sticky post in custom loop

Question

I have a problem with showing sticky posts in a custom loop. This is the code I'm using to for the custom loop:

<?php
    $post_from_cat_a = new WP_Query(array( 
    'category_name' => 'events',  //Get posts from category a
    'posts_per_page'=> 2 //Limit it to the latest one
    ));

    if( $post_from_cat_a->have_posts() ){
        while( $post_from_cat_a->have_posts() ): $post_from_cat_a->the_post(); //Display output here for post from category a
    $category = get_the_category(); 
    if($category[0]){
    echo '<div class="cat-events"><a href="'.get_category_link($category[0]->term_id ).'">'.$category[0]->cat_name.'</a></div>';
    }     
    get_template_part( 'content', 'events' ); 
    endwhile;
    }
?>          

I can't figure it out why it doesn't work.

Later edit: this is my entire homepage.php where the problem occurs and this is the content-events.php file used for each post in the events category.

Second edit: If I include 'post__in' => get_option('sticky_posts') in the wp_query array the sticky post is shown but it doesn't list the next post in the category. Only the sticky posts appears on the page, it's kind of ignoring the 'posts_per_page'=> 2 argument.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

Answer 1

if you use 'post__in' => get_option('sticky_posts') then you are only filtering on posts that are sticky.

As mrwweb said you need to look at your query. Then think of the 'loop' you want.

Do you want to show all posts in a specific query or all posts that are sticky in all categories?

1. You might need to do 2 queries or a customer database query to select the posts you want.

2. You are better off adding a tag or custom meta data to a post as you can't create a loop for sticky posts in a specific category.

Answer 2

Some background

You're trying to use query_posts AND WP_Query at the same time. You only use one at a time and they're used in different ways. You'll need to review the WP_Query and query_posts pages on the Codex and then also read these two WPSE threads:

• When should you use WP_Query vs query_posts() vs get_posts()?
• When to use WP_query(), query_posts() and pre_get_posts

Now, you'll see that on the WP_Query page that sticky posts are enabled by default, so this really should cause you any problems. The query_posts line you have is straight off the Codex and with this description:

Display just the first sticky post:

Fixing issue

Your WP_Query stuff looks ok, so I suspect the problem is somewhere in your loop or with the content itself.

1. Remove the query_posts stuff that you don't need.
2. Double check that there is a post in the category you want that is sticky.
   • Do a var_dump() of get_option( 'sticky_posts' ) and confirm that the ID of the page you want is there.
3. Try adding 'ignore_sticky_posts' => 0 to your WP_Query $args.
4. Make sure you haven't hardcoded a different loop on content-home.php. It's possible that you're outputting a different loop on that page.