How can I properly display posts on homepage

I’m having trouble displaying posts from a single category on the homepage the way I want them to appear. The theme I’m using uses a 3 column layout for the homepage and a content-sidebar layout for the blog page.

Basically I want the homepage ( http://music1.netlabs.co.za/ ) to display exactly like the blog page ( http://music1.netlabs.co.za/?cat=7 ), but include the slider. So what I did was just copy the code from category.php and pasted it into a new custom page template titled hompage.php and set that as my homepage.

But for some reason its not displaying any posts and I have no idea why.

category.php

loop.php
http://pastebin.com/Hi6bsTvF

Any help would be much appreciated!

I’m having trouble displaying posts from a single category on the homepage the way I want them to appear. The theme I’m using uses a 3 column layout for the homepage and a content-sidebar layout for the blog page.

Basically I want the homepage to display exactly like the category archive page, but include the slider. So what I did was just copy the code from category.php and pasted it into a new page template titled front-page.php and set that as my homepage. The theme uses a loop.php to pull the loop and calls it using “get_template_part()” into the content section as shown in the code below.

But for some reason its not displaying any posts and I have no idea why.
Here are some snapshots of what’s happening:

Current Front Page:

Desired Front Page:

Here’s the code:

category.php

    <?php
    /**
     * The template for displaying Category pages.
     *
     */
    $settings = get_option( "ntl_theme_settings" );
    get_header(); ?>



            <div class="outer">
                    <div class="frameset container clear">
                            <?php if ($settings['ntl_disable_audio'] != 'off'){     ?>
                            <div class="clear headtop">
                                    <div class="page-title" >
                                            <h1 class="vfont"><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
                                    </div>

                                    <?php echo lets_get_albumselector(); ?>
                                    <?php echo lets_get_musicplayer(); ?>

                            </div>
                            <?php } else { ?>

                            <div class="clear headtop" style="height: auto;">
                                    <div class="page-title" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 40px;">
                                            <h1 class="vfont"><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
                                    </div>
                            </div>

                            <?php } ?>

                            <?php if (!$settings['ntl_show_timer']) { ?>
                                    <div class="cdowntop">
                                    <?php echo get_for_timer(''); ?>
                            <?php } else { ?>
                                    <div class="cdownnone">
                            <?php } ?>

    <div class="bodymid hfeed hpage">
            <?php if ($settings['ntl_disable_audio'] != 'off'){     ?>
                    <div class="drawer">&nbsp;</div>
            <?php } ?>
            <div id="main">
                    <div id="content" role="main">
                            <div class="container clear">
                                    <div class="grid8 first">
                                            <div id="content" role="main">
                                                    <?php get_template_part( 'loop', 'category' ); ?>
                                                    <?php adminace_paging(); ?>
                                            </div>
                                    </div>
                                    <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
                            </div>
                    </div>
            </div>
    </div>
    </div>
    <?php lets_make_carousel(); ?>


    <?php get_footer(); ?>

loop.php

    <?php
    /**
     * The loop that displays posts.
     *
     */

    ?>

    <?php /* If there are no posts to display */ ?>
    <?php if ( ! have_posts() ) : ?>
            <div id="post-0" class="post error404 not-found">
                    <h1 class="entry-title"><?php _e( 'Not Found', 'localize' ); ?></h1>
                    <div class="entry-content">
                            <p><?php _e( 'Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.', 'localize' ); ?></p>
                            <?php get_search_form(); ?>
                    </div><!-- .entry-content -->
            </div><!-- #post-0 -->
    <?php endif; ?>

    <?php
            /* Start the Loop.
             *
             *
             * Without further ado, the loop:
             */ ?>
    <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>


                    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>

                            <?php if ( !is_search() ) { ?>
                            <h3 class="entry-title excpts vfont" style="margin: 0px;"><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
                            <div class="vmeta smallfont">
                                    <?php ntl_posted_on(); ?><a href="<?php echo get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' )); ?>"><?php echo get_the_author(); ?></a>
                            </div>
                            <?php
                            $pphoto = '';
                            $pphoto = get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID, 'imlink');
                            if ($pphoto) {
                            ?>

                            <div class="excpt">
                                    <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                            </div>
                            <div class="menu-content" style="width: 286px; position: relative;">
                            <div class="mencontent">
                                    <div class="imgblock" ><div class="imlk imgoverlink6 menimg">
                                    <?php the_post_thumbnail('imlink'); ?>
                                    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><span class="imgblockover imgoverlink6">&nbsp;</span></a>
                                    </div></div>
                                    <div class="ctime clear smallfont">
                            <?php the_time('j') ?>
                            <?php the_time('M') ?>
                                    </div>
                            </div>
                            </div>
                            <?php } else { ?>
                            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                            <?php } ?>

                            <?php } else { ?>
                            <div class="foodmenu searchresult">
                            <h2 class="entry-title vfont excpts"><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
                            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Read More</a>
                            <span class="clear"></span>
                            </div>
                            <?php } ?>

                    </div>

                    <?php comments_template( '', true ); ?>

    <?php endwhile; ?>

And the theme:
http://music1.netlabs.co.za/
http://music1.netlabs.co.za/?cat=7

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Try naming the file home.php or front-page.php

There is a solution which you don’t have to touch any line of code.
Just use Content Views plugin http://wordpress.org/plugins/content-views-query-and-display-post-page/

It has option for you to query posts by category, and display posts any where you want just by past shortcode.