I can’t get WP_Query to work in my custom-post-type archive page. Can someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong? I would appreciate any help.

Here’s the code in archive-bulletin.php:

<?php get_header(); 
//wp_reset_query();
wp_reset_postdata();
$q = new WP_Query("post-type=bulletin" );
show_var("the query", $q);

if ($q->have_posts() ) : 
  while ($q->have_posts() ) : $q->the_post();
    echo "<h1>" . the_title(). "</h1>";
    the_content();
  endwhile;
endif;
wp_reset_postdata();
?>

Instead of showing my bulletin posts, it shows only post posts. The result is similar with or without the resets. (The function show_var() just wraps var_dump() in a <pre>.)

The bulletin posts show as expected with archive.php (i.e., when there’s no CPT archive template). In case it’s of help, here’s the code I use to register the post type, etc. in the main file of my plugin:

// register bulletin post-type
add_action( 'init', 'bulletin_init' );

function bulletin_init() {
  $labels = array(
    'name' => __("Bulletins"),
    'singular_name' => __("Bulletin"),
    'menu_name' => __("Bulletins"),
    'add_new' => _x('Add New', 'bulletin'),
    'add_new_item' => __("Add New Bulletin"),
    'edit_item' => __("Edit Bulletin"),
    'new_item' => __("New Bulletin"),
    'view_item' => __("View Bulletin"),
    'search_items' => __("Search Bulletins"),
    'not_found' => __("Bulletin Not Found"),
    'not_found_in_trash' => __("No bulletins found in trash"),
 );

  $args = array(
    'labels' => $labels,
    'public' => true,
    'publicly_queryable' => true,
    'exclude_from_search' => false,
    'show_ui' => true,
    'show_in_menu' => true, 
    'query_var' => true,
    'rewrite' => true,
    'menu_position' => 10,
    'supports' => array( 
      'editor', 
      'excerpt', 
      'revisions'
    ),
    'taxonomies' => array( '' ),
    'has_archive' => true
  );
  register_post_type("bulletin", $args );

  add_filter('manage_edit-bulletin_columns', 'add_bulletin_columns');
  add_action('manage_bulletin_posts_custom_column', 'bulletin_columns_data', 10, 2);
  add_filter( 'manage_edit-bulletin_sortable_columns', 'bulletin_columns_sortable' );
  add_filter( 'request', 'bulletin_columns_orderby' );
}

Of course I pared down the code in archive-bulletin.php to highlight the root problem. My larger effort is to create a CPT archive page that will display the posts ordered not by date posted, but by custom meta value (bulletin_date). I’ve seen the post here, but it’s so entangled with particulars that don’t apply, that I can’t get anything out of it.

EDIT

Here’s the code for my pre_get_posts function that solves the larger issue:

function archive_bulletin_sort( $q ) {

    if( $q->is_post_type_archive('bulletin') ){// && $q->is_main_query() ) {
        $q->set('meta_key', 'bulletin_date');
        $q->set('orderby', 'meta_value');
        $q->set('order', 'DESC');
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'archive_bulletin_sort' );