Wagtail Index page not displaying objects of children - django

Question

I am at my wits-end and feel I am missing something simple but I've looked at it over and over and can't figure it out.
I have a simple person_index_page that I want to show the child person_page objects, but no matter what I try...nothing. I have several sites with a similar setup and they work. Can you please look at my code below and see if you notice something I am missing? Thank you.
home_tags.py
# Person feed for home page and staff page
#register.inclusion_tag(
'home/tags/person_listing_homepage.html',
takes_context=True
)
def person_listing_homepage(context, count=3):
people = PersonPage.objects.live().order_by('?')
return {
'people': people[:count].select_related('feed_image'),
'request': context['request'],
}
person_index_page.html
{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% load wagtailcore_tags wagtailimages_tags home_tags %}
{% block content %}
...
{% include "home/tags/person_listing_homepage.html" %}
...
{% endblock %}
person_listing_homepage.html probably should name this at some point
{% for person in people %}
{% include "home/includes/person_list_item.html" %}
{% endfor %}
person_list_item.html
{% load wagtailcore_tags wagtailimages_tags %}
{# Individual person item in a list - used on people index and home page #}
<a class="list-group-item" href="{% pageurl person %}">
<div class="media">
{% if person.feed_image %}
<div class="media-left">
{% image person.feed_image width-200 as img %} <img class="media-object" src="{{ img.url }}"/>
</div>
{% endif %}
<div class="media-body">
<h4 class="media-heading">{{ person.first_name }} {{ person.last_name }}</h4>
{% if person.search_description %}
<p>{{ person.search_description }}</p>
{% endif %}
</div>
</div>
</a>

Answer 1

This is more of a "how to debug" question than a Wagtail one. Rather than just giving you the answer directly, here's the process I would take:
You say that adding print(people) inside the person_listing_homepage function doesn't display anything. So, your next question should be: "is this function being run at all?" Change the print statement to print("GOT HERE"). You'll find that this doesn't display anything either - which tells you that the function is not being run.
The next step would be to add some debugging output around the place where the function should be called from - if that doesn't get displayed either, you know that code isn't being run either, and you'd have to keep going up a level until you find something that is being run. So let's look for that place...
And this is where you find the problem. You never call the person_listing_homepage function anywhere in your code. You include the person_listing_homepage.html template, but that's not the same thing. person_index_page.html should become:
{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% load wagtailcore_tags wagtailimages_tags home_tags %}
{% block content %}
...
{% person_listing_homepage %}
...
{% endblock %}