Category list – items with first post pic

That’s simply not possible with wp_list_categories. You’d need to use something like get_categories and then run a custom query to grab the image from the first post in that category.

Oh, thanks for reply …
I will check what can be done with get_categories and if I find a solution I will share it here .

If you, or anyone else is willing to find a solution, feel free …. ??

This is cobbled together from bits in the Codex and a similar bit of my code. And untested but try:

<ul class="category-list">
<?php
$args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC'
  );
$categories=get_categories($args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
	$featured_image = array();
	$args2 = array(
		'post_type' => 'attachment',
		'post_mime_type' => 'image',
		'numberposts' => 1,
		'post_status' => null,
		'orderby' => ID,
		'post_parent' => $post->ID
		);
	$attachments = get_posts($args2);
	if ($attachments) {
		foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
			$featured_image = wp_get_attachment_image_src($attachment->ID, $size='thumbnail', $icon = false);
		}
	}
	?>
	<li><a href="<?php echo get_category_link( $category->term_id );?>" title="View all posts in <?php echo $category->name;?> ">
	<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="'" /> ';?>
	<?php echo $category->name;?></a></li>
}
</ul>

Hmm,there’s error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘”‘, expecting ‘,’ or ‘;’

line:
<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="'" /> ';?>

I changed it to:
<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="" />' ;?>
,but it produced this error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end on line 155.
Line is the last line, after<?php get_sidebar(); ?><?php get_footer(); ?>

Any idea?

Oh – how annoying!
<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="'" /> ';?> has a spurious single quote in the alt attribute (alt="'")

It should be:
<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="" /> ';?>

Yeah, I changed that too (see end of my last post) …
I got this error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end on line 155.
Line 155 is the last line, after<?php get_sidebar(); ?><?php get_footer(); ?>

I can’t see any more errors in that piece of code.

OK, nevermind …
It must be that I made some ugly code that messes up with yours …

Thanx for you help anyway … It’s nice to see there are people who are willing to help others !

Best luck !

<ul class="category-list">
<?php
$args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC'
  );
$categories=get_categories($args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
	$featured_image = array();
	$args2 = array(
		'post_type' => 'attachment',
		'post_mime_type' => 'image',
		'numberposts' => 1,
		'post_status' => null,
		'orderby' => ID,
		'post_parent' => $post->ID
		);
	$attachments = get_posts($args2);
	if ($attachments) {
		foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
			$featured_image = wp_get_attachment_image_src($attachment->ID, $size='thumbnail', $icon = false);
		}
	}
	?>
	<li><a href="<?php echo get_category_link( $category->term_id );?>" title="View all posts in <?php echo $category->name;?> ">
	<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="" /> ';?>
	<?php echo $category->name;?></a></li>
<?php };?>
</ul>

This is the de-bugged code … Still, it doesn’t show images just a list of categories …

Hello, did you ever get this to work, anydog? I’m looking for this functionality.

In the foreach satement looping through $attachments, $featured_image is no longer an array, its being changed to a string. It should be

if ($attachments) {
		foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
			$featured_image[] = wp_get_attachment_image_src($attachment->ID, $size='thumbnail', $icon = false);
		}
	}

OK, so I tried this: It lists only the categories, no images.

<ul class="category-list">
<?php
$args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC'
  );
$categories=get_categories($args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
	$featured_image = array();
	$args2 = array(
		'post_type' => 'attachment',
		'post_mime_type' => 'image',
		'numberposts' => 1,
		'post_status' => null,
		'orderby' => ID,
		'post_parent' => $post->ID
		);
	$attachments = get_posts($args2);
if ($attachments) {
		foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
			$featured_image[] = wp_get_attachment_image_src($attachment->ID, $size='thumbnail', $icon = false);
		}
	}
	?>
	<li><a href="<?php echo get_category_link( $category->term_id );?>" title="View all posts in <?php echo $category->name;?> ">
	<?php if( count( $featured_image ) != 0 ) echo '<img src="' . $featured_image[0] . '" width="' . $featured_image[1] . '" height="' . $featured_image[2] . '" alt="" /> ';?>
	<?php echo $category->name;?></a></li>
<?php };?>
</ul>