Setting “Posts Page” default no longer displays featured image

@get_username – The “featured image” functionality is generally based on a single page/post and needs to be able to identify that appropriate single value. $post->ID would be correct but does not accurately apply to archive type views in this specific case such as a blog index.php and/or other similar template pages such as a category.php, tag.php, archive.php, etc.

You would need to write a more specific query to identify the first published post(?) and use its ID to designate the “featured image” for the blog index header (if I am understanding your idea here correctly).

As you noted this works on page, I would also suspect your current code idea would work in single views of your posts, too.

~ Cais.

Thanks for the reply. I hadn’t thought about the other pages that this would happen on such as category.php, tag.php, archive.php, etc. I wonder if I’m approaching this correctly? Without hardcoding the “background-image” is there another way to loop into the featured image? I’m not sure what the more specific query is that you’re referring to. Do I need a custom template for my “blog” page or would that not work either because, like you said, there are other pages like archive.php. Thanks for any additional help you can provide.

-Burt

It appears that using a template for blog posts is incorrect as pointed out here. I am setting all of my header background images in header.php, so I’m not sure how template hierarchy plays out here. If I use index.php or home.php they are still pulling from the same header.php file.

I just came across a post with this interesting code snippet.

<?php if(is_home()) {
    $img = wp_get_attachment_image_src(get_post_thumbnail_id(get_option('page_for_posts')),'full');
    $featured_image = $img[0];
}?>

It looks like it gets the ID of the page you set under “Reading Settings.” I haven’t tested yet, but looks promising. I assume I would set the condition based on is_page(‘blog’) instead of home?

After many searches, guessing at what to search for, this solution works. I’d like if someone could check my logic. Is this the expected way to handle custom background images and custom fields on the Posts Page?

For the background “Featured Image” on the Blog home page.

<?php
    if (is_home()) {
        $hero = wp_get_attachment_image_url( get_post_thumbnail_id(get_option('page_for_posts')), 'full' );
    } else {
        $hero = wp_get_attachment_image_url( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID), 'full' );
    }
?>

For the custom fields on the Blog home page.

<?php
    if (is_home()) {
        the_field('header_headline', get_option('page_for_posts'));
    } else {
        the_field('header_headline');
    }
?>

Could I have done this differently? Is there a standard? Thanks!