Custom query sort by custom fields pagination

Can’t meet your pagination requirements, but this works for the rest:

<?php
$used_ids=array();
$category = 'Hotel';
$custom_field = 'URL';
$cat_id = get_cat_ID($category);
$args=array(
  'cat' => $cat_id,
  'meta_key'=> $custom_field,
  'post_type' => 'post',
  'post_status' => 'publish',
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
  'caller_get_posts'=> 1
);
$my_query = null;
$my_query = new WP_Query($args);
if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
  echo 'List of Posts in category '. $category . ' with custom field ' . $custom_field;
  while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
    <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
    <?php
    the_meta();
    $used_ids[]=$my_query->post->ID;
  endwhile;
}
wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().

$args=array(
  'cat' => $cat_id,
  'post__not_in'=> $used_ids,
  'post_type' => 'post',
  'post_status' => 'publish',
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
  'caller_get_posts'=> 1
);
$my_query = null;
$my_query = new WP_Query($args);
if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
    echo 'List of Posts in category '. $category . ' but without custom field ' . $custom_field;
  while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
    <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
    <?php
  the_meta();
  endwhile;
}
wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().
?>

Hey MichaelH,

I can construct a query to get the posts into an array in the correct order, and I can paginate from the array. But I am having problems displaying the posts.

I tried using setup_postdata() as I loop through the array and it works for the_content(), but fails for the_permalink(), the_tags() and the_meta(). Each of those functions returns the data for the page with the template, not the posts.

Any suggestions?

Template_Tags/get_permalink
Template_Tags/get_the_tags
Function_Reference/get_post_custom

Looking forward to your solution, v!

Well, I don’t have a solution. It’s just too much coding to reproduce the_permalink(), the_tags(), the_title(), the_title_attribute(), the_time(), the_author(), the_category(), edit_post_link(), and comments_popup_link().

I was hoping that I was missing something that would let me use those functions in the normal manner. However, for reference, here is the query that retrieves the posts in question:

$querystr = "
    SELECT wposts.*, wpostmeta.meta_value, if(isnull(wpostmeta.meta_value),1,0) as sorturl
    FROM $wpdb->posts wposts
      JOIN $wpdb->term_relationships wtermrel ON
        (wposts.ID = wtermrel.object_id)
      LEFT JOIN $wpdb->postmeta wpostmeta ON
         (wposts.ID = wpostmeta.post_id AND wpostmeta.meta_key = 'URL')
    WHERE 1=1
    AND wtermrel.term_taxonomy_id = $hotel_taxonomy_id
    AND wposts.post_status = 'publish'
    AND wposts.post_type = 'post'
    AND wposts.post_date < NOW()
    ORDER BY sorturl, UPPER(wposts.post_title)
 ";

I chose to use $hotel_taxonomy_id hard-coded rather than join an additional table.

Here is a solution to the problem. It is based on the default theme index.php, so some tweaking may be necessary.

Feedback is welcome.