How to display related posts by subcategory and not parent category

2 comments

1. There is indeed a much simpler way to do this.

   First, to get the child category, just check the value of each category’s parent. If it’s a top-level category, the parent will be 0. So the child category will pass the test if( 0 != $category->parent ):

   $categories = get_the_category();
   foreach( $categories as $category ){
       if( 0 != $category->parent )
           $child_cat = $category;
   }
   

   Then query for your posts using that category ID as the cat argument. To output a thumbnail for only the first post, simply check if the current_post of your query object is 0. That number gets automatically incremented for each post in your loop, starting at 0:

   if( isset( $child_cat ) ){  
       echo 'More in ' . $child_cat->name;
       $args = array(
           'cat' => $child_cat->term_id,
           'post__not_in' => array( get_the_ID() )
       );
       $related = new WP_Query( $args );
       if( $related->have_posts() ){
           while( $related->have_posts() ){
               $related->the_post();
               if( 0 == $related->current_post ){
                   the_post_thumbnail('medium');
               }
               // your template tags, etc..
               the_title();
           }
           wp_reset_postdata();
       }
   }
   

   Also note, you never need to use wp_reset_query() unless you overwrite the global $wp_query, which doesn’t happen here.

2. So here’s what I came up with. I don’t think that this is the ideal way to code this, but it is doing exactly what I need it to.

   This got me the label for the related items subcategory section in the sidebar by excluding the parent categories:

   More in 
       <?php 
           $category = get_the_category();
           $catname = $category[0]->cat_name;
           if ($catname == 'News' || $catname == 'Featured' || $catname == 'Nav Bar News') {
               $catname = $category[1]->cat_name;
                   if ($catname == 'News' || $catname == 'Featured' || $catname == 'Nav Bar News') {
                       $catname = $category[2]->cat_name;
                       if ($catname == 'News' || $catname == 'Featured' || $catname == 'Nav Bar News') {
                           $catname = $category[3]->cat_name;
                       }
                   }
               } else {
                   $catname = $category[0]->cat_name;
               }
               echo $catname;
           ?>
   

   This is where it gets a little messy, but the code works for what I needed to achieve. I excluded the parent categories and then used the loop to display the posts from the related subcategory:

           wp_reset_query();
           $this_post = $post->ID;
           $category = get_the_category($post->ID);
           $category = $category[0]->cat_ID;
           if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
               $category = $category[1]->cat_ID;
               if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
                   $category = $category[2]->cat_ID;
                   if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
                       $category = $category[3]->cat_ID;
                   } 
               }
           } 
           $args = array(
               'category__in' => array($category),
               'post__not_in' => array($this_post)
           );
           $the_query = new WP_Query($args);
   
           if ( $the_query->have_posts() && !(in_category('32'))) {
               $i = 0; while ( $the_query->have_posts() && $i < 1) {
                   $the_query->the_post(); ?>
                           <?php the_post_thumbnail('medium'); ?>
                           <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
                               <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php echo excerpt(30); ?></a>
                               <?php the_author(); ?>
               <?php $i++; } 
           } else {
               //echo 'no posts';
           }
           wp_reset_postdata();
   
           wp_reset_query();
           $this_post = $post->ID;
           $category = get_the_category($post->ID);
           $category = $category[0]->cat_ID;
           if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
               $category = $category[1]->cat_ID;
               if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
                   $category = $category[2]->cat_ID;
                   if ($category == '30' || $category == '28' || $category == '99') {
                       $category = $category[3]->cat_ID;
                   } 
               }
           } 
           $args = array(
               'category__in' => array($category),
               'post__not_in' => array($this_post),
               'offset' => 1
           );
           $the_query = new WP_Query($args);
   
           if ( $the_query->have_posts() && !(in_category('32'))) {
               $i = 0; while ( $the_query->have_posts() && $i < 3) {
                   $the_query->the_post(); ?>
                           <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
                       <?php if ($i < 2) { ?>
                           <hr style="width: 92%;">
                       <?php } ?>
               <?php $i++; } 
           } else {
               //echo 'no posts';
           }
           wp_reset_postdata();
   

   I tried to do this all in one loop, but I couldn’t figure out a way to display the featured image for only the first post and then exclude that post from being displayed again. If anyone has a cleaner way to write this, please let me know.

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