I'll try to word this the best I can:
My blog homepage has 4 feeds of "Latest from: (a category)" fed by 4 different categories, each showing 2 posts. I discovered the do_not_duplicate method and used that to prevent any of them from showing up twice (since the authors use multiple categories on each post to populate our blog). This works great, but here is my next issue:
If a post has multiple categories that populate the home page, it will post in just one category and not duplicate (as wanted), but the other category it is in now only shows just 1 post, where I'd like it to show 2. Since the 2nd 'missing' post is the duplicate, not be shown, I'm wondering how I can show the next (3rd) post in that category, if the duplicate is being hidden.
Here is my current code:
<!-- BEGIN WP PHP BLOG INSERT-->
<?php query_posts('category_name=campuses&showposts=2'); //Get 2 most recent posts from category with slug campuses ?>
<h2 class="cat"><?php if (have_posts()) single_cat_title("Latest from: ", true) //if there are posts in the category, display the category name in an H2 ?></h2>
<?php if (have_posts()) while (have_posts()) : the_post(); $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; // prevents the post from showing up twice on home page?>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail()) : //check to see if the post has a featured image ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" >
<?php the_post_thumbnail(category-thumb); ?>
</a>
<?php elseif( catch_that_image() ) : ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" ><img height="150px" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<h3 class="recent"><a href="<?php the_permalink()?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php the_excerpt ()?><br class="clear" />
<?php endwhile;?>
<?php query_posts('category_name=programs&showposts=2'); //Get 2 most recent posts from category with slug programs?>
<?php if (have_posts()) single_cat_title('<h2 class="cat">Latest from: ', true) //if there are posts in the category, display the category name in an H2 ?></h2>
<?php if (have_posts()) while (have_posts()) : the_post(); if ( in_array( $post->ID, $do_not_duplicate ) ) continue; // prevents the post from showing up twice on home page?>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail()) : //check to see if the post has a featured image ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" >
<?php the_post_thumbnail(category-thumb); ?>
</a>
<?php elseif( catch_that_image() ) : ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" ><img height="150px" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<h3 class="recent"><a href="<?php the_permalink()?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php the_excerpt ()?><br class="clear" />
<?php endwhile;?>
<?php query_posts('category_name=online&showposts=2'); //Get 2 most recent posts from category with slug online?>
<?php if (have_posts()) single_cat_title('<h2 class="cat">Latest from: ', true) //if there are posts in the category, display the category name in an H2 ?></h2>
<?php if (have_posts()) while (have_posts()) : the_post(); if ( in_array( $post->ID, $do_not_duplicate ) ) continue; // prevents the post from showing up twice on home page?>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail()) : //check to see if the post has a featured image ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" >
<?php the_post_thumbnail(category-thumb); ?>
</a>
<?php elseif( catch_that_image() ) : ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" ><img height="150px" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<h3 class="recent"><a href="<?php the_permalink()?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php the_excerpt ()?><br class="clear" />
<?php endwhile;?>
<?php query_posts('category_name=service-applied-learning&showposts=2'); //Get 2 most recent posts from category with slug service-applied-learning ?>
<h2 class="cat"><?php if (have_posts()) single_cat_title("Latest from: ", true) //if there are posts in the category, display the category name in an H2 ?></h2>
<?php if (have_posts()) while (have_posts()) : the_post(); if ( in_array( $post->ID, $do_not_duplicate ) ) continue; // prevents the post from showing up twice on home page?>
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail()) : //check to see if the post has a featured image ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" >
<?php the_post_thumbnail(category-thumb); ?>
</a>
<?php elseif( catch_that_image() ) : ?>
<a class="postthumb" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" ><img height="150px" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" /></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<h3 class="recent"><a href="<?php the_permalink()?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php the_excerpt ()?><br class="clear" />
<?php endwhile;?>
<?php if( function_exists( 'wp_pagenavi ' ) ) {
wp_pagenavi();
} else {
next_posts_link('Older Posts');
previous_posts_link(' | Newer Posts');
} ?>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-wrapper">
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
</div>
<!--END WP PHP BLOG INSERT-->
Not sure if this will help but it looks as though you need to reset your query_posts(); to give it another clean run
After each <?php endwhile;?> you would add
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_reset_query
Quote: wp_reset_query() restores the $wp_query and global post data to the original main query. This function should be called after query_posts(), if you must use that function. As noted in the examples below, it's heavily encouraged to use the pre_get_posts filter to alter query parameters before the query is made.
Calling wp_reset_query is not necessary after using WP_Query or get_posts as these don't modify the main query object. Instead use wp_reset_postdata.