Making sticky posts full text instead of excerpts

These lines:

<?php if ( ! is_sticky() ) {
    the_content();
} else {
    the_excerpt();
} ?>

translated to English might read like this:

if the post is not sticky
   show the full content
otherwise
   show an excerpt

You should change them to this:

<?php the_content(); ?>

Hmm, I have translated that to this

<?php if ( is_sticky() ) {
    the_content();
} else {
    the_excerpt();
} ?>

to keep the sticky condition in the mix but it doesn’t work. I don’t quite understand.

To be more clear about my objective, the first post in each of the categories is sticky and intended to show the full text. All of the following posts are intended to display only the excerpts. Thank you

please paste the full code of the template – you seem to be attacking the wrong location.

“attacking” ??

Here is the pastebin link for the complete file. My php need all the help it can get! Thanks

</script>”><script src=”https://pastebin.com/embed_js.php?i=RBZmzf3x”></script&gt;

the ‘normal’ pastebin url works best: https://pastebin.com/RBZmzf3x

as far as I can see, the ‘sticky’ conditional seems to be at the right location.

is the one and only post in the linked category archive the sticky one?

be aware that a sticky post will only automatically stick to the beginning of the main posts page, not in archives.

The “sticky” post has been the only one in that category for the last few weeks. I just put a few dummy posts back in the category, all of which are showing as excerpts.

I am not sure if this makes a difference or not, but to create my custom category pages I had to use the theme’s archive.php as a basis. I don’t think it’s being read as an archive because the stickies do stick—they just don’t respond to this code.

with all thos conditional tag in the category template, it might be that your excerpt is shown by some other part;

try to add some control outputs to some distinct locations of the template;

for example:

<?php echo 'THE STICKY TEST'; if ( is_sticky() ) {
                                                    the_content();
                                                } else {
                                                  the_excerpt();
                                                } ?>

also, try temporarily to deactivate all plugins to see if that makes any difference.
if it does, activate one plugin at a time to locate the trouble-maker.

alchymyth I tried using the example code and find that ‘THE STICKY TEST’ returns at the beginning of all posts, not just the sticky one. I’m not quite sure what to make of this. I am now wondering in hindsight if I should have posted this thread in the support for Category Sticky Posts plugin. I know it is making the posts I designate as sticky stay put, but is it possible that they aren’t registering as “normal” sticky posts and that something else needs to be done to make my quest for full text possible?

that ‘THE STICKY TEST’ returns at the beginning of all posts, not just the sticky one

it shows that your conditional code is at the right location in the loop; it also shows that the condition ‘is_sticky()’ is not met by any of the posts.

in the support for Category Sticky Posts plugin

first time you mention that plugin – definitively start a topic in the plugin’s direct support section.

it is making the posts I designate as sticky stay put

possibly it does that, but it might not set the ‘sticky’ marker as a ‘normal’ sticky post would do.

from looking into the plugin’s code, this might be a possibly conditional to use (untested):

<?php if (property_exists($post, 'sticky_in_cat')) {
   the_content();
} else {
   the_excerpt();
} ?>

alchymyth, your suggestion worked! Thank you so much! ??

you are welcome – thanks for mentioning the used plugin ??