Load More Posts with AJAX for WordPress Multisite

Here is a screenshot how I did it for WordPress default TwentySeventeen theme. You can also download my child theme with the ready code.

AJAX load more button for posts within a WordPress Multisite network

Below I will guide you step by step how to implement it on your own WordPress Multisite Network.

Step 1. Creating a Load More Button

If you’re going to use it not for WordPress Multisite but for your custom queries, just replace Network_Query with WP_Query – that’s all.

$args = array(
	'posts_per_page' => 5 // you can add any query parameters here
);
$query = new Network_Query( $args );

if( $query->have_posts() ) :

	while( $query->have_posts() ...

		// the posts will be displayed here

	... endwhile;

	// if there is more than 1 page of posts – display the button
	if ( $query->max_num_pages > 1 ) :
		echo '<div class="misha_loadmore">More posts</div>';
	endif;

endif;
network_reset_postdata();

Network_Query accepts all the parameters which are supported by WordPress WP_Query.
Network_Query and network_reset_postdata() are the parts of my plugin, so you have to install the plugin first.

Step 2. How to Pass Parameters to the AJAX request correctly?

When I publish my first tutorial about creating a load more button for WordPress archive pages and search results, I passed all the parameters using wp_localize_script() function. And it is OK when you create load more buttons for the main loop.

But we can not do the same for custom queries.

So I’m going to break it down into two parts.

wp_localize_script()

We still have to use wp_localize_script() for some of the parameters. Well, only for ajaxurl 😁Anyway passing it for every loop doesn’t make any sense for me.

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function(){
	
	// I hope you do not forget that we create all of this with the help of jQuery
	wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
	
	// This script will contain all the code which will process our load more button
	wp_register_script( 'multisite_loadmore', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() .'/multisite_loadmore.js', array('jquery') );

	// And finally creating object of parameters with wp_localize_script()
	wp_localize_script( 'multisite_loadmore', 'misha_loadmore_params', array(
		'ajaxurl' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' )
	) );
	
	wp_enqueue_script( 'multisite_loadmore' );

} );

Many people ask me, where to download multisite_loadmore.js file… 😂 Guys, you have to create it yourselves! At this moment it is just an empty file, but we’ll fill it with the code in the next step,
Also keep in mind, that your browser is going to cache multisite_loadmore.js, but you can pass the 4th parameter to wp_register_script() function – time(), so it won’t be cached during your developer work. time() is the simplest way, another option is filemtime( $file_path ) function;

Data Attributes

Obviously, ajaxurl is not enough data to pass to our AJAX script. We have to pass some information related to our query as well. Here they are:

args – the array of WP_Query / Network_Query arguments,
current-page – depending on this parameter WordPress knows what posts to load next,
max-page – the maximum number of available pages for a specific query,
if you are using different custom queries on the same page, consider passing AJAX action here too;

Let’s come back to the first step and add all of these parameters as data attributes for our button.

	... endwhile;
 
	// if there is more than 1 page of posts – display the button
	if ( $query->max_num_pages > 1 ) {
		echo '<div class="misha_loadmore" data-args="' . esc_attr( json_encode( $args ) ) . '" data-max-page="' . $query->max_num_pages . '" data-current-page="1">More posts</div>';
	}
 
endif;
network_reset_postdata();

You probably noticed that I set a static value current-page parameter. What do you think why?

Because it is always going to be equal to 1. I suppose that you’re not going to use pagination functionality for custom queries. But if you are, you can get the current page from the query var get_query_var( 'paged' ). More info about implementing it is in this tutorial.

Step 3. Creating an AJAX request in multisite_loadmore.js

My purpose was to create a code which will work for you regardless of how many custom queries you are going to use on the same page.

That’s why I passed the current page value in a data attribute too.

jQuery(function($){

	/*
	 * Button click event
	 */
	$('body').on('click', '#misha_loadmore', function(){
		var button = $(this),
		    queryArgs = button.data( 'args' ),
		    maxPage = button.data( 'max-page' ),
		    currentPage = button.data( 'current-page' );

		$.ajax({
			url : misha_loadmore_params.ajaxurl, // AJAX handler
			data : {
				'action': 'multisiteloadmore', // the parameter for admin-ajax.php
				'query': queryArgs,
				'page' : currentPage,
			},
			type : 'POST',
			beforeSend : function ( xhr ) {
				button.text('Loading...'); // some type of preloader
			},
			success : function( data ){

				currentPage++;
				button.text('More Posts').data( 'current-page', currentPage ).before(data);

				if( currentPage == maxPage ) {
					button.remove();
				}

			}
		});
		return false;
	});

});

Step 4. wp_ajax_ and wp_ajax_nopriv_

The code for your functions.php:

add_action('wp_ajax_multisiteloadmore', 'misha_multisite_loadmore'); // wp_ajax_{action}
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_multisiteloadmore', 'misha_multisite_loadmore'); // wp_ajax_nopriv_{action}

function misha_multisite_loadmore(){

	$args = $_POST['query'];
	$args['paged'] = $_POST['page'] + 1; // next page of posts

	$query = new Network_Query( $args ); // or you can use query_posts() for custom queries

	if( $query->have_posts() ) :

		// run the loop
		while( $query->have_posts() ): $query->the_post();

			// post template

		endwhile;
	endif;
	die;
}

If you remember my previous tutorial, to got the $args inside wp_ajax_ hooks we used json_decode() function. Why we don’t use it here?

Because $_POST['query'] is already a ready-to-use array. Thankfully to data() method:

queryArgs = button.data( 'args' ),

But if instead of data() method you decide to use attr(), you still have to json_decode() the value before creating $args array for Network_Query.