How do I override part of the main loop in my child theme?

Question

I have a child theme based on the twenty ten theme which I am happy with except for one thing. My gallery posts (I am a photographer so the goal of my blog is pictures) do not show any images from the post on the main page. I want to have my main page be a list of recent gallery posts each of which should show the shortened version of the description with a preview image (first image from the posted gallery). I am using NextGen Gallery and slim box to display my images - if that makes a difference.

I have found the place where the main loop creates the entry for each post on the main page:

    <?php if ( is_archive() || is_search() ) : // Only display excerpts for archives and search. ?>
        <div class="entry-summary">
            <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
        </div><!-- .entry-summary -->
<?php else : ?>
        <div class="entry-content">
            <?php the_content( __( 'Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&rarr;</span>', 'twentyten' ) ); ?>
            <?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<div class="page-link">' . __( 'Pages:', 'twentyten' ), 'after' => '</div>' ) ); ?>
        </div><!-- .entry-content -->
<?php endif; ?>

So, what I need to do is one of the following:

1. Override the_content method to include my gallery's preview image along with what the theme does already.
2. Override part of the main loop above to add an image after the call to the_content and before the call to wp_link_pages.
3. Override the whole main loop to do the same.

I feel like I am missing something obvious because I see serious down sides to all three options I can come up with:

1. I do not see any reference to overriding functions like the_content and even if I could I want to add to it not replace it. Is there even away to call the original method's functionality after you override a method?
2. As far as I can see there is no way to override part of a loop - its all or nothing.
3. Which leads me to 3 - replacing the main loop. At that point I have to seriously wonder if it is worth having a child theme if I replace the main loop. That's a lot of code that I don't need to own that I would end up owning.

Is there an obvious way to do this that I am missing?

Answer 1

Instead of overriding the main loop, you can always just create a template, similar to the main loop and use that on a separate page (which you then set to display as your home page).

You'd just need to set up a wp_query in that template to call the posts you want and run a loop on that.

That way everything is left in tact and you just have one page in your child theme. Then you can add what you like after the_content();.

That's how I'd normally go about this sort of thing.

See here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates

Answer 2

Something to consider ...

Twenty Ten supports the Gallery post-format, you can simply create a "loop-gallery.php" template to be used with the theme rather than having to specifically over-write the "index" and/or create a Child-Theme.

NB: If the Twenty Ten authors choose to add a 'loop-gallery' template then you will need to over-load it via a Child-Theme.