If meta_key has value = 6 | Change the wp_posts.post_date to current date

Question

I have three sections:

1-New posts 2-Trending posts 3-Hot Posts

I'm using a Vote plugin and i sort every section like this:

New Posts:

$args = array(
  'meta_query'=> array(
    array(
      'key' => '_wti_like_count',
      'compare' => '<=',
      'value' => 5,
      'type' => 'numeric',
  'posts_per_page' => 5
) ) );
query_posts( $args );

---

The result of this is:

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts JOIN wp_postmeta ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id) WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'private') AND wp_postmeta.meta_key = '_wti_like_count' AND wp_postmeta.meta_value <= '5' GROUP BY wp_posts.ID ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 100

On this section only the posts from 0 to 5 Votes are displaying.

Once it Reach 6 Votes .. It goes to the Trending section ->

$args = array(
  'meta_query'=> array(
    array(
      'key' => '_wti_like_count',
      'compare' => '>=',
      'value' => 5,
      'type' => 'numeric',
  'posts_per_page' => 5
) ) );
query_posts( $args );

---

Where posts between 5 or more... are displaying an so on...

My problem its that i ORDER them BY wp_posts.post_date and once an old posts get more votes than a new one it goes from News Posts to Trending Posts but it doesn't display on TOP of the Section... It goes below..

I wan't to be able to do something like this..

$args = array(
  'meta_query'=> array(
    array(
      'key' => '_wti_like_count',
      'compare' => '<=',
      'value' => 5,
      'type' => 'numeric',
  'posts_per_page' => 5
) ) );
query_posts( $args );

when it reach to 6 votes... I want to be able to update the wp_posts.post_date to current so like that every time an old post receive more than 5 votes .. it shows first in the trending section... not below

something like if 'value' = 6 update wp_posts.post_date to current?

Answer 1

You can't update the post date with the queries because the update would run repeatedly while the post count equals 6. Every time the query is called the post date would be updated.

You can, however, modify the plugin to update the post date when the like button is clicked and the conditions are met.

This is the basic code you would need to update the post date when the post count equals 6.

if ( GetWtiLikeCount($post_id) == 6 ) {
    //update date
    $time = current_time('mysql');
    wp_update_post(
        array (
            'ID'            => $post_id,
            'post_date'     => $time,
            'post_date_gmt' => get_gmt_from_date( $time )
        )
    );
}

You need to add the code into wti_like_post_ajax.php so that it will be triggered when the like button is clicked. Here it is in context with some of the surrounding code.

if ($can_vote) {
    $current_user = wp_get_current_user();
    $user_id = (int)$current_user->ID;

    if ($task == "like") {
        if ($has_already_voted) {
            $query = "UPDATE {$wpdb->prefix}wti_like_post SET ";
            $query .= "value = value + 1, ";
            $query .= "date_time = '" . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "' ";
            $query .= "WHERE post_id = '" . $post_id . "' AND ";
            $query .= "ip = '$ip'";
        } else {            
            $query = "INSERT INTO {$wpdb->prefix}wti_like_post SET ";
            $query .= "post_id = '" . $post_id . "', ";
            $query .= "value = '1', ";
            $query .= "date_time = '" . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "', ";
            $query .= "ip = '$ip'";
        }

        if ( GetWtiLikeCount($post_id) == 6 ) {
            //update date
            $time = current_time('mysql');
            wp_update_post(
                array (
                    'ID'            => $post_id,
                    'post_date'     => $time,
                    'post_date_gmt' => get_gmt_from_date( $time )
                )
            );
        }

    } else {