Running the loop outside of wordpress - wordpress

Question

I know that this has been posted many times, but I have truly spent close to 60 hours trying to figure this out - this is not my strong point!
Im running wordpress, standard installation, no plugins or anything at this stage.
I am simply trying to display the most recent 3 posts from the blog, or if we could go one step further, most recent 3 from catx.
Here is my code, which I believe should work.
<?php
require '/home1/digita/public_html/articles/wp-load.php'; ?>
<section class="services blog sec-normal">
<div class="container">
<div class="service-wrap">
<div class="row">
<style>.wp-block-image {
max-width: 100%;
margin-bottom: 1em;
display: none;
}
a.more-link {
display: none;
}
.services .service-wrap .service-section a {
margin-top: 0px!important;
}
</style>
<?php if (have_posts()) :
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
?> <!-- ***** BLOG ***** -->
<div class="col-md-4" style="width: 30%;margin-top: -7%;margin-bottom: 10%;">
<?php
if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
the_post_thumbnail();
} ?>
<div class="service-section m-0" style="margin-top: 0.1%;">
<div class="title mt-0"><?php the_title(); ?></div>
<p class="subtitle"><?php the_content() ?> </p>
<hr>
Read more
</div>
</div>
<?php
// Stop the loop when all posts are displayed
endwhile;
// If no posts were found
else :
?>
<p>Sorry no posts matched your criteria.</p>
<?php
endif;
?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
The code does not return posts, and instead returns, "Sorry no posts matched your criteria." . Any advice?

Answer 1

Main query does not set it's data, because wp function did not run after wp-load.php in your code and main query must be set base on $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] that is a few complex.
But its good to use secondary query as simple way for your work:
<?php
require '/home1/digita/public_html/articles/wp-load.php';
$query = new WP_Query(array(
'post_type' => 'post',
));
?>
<section class="services blog sec-normal">
<div class="container">
<div class="service-wrap">
<div class="row">
<style>.wp-block-image {
max-width: 100%;
margin-bottom: 1em;
display: none;
}
a.more-link {
display: none;
}
.services .service-wrap .service-section a {
margin-top: 0px!important;
}
</style>
<?php if ($query->have_posts()) :
while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();
?> <!-- ***** BLOG ***** -->
<div class="col-md-4" style="width: 30%;margin-top: -7%;margin-bottom: 10%;">
<?php
if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
the_post_thumbnail();
} ?>
<div class="service-section m-0" style="margin-top: 0.1%;">
<div class="title mt-0"><?php the_title(); ?></div>
<p class="subtitle"><?php the_content() ?> </p>
<hr>
Read more
</div>
</div>
<?php
// Stop the loop when all posts are displayed
endwhile;
// If no posts were found
else :
?>
<p>Sorry no posts matched your criteria.</p>
<?php
endif;
?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>