Using WP_Query with multiple loops on one page in search.php

Question

I'm trying to set up a search page that first shows a Loop with all posts with a Custom Field meta_key of 'seek_premium' where it's meta_value is 'yes', and then a second Loop where the meta_value (same meta_key) is empty. I've got it working for the most part, but the way I'm doing it seems to break the default search functionality, in that if I do a search, no matter if a post contains the search query or not, I end up seeing all posts marked as "seek_premium" in the first loop, and all posts where "seek_premium" is empty in the second. Here's my code:

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
    <h1>My Heading</h1>
    <?php
        $premium_query = new WP_Query( array( 'meta_key' => 'seek_premium', 'meta_value' => 'yes' ) );
        while ( $premium_query->have_posts() ) : $premium_query->the_post(); 
            $seekpremium = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'seek_premium', true );
    ?>
            SHOW PREMIUM POSTS                                                                                  
        <?php endwhile; ?> 
    <?php
        $free_query = new WP_Query( 'post_per_page=50' );
        while ( $free_query->have_posts() ) : $free_query->the_post();
            $seekpremium = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'seek_premium', true );
            if ( !empty( $seekpremium ) )
                continue;
    ?>
            SHOW FREE POSTS                                                     
        <?php endwhile; ?> 
<?php else : ?>
    <?php include ( TEMPLATEPATH . "/unknown.php" ); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Anyone have any ideas? I'd seen something about using $is_search as a parameter, but either am not implementing it correctly or something else with my query is wrong...

Answer 1

Alright, I just whipped something up, this should do it, but it's untested.

<?php
    $premium_args = array(
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'meta_query'  => array(
            array(
                'key'   => 'seek_premium',
                'value' => 'yes'
            )
        )
    );
    $premium_posts = new WP_Query( $premium_args );
?>
<?php foreach( $premium_posts as $p ) : ?>
    Your output here
<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php
    $free_args = array(
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'meta_query'  => array(
            array(
                'key'     => 'seek_premium',
                'value'   => 'yes',
                'compare' => '!='
            )
        )
    );
    $free_posts = new WP_Query( $free_args );
?>

<?php foreach( $free_posts as $p ) : ?>
    Your output here
<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php if( 0 == count( $premium_posts ) && 0 == count( $free_posts ) ) : ?>
    No results
<?php endif; ?>

I also feel like that's a lot easier to read and to follow than your current code, so if you get both working, usually the best practice is to go with the one that's most readable. Naturally, with this you can implement have_posts() and such, but I just wanted to get the general idea across, namely using meta_query.

Answer 2

Try this once and see if it makes a difference:

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
<h1>My Heading</h1>
<?php $premium_query = new WP_Query(array('meta_key' => 'seek_premium', 'meta_value' => 'yes' ));
while ($premium_query->have_posts()) : $premium_query->the_post(); 
$seekpremium = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'seek_premium', true); ?>
SHOW PREMIUM POSTS                                                                                  
<?php endwhile; wp_reset_postdata(); ?> 
<?php $free_query = new WP_Query('post_per_page=50');
while ($free_query->have_posts()) : $free_query->the_post(); 
$seekpremium = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'seek_premium', true); 
if ( !empty( $seekpremium ) ) 
continue; ?>
SHOW FREE POSTS                                                     
<?php endwhile; ?> 
<?php else : ?>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/unknown.php"); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

I added in wp_reset_postdata() in there which (to quote the Codex) does this: "After looping through a separate query, this function restores the $post global to the current post in the main query." Didn't test this though, just thought I would throw that out there.

Answer 3

This is really easy to do with only one query and one loop. Change your query to order by your meta key...

add_filter('request', 'check_requests_for_search' );
function check_requests_for_search( $request ) {
    $dummy_query = new WP_Query();
    $dummy_query->parse_query( $request );
    if ( $dummy_query->is_search() ) {
        $request['orderby'] = 'meta_value menu_order title';
        $request['meta_key'] = 'seek_premium';
        $request['order'] = 'DESC';
    }
    return $request;
}

Note that I've ordered second by menu_order and then title here, just since that seems fairly logical. Anyway, this allows you to have normal pagination, and everything should continue to work as expected.

If you want to split the sections up, you can still do that in the one loop; put an if-clause in the loop that checks for when the value of seek_premium changes.

Cheers~

Answer 4

I've found what I needed here: http://deadlyhifi.posterous.com/separate-posts-and-pages-in-wordpress-search

Essentially, I needed to know how to maintain the basic query WP generated (so it knew to keep it as a search result vs. just executing the exact query I was calling in the search.php file).

Thanks everyone for your input!