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I'm trying to get a Page to display a custom query using the snippet posted here. The following is in my functions.php:

function alter_the_query($request) {
    if($dummy_query->is_page('blog')) $request['category_name'] = 'Blog';
    // and then
    return $request;

The page called "Blog" has a basic loop inside- so it should be displaying whatever WP_Query tells it to. However, it is only displaying the Page content- which should have been ignored.

I can't seem to find a reference that explains the properties of the $request object, so I'm not sure what I should do to make this snippet work. Any ideas?

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According to your code, you are trying to display posts that are in the category "Blog", is that correct? –  Manny Fleurmond Aug 29 '11 at 6:42
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1 Answer

Inside your function, simply do a var_dump of the $request object to reveal its properties.

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Thanks, I updated the question name to elicit suggestions about how to actually make the function work. But incidentally, what's a safe way to echo the results of the var_dump? –  Isaac Lubow Jul 27 '11 at 4:40
yeah...wasn't sure this was too helpful, but this would be a good step to get started. The var_dump would just allow you to see the props of the object. Just dump it once to see what's in the object. Then work from there. This is more of a troubleshooting step than a full solution. –  tollmanz Jul 27 '11 at 4:46
If I do $vardump = var_dump($request); in the function, echoing $vardump on the page yields nothing. How can I check this value? –  Isaac Lubow Jul 27 '11 at 8:01
var_dump just prints to screen, it doesn't return anything. If you wanted to inspect the request inside a variable you'd have to use var_export - ie, $vardump = var_export( $request, true ); –  goldenapples Mar 11 '12 at 22:08
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