How to show a single post on the front page but have normal paging?

4 comments

1. I solved it using the offset query parameter. This allowed me to edit the query in the pre_get_posts hook, and seems to be the cleanest way to do this, without a new query. Now the home page shows only one post, and page/2/ shows posts 2-11. All links keep working, no other modification is required.

   add_action('pre_get_posts', 'set_offset_on_front_page');
   function _set_offset_on_front_page(&$query)
   {
       if (is_front_page() && is_paged()) {
               $posts_per_page = isset($query->query_vars['posts_per_page']) ? $query->query_vars['posts_per_page'] : get_option('posts_per_page');
               // If you want to use 'offset', set it to something that passes empty()
               // 0 will not work, but adding 0.1 does (it gets normalized via absint())
               // I use + 1, so it ignores the first post that is already on the front page
               $query->query_vars['offset'] = (($query->query_vars['paged'] - 2) * $posts_per_page) + 1;
       }
   }
   

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2. Ok, maybe this is a strange or complicated way to do this, but I had a similar problem (I wanted to display a welcome text and the three newest posts of a specific category on the front page. So I did:

   1. Created a new page called home and put my welcome text on it.
   2. Deactivated the default home page and set my custom home page as the start page
   3. Created a new (copied and modified an existing) page template
      1. let it display the page body
      2. load three newest posts of category X and display them
      3. have a link “more” beneath it that links on /category/category-x/

   looks like this: http://hinek.de (page is in german, sorry)

   If this could be the way for you and you need more infos or a code sample for the page template, comment and I will edit this post.

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3. I’m assuming you’re running WordPress 3.0.x?

   To show only one post (in whichever category) on the front page is easy. Use query_posts('post_per_page=1') in your home.php file instead of invoking get_template_part('loop').

   To follow the normal paging methods after that is a little tricky. In your loop.php file, I suggest putting <?php global $paged; ?> before the <?php if (have_posts()) : ?> statement, and using the $paged variable and query_posts() function to modify your query so it shows the right posts.

   Your loop.php file would look something like this (note: not tested):

   <?php
   global $paged;
   
   if (!is_front_page() && $paged && $post->post_type == 'post') :
       query_posts('posts_per_page=10&paged=' . ($paged - 1));
       if (have_posts()) :
           while (have_posts()) : the_post();
           // Rest of the loop
           endwhile;
       endif;
   endif;
   ?>
   

   I used $paged - 1 simply because page 2 will show posts 1 – 10, and page 3 will show posts 11 – 20, and so on.

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4. This question is a bit old, but for those finding this in the modern era, you should never call query_posts. From the WordPress codex:

   query_posts() is overly simplistic and problematic way to modify main
   query of a page by replacing it with new instance of the query. It is
   inefficient (re-runs SQL queries) and will outright fail in some
   circumstances (especially often when dealing with posts pagination).

   …

   TL;DR don’t use query_posts() ever;

   Instead, you should use the pre_get_posts hook in functions.php as follows:

   function hwl_home_pagesize( $query ) {
       // Behave normally for secondary queries
       if ( is_admin() || ! $query->is_main_query() )
           return;
   
       if ( is_home() ) {
           // Display only 1 post for the home page
           $query->set( 'posts_per_page', 1 );
           return;
       }
   
       // Otherwise, use whatever is set in the WordPress Admin screen
       $query->set( 'posts_per_page', get_option('posts_per_page'); );
   }
   add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'hwl_home_pagesize', 1 );
   

   However, beware that in some cases, (such as adjusting post offsets), using a pre_get_posts hook can mangle your pagination. Fixing this isn’t super-hard, but it’s something to be aware of. There’s an example of how to fix this here.

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