Sorting within nested queries / multiple meta keys

Question

I have the following ALMOST working perfectly, but have run into a couple of issues.

Right now this displays a Books archive page, ordered like this:

Genre Name

-- Series Name

--- Books within series, sorted by book-in-series (aka reading order)

Which is fantastic - I can't tell you how long it's taken me to get to this point! :) But, I would also like to be able to determine sort order for the Series within each Genre. Is this possible? Right now it does not seem they are ordering by anything I can control; it's not by published-on date or alphabetically for instance.

[SIDEBAR: I also have a question on how to display books which have not been assigned a "book in series" meta-key (they will be within a series called "Stand Alone Titles" but it doesn't make sense for the admins to have to give them book-in-series numbers). I first asked that question here but it might make more sense within the context of my full code, so I wanted to cross-reference it.]

Here's my code:

// QUERY THAT PULLS ALL SERIES SORTED BY GENRE
$args = array( 
    'post_type' => 'series', 
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'nopaging' => true,
    'surpress_filters' => true,
    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'meta_key' => 'genres',
); 

$series = new WP_Query( $args);

    if( $series->have_posts() ) : ?>

    <?php
        // ESTABLISH PREVIOUS GENRE AS SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE (NOT BLANK)
        $previous_genre = 'dfasd33';

        while( $series->have_posts() ) : $series->the_post();
            // Get custom post data to set current genre
            $current_genre =  get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'genres', true );
            if( $current_genre != $previous_genre ) {
                echo '<h2>' . stripslashes($current_genre) . '</h2>';
            }
            $previous_genre = $current_genre; 
        ?>
            <!-- DISPLAY THE SERIES NAME AND DESCRIPTION -->
            <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
            <?php the_content(); ?>

            <?php

                $current_series_id = $series->post->ID;

                // QUERY THAT PULLS ALL BOOKS WITH PARENT ID OF CURRENT SERIES SORTED BY BOOK-IN-SERIES
                $args = array( 
                    'post_type' => 'books', 
                    'posts_per_page' => -1,
                    'nopaging' => true,
                    'surpress_filters' => true,
                    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
                    'meta_key' => 'book_in_series',
                    'order' => 'ASC',
                    'post_parent' => $current_series_id,
                );

                $books = new WP_Query( $args);

                    if( $books->have_posts() ) : 

                    while( $books->have_posts() ) : $books->the_post(); ?>
                        <h4><?php the_title(); ?></h4>

                    <?php endwhile; //end book query while statement ?>
                    <?php endif; // end book query if statement ?>

            <?php endwhile; // end series query while statement ?>

<?php endif; // end series query if statement ?>

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

This is almost exactly the same as what I am helping someone workout on another question.

Way to include posts both with & without certain meta_key in args for wp_query?

If I'm wrong and I have misunderstood what you need, let me know and I'll try to help.

Answer 2

I've solved this with a custom select query; here's the full code for posterity. :)

<?php               
// QUERY THAT PULLS ALL SERIES SORTED BY GENRE, THEN MENU ORDER
$querystr = "
    SELECT $wpdb->posts.* 
    FROM $wpdb->posts, $wpdb->postmeta
    WHERE $wpdb->posts.ID = $wpdb->postmeta.post_id 
    AND $wpdb->postmeta.meta_key = 'genres' 
    AND $wpdb->posts.post_status = 'publish' 
    AND $wpdb->posts.post_type = 'series'
    AND $wpdb->posts.post_date < NOW()
    ORDER BY $wpdb->postmeta.meta_value DESC, $wpdb->posts.menu_order ASC
 ";

$series = $wpdb->get_results($querystr, OBJECT); 

    if( $series ) : 
    global $post;  ?>

    <?php
        // ESTABLISH PREVIOUS GENRE AS SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE (NOT BLANK)
        $previous_genre = 'dfasd33';

        foreach ($series as $post):
        setup_postdata($post);
            // Get custom post data to set current genre
            $current_genre =  get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'genres', true );
            if( $current_genre != $previous_genre ) {
                echo '<h2>' . stripslashes($current_genre) . '</h2>';
            }
            $previous_genre = $current_genre; 
        ?>
            <!-- DISPLAY THE SERIES NAME AND DESCRIPTION -->
            <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>

            <!-- DISPLAY SERIES CONTENT AREA, IF CONTENT ISN'T EMPTY -->
            <?php $cc = get_the_content(); ?>
            <?php if($cc !== "") { ?>
                <div class="seriesdesc"><?php the_content(); ?></div><!-- .seriesdesc -->
            <?php } ?>

                <?php
                $current_series_id = get_the_ID();

                // QUERY THAT PULLS ALL BOOKS WITH PARENT ID OF CURRENT SERIES SORTED BY BOOK-IN-SERIES
                $args = array( 
                    'post_type' => 'books', 
                    'posts_per_page' => -1,
                    'nopaging' => true,
                    'surpress_filters' => true,
                    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
                    'meta_key' => 'book_in_series',
                    'order' => 'ASC',
                    'post_parent' => $current_series_id,
                );

                $books = new WP_Query( $args);

                    if( $books->have_posts() ) : ?> 
                        <div class="booklist">
                    <?php while( $books->have_posts() ) : $books->the_post(); ?>

                        <?php if (function_exists('vp_get_thumb_url')) {
                                // Set the desired image size. Swap out 'thumbnail' for 'medium', 'large', or custom size
                                $thumb=vp_get_thumb_url($post->post_content, 'medium');

                                if ($thumb!='') { ?>
                                    <div class="archivecover">
                                        <a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>"><img src="<?php echo $thumb; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
                                    </div><!-- .cover -->
                                <?php }
                        } ?>

                    <?php endwhile; //end book query while statement ?>
                    </div><!-- .booklist -->

                    <?php endif; // end book query if statement ?>

            <?php endforeach; // end series query foreach statement  ?>

<?php endif; // end series query if statement ?>