In today’s post, I will show you how to create a load more button to show additional posts or custom post types using AJAX.

The benefit of this is that it will improve the page load of the page as it will only be displaying a certain amount of posts before having to load any more of the content.

So let’s get started…

So the first thing that you should have is a list of posts to display on the frontend as follows:-

    <div id="ajax-posts" class="row">
        <?php
            $postsPerPage = 3;
            $args = array(
                    'post_type' => 'post',
                    'posts_per_page' => $postsPerPage,
            );

            $loop = new WP_Query($args);

            while ($loop->have_posts()) : $loop->the_post();
        ?>

         <div class="small-12 large-4 columns">
                <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
                <p><?php the_content(); ?></p>
         </div>

         <?php
                endwhile;
        wp_reset_postdata();
         ?>
    </div>
    <div id="more_posts">Load More</div>

Then you want to add the following code in your functions.php file.

wp_localize_script( 'twentyfifteen-script', 'ajax_posts', array(
    'ajaxurl' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ),
    'noposts' => __('No older posts found', 'twentyfifteen'),
));

Right after the existing wp_localize_script. This will load WordPress own admin-ajax.php so that we can use it when we call it in our ajax call.

At the end of the functions.php file, you need to add the function that will load your posts:-

function more_post_ajax(){

    $ppp = (isset($_POST["ppp"])) ? $_POST["ppp"] : 3;
    $page = (isset($_POST['pageNumber'])) ? $_POST['pageNumber'] : 0;

    header("Content-Type: text/html");

    $args = array(
        'suppress_filters' => true,
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => $ppp,
        'paged'    => $page,
    );

    $loop = new WP_Query($args);

    $out = '';

    if ($loop -> have_posts()) :  while ($loop -> have_posts()) : $loop -> the_post();
        $out .= '<div class="small-12 large-4 columns">
                <h1>'.get_the_title().'</h1>
                <p>'.get_the_content().'</p>
         </div>';

    endwhile;
    endif;
    wp_reset_postdata();
    die($out);
}

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_more_post_ajax', 'more_post_ajax');
add_action('wp_ajax_more_post_ajax', 'more_post_ajax');

The final part is the ajax itself. In functions.js or your main JavaScript/jQuery file, you need to input inside the $(document).ready(); environment the following code:-

var ppp = 3; // Post per page
var pageNumber = 1;


function load_posts(){
    pageNumber++;
    var str = ''&pageNumber=' + pageNumber + '&ppp=' + ppp + '&action=more_post_ajax';
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        dataType: "html",
        url: ajax_posts.ajaxurl,
        data: str,
        success: function(data){
            var $data = $(data);
            if($data.length){
                $("#ajax-posts").append($data);
                $("#more_posts").attr("disabled",false);
            } else{
                $("#more_posts").attr("disabled",true);
            }
        },
        error : function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            $loader.html(jqXHR + " :: " + textStatus + " :: " + errorThrown);
        }

    });
    return false;
}

$("#more_posts").on("click",function(){ // When btn is pressed.
    $("#more_posts").attr("disabled",true); // Disable the button, temp.
    load_posts();
});

With the above code, you should now have a load more button at the bottom of your posts where on click it will display further posts. This can also be used with CTP (custom post types).

If you need any help with this, feel free to get in touch in the comment below. This can also be used to load automatically on scroll, again, if you need help with this, just drop me a message and I’ll be more than happy to help you!