Update wp_query every week

Question

What I'm trying to achieve: my homepage displays 3 random posts from each of 5 different categories. That part is easy.

What's a little unique and I can't quite figure out how to accomplish, I would like those posts to change automatically every week.

That way if the user comes back a couple times during the week, they see the same posts, but on a weekly basis the query should update to make it essentially look like a bunch of new content has been added (or at least previously written content is now featured).

How would I go about doing that? Thanks.

Answer 1

I see two approaches: via cron job... or website / page cache which lasts 1 week.

In case you want to do the cache option: you just need to add 'orderby' => 'rand' to your WP_Query and install a caching plugin for your page, then set it up for 1 week.

CronJob: you need to setup a script which starts every week. For this you need to setup the cron job for your WordPress - https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/real-cron-job/, then with the help of wp_schedule_event you can create a weekly task to update your posts.

Answer 2

A nice middle way between caching and cronjob is to use transients

You can write a little function that handles the setting and getting of transients.

$posts = get_transient( 'recent_posts' );
if ( false == $posts ) :
$posts = new WP_Query( array (
  'orderby' => 'rand',
  'fields' => 'ids'
));
set_transient( 'recent_posts', $posts, 60*60*12 );
endif;
return $posts;

In the transient you store the ids of the posts that you've called before in a WP_Query. You then set the expiry of the transient for a week and your function just checks if there is a transient already. If not, create a transient with your random posts ids.

The code isn't tested, it's merely an example of how it can be used. Let me know how it goes!