Custom query with query_posts doesn't show post without certain meta_key

Question

I'm using query_posts to sort order certain categories. My code look like this:

query_posts('category_name=abs&orderby=meta_value_num&meta_key=field_ordering&order=DESC');

This does show post in exact sorting model as I specify. However, query above doesn't display that post doesn't have meta_key 'field_ordering' set in database.

My problem is, I don't want to set it on ALL post, but I still can display the data.

Any solutions?

Answer 1

Well, you can't sort by field that isn't there. You can modify query conditionally only in those categories which have that field and let default query work in rest.

It would be something like:

if( is_category('abs') )
    query_posts(
    array_merge(
    array('orderby' => 'meta_value', 
                  'meta_key' => 'field_order', 
                  'order' => 'Desc' ),
    $wp_query->query
        )
    );