If you are creating a custom theme in WordPress. Then, this is the most useful article for you. There are lots of time when you stuck with this issue “How to get the featured image”. I will explain you how to do this easily.
Step 1: To enable the featured image support, you need to add the same in your functions.php file. The explanation is provided at “Add Featured Image support in Custom WordPress Theme“
Step 2: When you create a new post, add the featured image in the “Featured Image” section of your post. Because, you won’t get anything if the featured post is not assigned.
Step 3: To access the featured image in your theme, you can use two functions i.e. the_post_thumbnail() and get_the_post_thumbnail().
the_post_thumbnail()the_post_thumbnail() function is used to display the post thumbnail if you are in the loop. It prints the image directly. You can pass size & attributes parameters in the function.the_post_thumbnail( $size, $attr )$size (optional) => WordPress have various pre-defined sizes for uploaded featured image. The default value is “post-thumbnail”$attr (optional) => Query string or array of attributes
the_post_thumbnail(); // default -> 'post-thumbnail'the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail' ); // Thumbnail (default 150px x 150px max)the_post_thumbnail( 'medium' ); // Medium resolution (default 300px x 300px max)the_post_thumbnail( 'large' ); // Large resolution (default 640px x 640px max)the_post_thumbnail( 'full' ); // Full resolution (original size uploaded)the_post_thumbnail( array(100, 100) ); // Other resolutions as you want
You can even register new post thumbnail sizes of your choice using the function add_image_size()
get_the_post_thumbnail()get_the_post_thumbnail() function is used to display the post thumbnail even if you are outside of the loop. It returns the image tag as a variable. You can pass post id, size & attributes parameters in the function.get_the_post_thumbnail( $post, $size, $attr )$post (optional) => Post ID or Post Object. Default value is null. If null is passed, then global $post is used$size (optional) => WordPress have various pre-defined sizes for uploaded featured image. The default value is “post-thumbnail”$attr (optional) => Query string or array of attributes
Example of $attr parameter is:array( 'class' => 'alignleft', 'title' => 'WhateverTitle')
Let me know if you have any query in comments.
