Question

I am looking for a method to amend my Blog page in order that the first post is being displayed in full and all other posts as excerpt.

The code for my blog page is as follows:

    <?php
        // Template Name: Blog Template
    ?>
    <?php get_header(); ?>
    <?php 
        global $more;
        $more = 0; 
    ?>
                <div class="container inner_content">
                    <div class="row">
                        <!--Page contetn-->
                        <div class="span8">
                            <?php if ( !is_archive() ) { ?>
                            <?php $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1; query_posts('paged='.$paged.'&cat='.$cat); ?>     
                            <?php } ?> 
                            <?php if (!(have_posts())) { ?><div class="span12"><h2 class="colored">There is no posts</h2></div><?php }  ?>   
                            <?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); 
                            ?>
                            <?php $large_image_url = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id(), 'large'); ?>
                            <section>
                                <div class="row <?php post_class(); ?>" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
                                    <div class="span2">
                                        <div class="ddate">
                                            <h5><i class="icon-calendar"></i> <?php the_time('d') ?> <?php the_time('M') ?> / <?php the_time('Y') ?></h5>
                                            <div class="firstA"></div>
                                        </div>
                                        <div class="meta">
                                            <span><strong><i class="icon-user"></i> Author:</strong> <?php the_author_meta('nickname'); ?></span>
                                            <span><strong><i class="icon-list-alt"></i> Tags:</strong> <?php $tag = get_the_tags(); if (! $tag) { ?> There is no tags<?php } else { ?><?php the_tags(''); ?><?php } ?></span>
                                            <span><strong><i class="icon-comment"></i> Comments:</strong> <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#comments"><?php comments_number('0','1','%')?></a></span>
                                        </div>
                                        <hr>
                                        <span class="share">Share: </span>
                                        <!-- AddThis Button BEGIN -->
                                        <a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pubid=ra-4f8811347196f281"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/></a>
                                        <!-- AddThis Button END -->
                                        <hr>
                                    </div>
                                    <div class="span6">
                                        <div class="blog_item">
                                            <div class="blog_head">
                                                <h3><a href="<?php echo the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?> </a></h3>
                                            </div>
                                            <?php if (get_post_meta($post->ID, video, true));{ ?>
                                                <?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, video, true); ?>
                                            <?php }?>
                                            <?php if (( has_post_thumbnail())) { ?>
                                            <div class="view view-first">
                                                <a href="<?php echo $large_image_url[0]; ?>" rel="prettyPhoto"><img src="<?php echo $large_image_url[0]; ?>" alt="" /></a>
                                                <div clas="mask">
                                                    <a href="<?php echo $large_image_url[0]; ?>" rel="prettyPhoto" class="info"><img src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/assets/img/plus.png" alt="" /></a>
                                                    <a href="<?php echo the_permalink(); ?>" class="link"><img src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/assets/img/link.png" alt="Visit link" /></a>
                                                </div>
                                            </div>
                                            <?php } ?>
                                            <?php the_excerpt('<br><a class="btn btn-small" style=" margin-top:15px;" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">Read More</a>'); ?>
                                        </div>
                                    </div>
                                </div>
                            </section>
                            <?php endwhile;  ?> 
                            <?php endif; ?>
                            <section>
                                <hr style="margin-top:0px;">
                                <?php if (function_exists('wp_corenavi')) ?><ul class="pager" style="float:left;"> <?php wp_corenavi(); ?></ul>
                            </section>
                        </div>
                        <!--/Page contetn-->
                        <!--Sidebar-->
                        <div class="span4 side_bar">
                            <section class="blog_cat">
                                <div class="well">
                                    <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
                                </div>
                            </section>
                        </div>
                        <!--/Sidebar-->
                    </div>
                </div>
    <?php get_footer(); ?>

I am grateful if any expert can provide some help for this.

Answer 1

You can simply use a boolean in your loop to test if it is the first post :

Modify the beginning of the loop :

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : $first=true; while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

And display content or excerpt depending on $first value :

<?php if ($first) { $first=false; the_content(); }
else the_excerpt('<br><a class="btn btn-small" style=" margin-top:15px;" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">Read More</a>'); ?>