Question

I use a slider for my WordPress featured articles. It selects a custom category and returns a set amount of posts.

How do I make the first post that is displayed to be a custom one? Can I add an ID of a specific post directly in the slider code to make that post appear first, followed by the other ones that are returned by the original query?

For instance, on the page, the first post would be ID 6 (written in the source code manually) and the second, third and fourth posts are the ones returned by the query in the original code. How is this possible?

Someone suggested that this is very simple, all I need to do is to make another query before this to get the custom post, then close the query, reopen it to get the next query (that is in the slider code) and finally push the items into an array together. My very limited knowledge of PHP restricts me from understanding how to do this.

I know how to get a custom post, this code works:

<?php
$post_id = 6;
$queried_post = get_post($post_id);
?>

However, I do not know how I add this and the original query into an array. Do you?

Here is the full code for the slider:

<?php 
    $responsive = 'on' != get_option('henrik_responsive_layout') ? false : true;
    $featured_auto_class = '';
    if ( 'on' == get_option('henrik_slider_auto') ) $featured_auto_class .= ' et_slider_auto et_slider_speed_' . get_option('henrik_slider_autospeed');
?>
<div id="featured" class="<?php if ( $responsive ) echo 'flexslider' . $featured_auto_class; else echo 'et_cycle'; ?>">
    <a id="left-arrow" href="#"><?php esc_html_e('Previous','henrik'); ?></a>
    <a id="right-arrow" href="#"><?php esc_html_e('Next','henrik'); ?></a>

<?php if ( $responsive ) { ?>
    <ul class="slides">
<?php } else { ?>
    <div id="slides">
<?php } ?>
        <?php global $ids;
        $ids = array();
        $arr = array();
        $i=0;

        $featured_cat = get_option('henrik_feat_cat'); 
        $featured_num = (int) get_option('henrik_featured_num'); 

        if (get_option('henrik_use_pages') == 'false') query_posts("showposts=$featured_num&cat=".get_cat_ID($featured_cat));
        else {
            global $pages_number;

            if (get_option('henrik_feat_pages') <> '') $featured_num = count(get_option('henrik_feat_pages'));
            else $featured_num = $pages_number;

            query_posts(array
                            ('post_type' => 'page',
                            'orderby' => 'menu_order',
                            'order' => 'ASC',
                            'post__in' => (array) get_option('henrik_feat_pages'),
                            'showposts' => (int) $featured_num
                        ));
        } ?>
        <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
        global $post; ?>
        <?php if ( $responsive ) { ?>
            <li class="slide">
        <?php } else { ?>
            <div class="slide">
        <?php } ?>
                <?php
                $width = $responsive ? 960 : 958;
                $height = 340;
                $small_width = 95;
                $small_height = 54;
                $titletext = get_the_title();

                $thumbnail = get_thumbnail($width,$height,'',$titletext,$titletext,false,'Featured');

                $arr[$i]['thumbnail'] = get_thumbnail($small_width,$small_height,'',$titletext,$titletext,false,'Small');
                $arr[$i]['titletext'] = $titletext;

                $thumb = $thumbnail["thumb"];
                print_thumbnail($thumb, $thumbnail["use_timthumb"], $titletext, $width, $height, ''); ?>
                <div class="featured-top-shadow"></div>
                <div class="featured-bottom-shadow"></div>  
                <div class="featured-description">
                    <div class="feat_desc">
                        <p class="meta-info"><?php esc_html_e('Posted','henrik'); ?> <?php esc_html_e('by','henrik'); ?> <?php the_author_posts_link(); ?> <?php esc_html_e('on','henrik'); ?> <?php the_time(esc_attr(get_option('henrik_date_format'))) ?></p>
                        <h2 class="featured-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
                        <p><?php truncate_post(410); ?></p>
                    </div>
                    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="readmore"><?php esc_html_e('Read More', 'henrik'); ?></a>
                </div> <!-- end .description -->
        <?php if ( $responsive ) { ?>
            </li> <!-- end .slide -->
        <?php } else { ?>
            </div> <!-- end .slide -->
        <?php } ?>
        <?php $ids[] = $post->ID; $i++; endwhile; endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>
<?php if ( $responsive ) { ?>
    </ul> <!-- end .slides -->
<?php } else { ?>
    </div> <!-- end #slides -->
<?php } ?>
</div> <!-- end #featured -->

<div id="controllers" class="clearfix">
    <ul>
        <?php for ($i = 0; $i < $featured_num; $i++) { ?>
            <li>
                <div class="controller">
                    <a href="#"<?php if ( $i == 0 ) echo ' class="active"'; ?>>
                        <?php print_thumbnail( $arr[$i]['thumbnail']['thumb'], $arr[$i]['thumbnail']["use_timthumb"], $arr[$i]['titletext'], $small_width, $small_height ); ?>
                        <span class="overlay"></span>
                    </a>
                </div>  
            </li>
        <?php } ?>
    </ul>
    <div id="active_item"></div>
</div> <!-- end #controllers -->

If you choose to reply, please be detailed with code example, thank you.

Answer 1

Not sure about my solution coz I havent WP host to test it, but rty something like that:

line 39: replace that line with this one code below

    <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : 
    global $post;
    if (!$first_time)  
    {
        $post_id = 6;
        $post = get_post($post_id);
        $first_time = 1;
    }
    else the_post();
     ?>

Solution idea is simple:

 Check for first-time loop
   :firt loop - simply get needed post with "get_post()" function
   :other loops - get posts from original query by "the_post()" function.