Posts Loops To Display Specific Posts Inside Page Template?

Question

I want to create a template for selecting 5 specific posts to be displayed on a WordPress page.

Essentially I must be able to query 5 exact posts to be displayed on a Wordpress Page using a WP page template and a custom filed to choose the exact 5 post ids.

EDIT: I have this code thanks to this site. But now I need to be able to add the page id array via custom field. Can this be done?

EDIT 2: Actually the code is not displaying the posts in the array, but rather the latest posts on the homepage. Hmmm.

<?php
$post_id = array(483,454,376);
 $posts = get_posts( $post_id);
 foreach( $posts as $post ) :
  setup_postdata($post);  ?> 
     // you can call use post data inside here like
    <h1><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>

                         <a class="thumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php dp_attachment_image($post->ID, 'thumbnail', 'alt="' . $post->post_title . '" class="hthumb"'); ?></a><?php the_excerpt(45); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="more">Read More..</a><div style="clear:both;"></div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Answer 1

Here's a (rudimentary) page for a loop I made in a webapp on WP a long time ago. I just upload this, create a page, and select "Updates Page" from the page template, and it loads in the 5 posts from the WP_Query() results.

If you want to load 5 EXACT posts, just replace your loop where mine is.

<?php include(CHILD_DIR.'/lib/global_var.php');

    /*
    Template Name: Updates Page
    */
    get_header(); ?>
    <h2>What's New!</h2>
    </div><!-- end the top wrap -->
</div><!-- end top content -->

<div id="primary" class="with-sidebar">
    <div class="c-s-wrap">
        <div id="content" role="main">
<?php


// The Query
$blog_query = new WP_Query( 'cat=4&posts_per_page=10' );
$counter = '0';
// The Loop
while ( $blog_query->have_posts() ) : $blog_query->the_post();
?>
<div class="blog-post">
    <h3><?php printf(the_title()); ?></h3>
    <span class="post-content"><?php printf(the_content()); ?></span>
</div>
<hr />
<?php
endwhile;

// Reset Post Data
wp_reset_postdata();


?>
        </div><!-- #content -->
        <aside id="sidebar">
            <?php include(CHILD_DIR.'/sidebar.php'); ?>
        </aside>
    </div>
    <div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div><!-- #primary -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 2

The front-end output is controlled by theme, so you would need to study it for appropriate markup to reuse.

From there you would need to:

1. Create page template.
2. Implement secondary loop in it, using WP_Query or get_posts().

Answer 3

in single.php I get two loops, one is to fetch another page elements, and the next loop is the normal loop to fetch a single post:

<?php get_template_part( 'loop', 'panel-news' ); ?>
<?php get_template_part( 'loop', 'single' ); ?>

then in loop-panel-news.php (I use some custom fields -- Advanced Custom Fields plugin):

<?php $pgn = new WP_Query("page_id=31"); while($pgn->have_posts()) : $pgn->the_post();?>
            <div id="panel" role="single-news">
                <div class="featimg"><?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
                </div>
                <div class="feattxt">
                    <?php $value = get_field('panel_text');
                    if ($value[0]) { ?>
                    <div class="panelsub"><?php the_field('panel_text'); ?></div>
                    <?php } else { ?>
                    <!-- -->
                    <?php } ?>
                </div>                  
            </div>
            <div id="pagename"><?php the_title(); ?></div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php // Restore original Query & Post Data
wp_reset_query();
wp_reset_postdata();?>

It can insert a page fragment (or full page) anywhere in the template files. Another example, inserting a page fragment (one of three) on the home page (home.php):

            <div class="hpanel one">
            <?php $pg1 = new WP_Query("page_id=$pgid1"); while($pg1->have_posts()) : $pg1->the_post();?>
                <div class="himg">
                    <?php the_post_thumbnail( array(304,304) );  ?>
                </div>
                <div class="hreadmore">
                    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"></a>
                </div>

                <?php $value = get_field('page_subhead');
                if ($value[0]) { ?>
                <h3 class="hpanelhd"><?php the_field('page_subhead'); ?></h3>
                <?php } else { ?>
                <h3 class="hpanelhd"><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
                <?php } ?>
                <div class="hexcerpt">
                <p><?php the_field('page_excerpt'); ?></p>
                </div>
            <?php endwhile; wp_reset_query(); wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
            </div>

Answer 4

Do it like this:

global $post; //this is the post object for the wordpress page

/** Assuming your meta key is called "posts_to_show" */
$post_ids_from_meta = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'posts_to_show', true );

/** $post_ids_from_meta will contain string of comma delimited post IDs 
    entered from a meta box somewhere in the edit page.
**/

$args = array( 
    'include' => $post_ids_from_meta,
    );

$the_posts = get_posts( $args );

foreach( $the_posts as $post ):
    setup_postdata($post);
    /** DO YOUR STUFF HERE **/
endforeach;