[RESOLVED] wordpress archives.php for an utterly hopeless newb

[badphpbadbadphp]

Sorry for the wall of code, here's the entirety of my wordpress archives.php. I have no idea which part is the offending part.

Right now my archives only display the current month, with no option for "more" or anything implying that I didn't just start writing this month. I'd really prefer to have everything that I've ever written included on the archives page.

<?php
	/* Template Name: Archives */
	global $wpdb;

//DISTINCT YEAR(post_date) AS year, MONTH(post_date) AS month, count(ID) as posts  
$fetch_archive = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM " . $wpdb->posts . " WHERE post_status='publish' AND post_type = 'post' GROUP BY $wpdb->posts.ID ORDER BY post_date DESC");
$last_month = date_i18n("m Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date));
get_header(); 
?>
<div id="content-container">
    <div id="archive-detail-1">
		<h2 class="post-section-title"><?php echo date_i18n("M Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date)); ?></h2>
        <div class="post-slider clearfix">
            <ul>
                <?php
                    $count = 0;
                    $month_count = 1;
                    $last_month = date_i18n("m Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date));
                    foreach($fetch_archive as $archive_data) :                    	
                        $get_post_video = get_post_meta($post->ID, "main_video", true);
                        $get_thumbnail = get_post_meta($archive_data->ID, "other_media", true);
                        $get_video_thumbnail = get_post_meta($archive_data->ID, "video_thumbnail", true);
                        $post_image = "";
                        if($get_thumbnail == "") :
                            $post_image =  fetch_post_image($archive_data->ID, "300", "2000");
                        endif;
                        $category_id = get_the_category($archive_data->ID);
                        $this_category = get_category($category_id[0]->term_id);
                        $this_category_link = get_category_link($category_id[0]->term_id);
                        $link = get_permalink($archive_data->ID);
                        if(date_i18n("m Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date)) !== $last_month) :
                            $count = 1;
							$month_count++;
                        ?>
                                    </ul>
                                </div>
                            </div>
                            <div id="archive-detail-<?php echo $month_count; ?>" style="display: none;">
                            	<h2 class="post-section-title"><?php echo date_i18n("M Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date)); ?></h2>
                                <div class="post-slider clearfix">
                                    <ul>
                        <?php elseif($count == 4) :
                            $count = 1;
                        ?>
                                </ul>
                            </div>
                            <div class="post-slider clearfix">
                                <ul>
                        <?php
                        else :	
                            $count++;
                        endif;
                        ?>
                        <li class="clearfix"<?php if($count == 4) : echo " class=\"last\""; endif; ?>>
                            <div class="container-header-light-normal"><span></span></div>
							<div class="container-light">
								<div class="thumbnail">
									<?php if ($get_video_thumbnail !== "") : ?>
										<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/functions/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $get_video_thumbnail ?>&amp;h=&amp;w=300&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php elseif($get_thumbnail !== "") : ?>
										<img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/functions/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $get_thumbnail ?>&amp;w=300&amp;h=&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php  elseif ($post_image !== "") :
										echo $post_image; 
									elseif($get_post_video !== "") :
										$get_post_video = preg_replace("/(width\s*=\s*[\"\'])[0-9]+([\"\'])/i", "$1 190 $2", $get_post_video);
										$get_post_video = preg_replace("/(height\s*=\s*[\"\'])[0-9]+([\"\'])/i", "$1 137 $2", $get_post_video);
											echo $get_post_video;
									else : ?>
										<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/slider-test-vid.png" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php endif; ?>
								</div>
							</div>
                            <div class="container-footer-light-normal"><span></span></div>
                            <h3><a href="<?php echo get_permalink($archive_data->ID); ?>"><?php echo substr($archive_data->post_title, 0, 45); ?></a></h3>
                        </li>
                    <?php
                        $last_month = date_i18n("m Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date));
                    endforeach;
                ?>
            </ul>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Thanks in advance.

[Bonesnap]

The issue is you're trying to do this manually. WordPress has an extensive API for stuff like this.

Look into the function get_posts(). You don't have to make any database calls or write your own queries, WordPress takes care of all that. If you want to list all your posts then for the 'numberposts' element use the value -1.

[badphpbadbadphp]

Thanks for taking the time to give me some advice...
I went ahead and changed the value that I thought was the correct one to '-1'. Uploaded it, didn't work. Went in and changed anything that was preceded by numberposts to '-1'. Still no avail.
I'm guessing that this may have something to do with the fact that I'm still using the aforementioned code, rather than going back to Wordpress' default archives.php.
There is a reason for this: the archives.php that I'm trying to use (the one above) features a drastically different 'look' from the ones that Wordpress generates. I'm sure that given enough time I could use the wordpress archives and customize it to look like the present ones, but that's a can of worms I was looking to avoid unless I had to.

Never the less, I really appreciate the help with my problem. Thanks again.

[Bonesnap]

Use WordPress's default archives.php and just modify the markup aspect of it, that's what I do. I never use the default themes (ew) that come with it.

[badphpbadbadphp]

I was going to go back to the worpress archives when I was doing some last-ditch research, and found something better... over at wordpress.org someone had posted their own code for the same file, and voila, it adds date buttons at the top... I can now understand why the rest of the code was doing what it was doing.

For anyone stumbling on this thread looking for the same answers to their wordpress selecta archives issues:

<?php
	/* Template Name: Selecta Archives */

global $wpdb, $is_archive;
$is_archive = "1";
if(file_exists("../../../wp-blog-header.php")) :
	require_once("../../../wp-blog-header.php");
endif;
if($_GET["month"]) :
	$use_date = StrToDate("15/".$_GET["month"]."/".$_GET["year"]);
	echo $use_date;
endif;

//DISTINCT YEAR(post_date) AS year, MONTH(post_date) AS month, count(ID) as posts
$fetch_archive = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM " . $wpdb->posts . " WHERE post_status='publish' AND post_type = 'post' GROUP BY $wpdb->posts.ID ORDER BY post_date DESC");
$last_month = date("m Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date));
get_header();
?>
<div id="content-container">
    <div id="archive-detail-1">
		<h2 class="post-section-title"><?php echo date("M Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date)); ?></h2>
        <div class="post-slider clearfix">
            <ul>
                <?php
                    $count = 0;
                    $month_count = 1;
                    $last_month = date("m Y", strtotime($fetch_archive[0]->post_date));
                    foreach($fetch_archive as $archive_data) :
                        $get_post_video = get_post_meta($post->ID, "main_video", true);
                        $get_thumbnail = get_post_meta($archive_data->ID, "other_media", true);
                        $get_video_thumbnail = get_post_meta($archive_data->ID, "video_thumbnail", true);
                        $post_image = "";
                        if($get_thumbnail == "") :
                            $post_image =  fetch_post_image($archive_data->ID, "300", "2000");
                        endif;
                        $category_id = get_the_category($archive_data->ID);
                        $this_category = get_category($category_id[0]->term_id);
                        $this_category_link = get_category_link($category_id[0]->term_id);
                        $link = get_permalink($archive_data->ID);
                        if(date("m Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date)) !== $last_month) :
                            $count = 1;
							$month_count++;
                        ?>
                                    </ul>
                                </div>
                            </div>
                            <div id="archive-detail-<?php echo $month_count; ?>" style="display: none;">
                            	<h2 class="post-section-title"><?php echo date("M Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date)); ?></h2>
                                <div class="post-slider clearfix">
                                    <ul>
                        <?php elseif($count == 4) :
                            $count = 1;
                        ?>
                                </ul>
                            </div>
                            <div class="post-slider clearfix">
                                <ul>
                        <?php
                        else :
                            $count++;
                        endif;
                        ?>
                        <li class="clearfix"<?php if($count == 4) : echo " class=\"last\""; endif; ?>>
                            <div class="container-header-light-normal"><span></span></div>
							<div class="container-light">
								<div class="thumbnail">
									<?php if ($get_video_thumbnail !== "") : ?>
										<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/functions/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $get_video_thumbnail ?>&h=&w=300&zc=1" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php elseif($get_thumbnail !== "") : ?>
										<img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/functions/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $get_thumbnail ?>&w=300&h=&zc=1" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php  elseif ($post_image !== "") :
										echo $post_image;
									elseif($get_post_video !== "") :
										$get_post_video = preg_replace("/(width\s*=\s*[\"\'])[0-9]+([\"\'])/i", "$1 190 $2", $get_post_video);
										$get_post_video = preg_replace("/(height\s*=\s*[\"\'])[0-9]+([\"\'])/i", "$1 137 $2", $get_post_video);
											echo $get_post_video;
									else : ?>
										<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/slider-test-vid.png" alt="<?php echo $archive_data->post_title; ?>" />
									<?php endif; ?>
								</div>
							</div>
                            <div class="container-footer-light-normal"><span></span></div>
                            <h3><a href="<?php echo get_permalink($archive_data->ID); ?>"><?php echo substr($archive_data->post_title, 0, 45); ?></a></h3>
                        </li>
                    <?php
                        $last_month = date("m Y", strtotime($archive_data->post_date));
                    endforeach;
                ?>
            </ul>
		</div>

</div>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Thanks again for the help!