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1. FlossieT
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Having tried various plugins and searches, I'm stumped (I'm fairly new to the Loop...). I've been looking at WP_Query and query_posts mainly.

   I need a modified version of the 'recent posts' list in the sidebar, to show only longer posts (excluding some very short posts).

   We have a custom field that is populated for each of the longer posts that we want to show up, but the value will be different for each post.

   How do I show only the ten most recent posts where that custom field is NOT empty?

   It seems such a simple thing to do and yet I'm failing miserably - any pointers to tutorials that will walk me through this would be very much appreciated.

   Thanks,
   Rachael

2. MichaelH
   Volunteer
   Posted 2 years ago #

   <?php
   $args=array(
     'meta_key'=>'your_key_here',
     'post_type' => 'post',
     'post_status' => 'publish',
     'posts_per_page' => 10,
     'caller_get_posts'=> 1
   );
   $my_query = null;
   $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
   if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
     echo 'List of 10 recent Posts';
     while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
       <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
       <?php
     endwhile;
   }
   wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().
   ?>

   See query_posts() for more arguments.

3. FlossieT
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   MANY thanks. Now I just need to pull it apart again so I can understand how/why it works...

   It does take a long time to load - are there more efficient methods, or is it going to take extra time by its very nature (because of having to loop through the conditions)?

4. FlossieT
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   OK, now having trouble with a different bit of the same thing!

   Instead of the link text being the post's title, I want it to be the value of the same custom field we're evaluating to generate the lists.

   I'm looking at get_post_custom_values, but am obviously getting the syntax completely wrong - so where you have:

   while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
       <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
       <?php
     endwhile;

   I have:

   while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
       <li><?php the_author(); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"> <?php get_post_custom_values('my-custom-field-key'); ?></a></p>
       <?php
     endwhile;

   but nothing displays.

   Sorry, I know this is really elementary...

5. MichaelH
   Volunteer
   Posted 2 years ago #

   From my note:
   If custom field is present, formulate and display link from meta value
   

   <?php
   $link = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'link_url', true);
   $text = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'link_text', true);
   if ($link){
   echo 'Credit: <a href="'.$link .'">'.$text.'</a>';
   }
   ?>

6. FlossieT
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Thanks. I've been knocking this around, and I can't get it to display anything where the text should be.

   The custom field is not empty, because the evaluation is successful.

   Yet when I use get_post_meta to retrieve the field contents and try to echo it to the browser, it's outputting nothing.

   If I change 'true' to 'false' above, it echoes 'Array' - which suggests to me it isn't finding any data. But I can't see how that's possible if it's passed the evaluation.

   Here's my code in full:

   <?php
   $args=array(
     'meta_key'=>'custom-field-key',
     'post_type' => 'post',
     'post_status' => 'publish',
     'posts_per_page' => 10,
     'caller_get_posts'=> 1
   );
   $customflag = null;
   $customflag = new WP_Query($args);
   
   if( $customflag->have_posts() )
   {
     echo '<li id="recent-custom-posts" class="widget widget_recent_entries"><h2 class="widgettitle">Recent Posts</h2> <ul>' ;
     while ($customflag->have_posts()) : $customflag->the_post(); ?>
       <li><?php the_author(); ?>:
       <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
       <?php
       $customflagtext = get_post_meta($post->ID, "custom-field-key", false);
   	if($customflagtext !== '') {
   	echo $customflagtext;
   	} ?>
   </a></li>
       <?php
     endwhile;
     echo '</ul></li>' ;
   }
   wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().
   ?>

   This outputs a list of ten posts, each in the format 'Author: Array' (where Array is linked to the correct post).

   If I put 'false' back to 'true' to retrieve (supposedly) a single string, I get nothing.

   What am I missing? How can a field be not-empty and empty all at the same time?

7. MichaelH
   Volunteer
   Posted 2 years ago #

   See Function_Reference/get_post_meta for the discussion on that template tag.

   Related:
   Custom Fields

8. FlossieT
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Thanks - I've gone through all of that documentation, and much of the stuff that's linked to it, and yet I'm still getting nothing.

   I'll mark the original issue resolved and start a more specific thread!

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