Question

So I’m editing the index.php in my WP theme’s folder, essentially what I want it to do is this:

• Show 4 Posts on first page of blog.

• Style the first (newest) post on the first page differently. Style the other 3 the same.

• Show 6 Posts on every other paginated page.

Here’s the loop I’m working with, the first page appears fine, but for some reason on page 2 and higher it’s executing really weird and showing only one post on each additional page. Also, it will only show the title and not the date or excerpt. Here’s my code:

           <?php 
            if( is_home() && !is_paged() ){
            global $query_string;
            parse_str( $query_string, $args );
            $args['posts_per_page'] = 4;
            query_posts($args);
            if (have_posts()) :
                while (have_posts()) : the_post();
           if (++$counter == 1) { ?>
            <div class="featured_post">
                <p class="date"><?php the_date('M j, Y'); ?></p>
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></a>
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail('featuredblog'); ?></a>
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            </div>
          <?php } else { ?>
            <div class="regular_post">
                <p class="date"><?php the_date('M j, Y'); ?></p>
                <div class="postimage"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail('regularblog'); ?></a></div>
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h3><?php
                    // short_title($after, $length)
                    echo short_title('...', 7);
                    ?></h3></a>
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            </div>
          <?php } ?>
        <?php endwhile;
        else :
           // Code for no posts found here
        endif;
        } else {
            global $query_string;
            parse_str( $query_string, $args );
            $args['posts_per_page'] = 6;
            query_posts($args); ?>
            <div class="regular_post">
                <p class="date"><?php the_date('M j, Y'); ?></p>
                <div class="postimage"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail('regularblog'); ?></a></div>
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3></a>
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            </div>
        <?php } ?>

Maybe there’s too many if…else statements in there?

Answer 1

<?php if (is_home() && !is_paged() ) {
                global $query_string;
                parse_str( $query_string, $args );
                $args['posts_per_page'] = 4;
                query_posts($args);
                } else { 
                global $query_string;
                parse_str( $query_string, $args );
                $args['posts_per_page'] = 6;
                query_posts($args);
                } ?>
            <?php if ( have_posts() ) while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
            <div class="post<?php echo ++$counter; ?>">
                    <?php if ( is_home() && !is_paged() && $counter == 1 ) { ?>
                        do stuff
                    <?php } else { ?>
                        do other stuff
                    <?php } ?> 
            </div>
            <?php endwhile; ?>