Enable sticky posts to custom post_type

5 comments

1. According to extensive and long running trac ticket #12702, custom post types don’t (and likely won’t) support sticky functionality.

   It’s probably not impossible to reuse it (with unholy amount of copy paste and edge cases) for CPT in custom site, but in my opinion custom solution (probably custom fields based) would be more practical and clean approach.

2. Edit 2022:
   You can use the plugin mentioned in @Ray’s answer now! Tested and seems to save the sticky attribute in a native way, so you can use e.g. ignore_sticky_posts

   Original Answer:

   As none of the currently existing plugins for this purpose supports WP5, a simple (but not great) solution is to use a new metabox.
   In your CPT’s plugin:

   add_meta_box('pseudosticky', 'Is sticky', 'addbox', 'YOUR CUSTOM POST TYPE SLUG HERE', 'normal', 'high');
   
   function addbox($post, $metabox) {  
    $entered = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'pseudosticky', true);
       ?>
       <label><input name="pseudosticky" type="checkbox"<?if($entered=="on")echo' checked="checked"';?>> Is sticky</label>
       <?
   }
   

   Then in the query

     'meta_query' => array(
           array(
               'key' => 'pseudosticky',
               'value' => "on",
               'compare' => '='
           )
           //more meta conditions can be added here as arrays
     ),
   

3. I’ve managed to get the following to work. Let me describe the technique so that you can decide whether or not to use it.

   1. the code uses two hooks, one fired just before the “side” meta boxes
      get placed, and another immediately after the “date/time” section in
      the publish meta box.

   2. the first hook (before) records the original post type, and then
      switches it to “post”, wordpress thinks it’s a post and sets the
      default fields specific to the “post” post type.

   3. the second hook (after) will reset the post type back to the
      original.

   If anyone runs into any issues or can come up with any unforeseen use cases where this technique may fail, please do reply.

   // see /wp-admin/edit-form-advanced.php .. since wp 2.5.0
   add_action( 'submitpost_box', function() {
       // fyi .. unable to use "post_submitbox_minor_actions" action (/wp-admin/includes/meta-boxes.php) because $post_type is set early
       global $post;
       if ( isset( $post->post_type ) && in_array( $post->post_type, array( 'post_type_1', 'post_type_2' ) ) ) {
           echo 'before'; // debug
           $post->post_type_original = $post->post_type;
           $post->post_type = 'post';
       }
   } );
   
   // see /wp-admin/includes/meta-boxes.php .. since wp 2.9.0
   add_action( 'post_submitbox_misc_actions', function() {
       global $post;
       if ( isset( $post->post_type_original ) && in_array( $post->post_type_original, array( 'post_type_1', 'post_type_2' ) ) ) {
           echo 'after'; // debug
           $post->post_type = $post->post_type_original;
           unset( $post->post_type_original );
       }
   } );
   

   Note: the above takes care of adding the option to the UI, you would still need to check-for and work-with sticky posts in you templates/output .. something like the following (just without the plugin):

   https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/185915/466

4. For those looking, I can confirm this plugin works as of WP version 5.9: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sticky-posts-switch/

5. I was surprised to find out that this feature is still not available.

   I was hoping at least in the WP_Query we may get something like sticky_posts and then you pass the IDs into that, but that wasn’t there.

   So I did something like this:

   <?php 
   
   $args = array( 'post_type' => 'some_post_type', 'posts_per_page' => 20 , 'orderby' => 'title', 'order'   => 'ASC');
   
   $loop = new WP_Query( $args );
   
   $sticky_posts = array( 11462 ); // post ids for the posts you want to make sticky goes here
   
   // Also need to show the sticky
   while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); 
     if ( in_array($post->ID, $sticky_posts) ):
       echo "I am STICKY!";
     endif;
   endwhile; 
   
   
   while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post(); 
     if ( !in_array($post->ID, $sticky_posts) ):
         echo "I am not sticky :( ";
     endif;
   endwhile; 
   

   Of course this isn’t the best solution, it has multiple caveats, but it worked for my simple requirement where I had just one post I want to stick to the top.

   Problems/Caveats:

   • You have to modify the block of code where you have queries, and add multiple loops.
   • You can’t order them custom.
   • Only posts in the current query will show up, so if you have a sticky post beyond the set posts per page limit then that post won’t be sticky, at least on that page.

Comments are closed.