Order By Custom Field – Strange Problem

In what template file do you need this? The front page?

Right now i want this in my category.php template

But it would be better if it will be universal like all of the taxonomy and search results.

Actually i am having multiple categories for different things

like auto, property, jobs

you can see the site here https://www.ekarnal.com/

It is a city portal.

Thanks

Try it without query_posts and with this in your theme’s functions.php file:

function my_post_queries( $query ) {
	// not an admin page and is the main query
	if ( !is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
		// category and search pages
		if ( is_category() || is_search() ) {
			add_filter( 'posts_orderby', 'add_featured_orderby' );
		}
	}
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_post_queries' );

function add_featured_orderby( $orderby ) {
	global $wpdb;

	// get meta listing_type -> featured post ids
	$args = array(
		'meta_key' => 'listing_type',
		'meta_value' => 'Featured',
		'fields' => 'ids',
		'order' => 'DESC',
		'orderby' => 'date',
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
	);

	if(is_category())
		$args['cat'] = get_query_var('cat');

	$posts= get_posts( $args );

	if ( $posts ) {

		// add custom ordering
		$sql = ' CASE';
		$i = count( $posts );
		foreach ( $posts as $post ) {
			$sql .= " WHEN $wpdb->posts.ID = $post THEN $i";
			$i--;
		}
		$sql .= ' ELSE 0 END DESC, ';
		echo $sql;

		$orderby = $sql . $orderby;
	}

	return $orderby;
}

This will order the posts with a custom field listing_type with value “Featured” at the top on category and search archive pages.

btw:
consider creating a child theme instead of editing your theme directly – if you upgrade the theme all your modifications will be lost.

Thanks keesiemeijer,

It is now working but showing a text line before the header

“CASE WHEN ke_posts.ID = 245 THEN 5 WHEN ke_posts.ID = 239 THEN 4 WHEN ke_posts.ID = 183 THEN 3 WHEN ke_posts.ID = 181 THEN 2 WHEN ke_posts.ID = 196 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END DESC, “

https://www.ekarnal.com/cats/auto

Could you please tell me how to fix

Ah, I left some testing code. Remove this:

echo $sql;

Oh thanks ??

Everything is perfect.

Also is there any other option to show a Platinum Feature in top of all?

Means First Platinum Entries > Featured Entries > Simple Post

Also there is some more modification i needed (if you can help).

Right now all the posts are sorted by Date DSC, but i just want only the featured and Platinum listing will be ordered by Random and rest of the simple entries by date only.

All people are paying me the same amount and the one who paid me few days back go down in the line.

This is not a good thing, by random order anyone can show anywhere.

Hope you are understanding my Concept

Thanks ‘n’ Regards,
Shabir Virk

If ‘platinum’ is also a value of the ‘listing_type’ custom field you can use this:

function my_post_queries( $query ) {
	// not an admin page and is the main query
	if ( !is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
		// category and search pages
		if ( is_category() || is_tag() || is_tax() || is_search() ) {
			add_filter( 'posts_orderby', 'add_featured_orderby' );
		}
	}
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_post_queries' );

function add_featured_orderby( $orderby ) {
	global $wpdb;

	$args = array(
		'meta_key' => 'listing_type',
		'fields' => 'ids',
		'orderby' => 'rand',
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
	);

	if ( is_category() || is_tag() || is_tax() ) {
		$obj = get_queried_object();
		$tax_query = array(
			array(
				'taxonomy' => $obj->taxonomy,
				'field' => 'id',
				'terms' => $obj->term_id,
			)
		);
		$args['tax_query'] = $tax_query;
	}

	$platinum_args = $args + array( 'meta_value' => 'platinum' );
	$featured_args = $args + array( 'meta_value' => 'featured' );

	$platinum = (array) get_posts( $platinum_args );
	$featured = (array) get_posts( $featured_args );

	$posts = array_unique( array_merge( $platinum, $featured ) );

	if ( $posts ) {

		// add custom ordering
		$sql = ' CASE';
		$i = count( $posts );
		foreach ( $posts as $post ) {
			$sql .= " WHEN $wpdb->posts.ID = $post THEN $i";
			$i--;
		}
		$sql .= ' ELSE 0 END DESC, ';

		$orderby = $sql . $orderby;
	}

	return $orderby;
}

This will order the custom field posts randomly and the rest by post date.

This code will now also use this order on custom taxonomy and tag pages.

Just remove the taxonomies you don’t want in:

if ( is_category() || is_tag() || is_tax() || is_search() ) {
			add_filter( 'posts_orderby', 'add_featured_orderby' );
		}

Thanksss ??

Really you are awesome man saved my hours of searching.

You’re welcome ??

Also wanted to thank you, this type of solution (putting Featured posts at top using a single query, without using hacktacular combinations of different wp_query results) is really hard to track down. Much appreciated, worked like a charm.