There is also this question of whether the query detected from the URL should only trigger filtering when it's one of the pages that display a list of posts. In the case of the single page type, it could use all possible posts by default — just an idea to explore. Finding sensible defaults is very important here.

I'd expect the exact opposite... If I add a query block and set it to inherit the global query, then I expect it to inherit the global query. When viewing a single post, the global query contains that single post/page, so that's what I'd expect it to show by default.
Just like in a classic theme I could add an index.php file with a loop and have it work properly everywhere, showing the content for whatever page I'm on - regardless of whether it's an archive or a page, post etc.

[gziolo]

Just like in a classic theme I could add an index.php file with a loop and have it work properly everywhere, showing the content for whatever page I'm on - regardless of whether it's an archive or a page, post etc.

Thank you for sharing this use case. I'm perfectly fine with preserving the same behavior as long as it's predictable and works correctly. That makes this issue a bug then.