Shaun ScovilThis is more or less a WP_Query question...
I'm currently using Arras Theme v1.5 on one website and Arras Theme v1.4 on another.
In both versions, there is a widget called 'Featured Stories' that displays a list of posts with thumbnails and excerpts on the sidebar. However, the code for this widget is different in each version.
I was able to successfully display the 'Featured Stories' posts in random order in v1.4, by modifying the code in widgets.php as follows:
function widget($args, $instance) {
global $wpdb;
extract($args, EXTR_SKIP);
if ($instance['no_display_in_home'] && is_home()) return;
$title = apply_filters('widget_title', $instance['title']);
$cat = (int)strip_tags($instance['featured_cat']);
echo $before_widget;
echo $before_title . $title . $after_title;
$r = new WP_Query( array('showposts' => $instance['postcount'], 'orderby' => 'rand', 'cat' => $cat ) );
if ($r->have_posts()) {
echo '<ul class="featured-stories">';
while ($r->have_posts()) : $r->the_post();
?>The change was made to line 236, where I added 'orderby' => 'rand',:
$r = new WP_Query( array('showposts' => $instance['postcount'], 'orderby' => 'rand', 'cat' => $cat ) );
Now I am trying to achieve the same effect with v1.5, but am having no luck due to a lack of coding skill! :-/
Here is the code as it appears in Arras Theme v1.5:
function widget($args, $instance) {
global $wpdb;
extract($args, EXTR_SKIP);
if ($instance['no_display_in_home'] && is_home()) {
return false;
}
$title = apply_filters('widget_title', $instance['title']);
echo $before_widget;
echo $before_title . $title . $after_title;
$q = arras_parse_query($instance['featured_cat'], $instance['postcount'] );
$r = new WP_Query($q);
if ($r->have_posts()) {
echo '<ul class="featured-stories">';
while ($r->have_posts()) : $r->the_post();
?>The whole $q = arras_parse_query bit is screwing me up. Can anyone help me out?
