Fixing The Morning After Featured Posts

A common problem with the fantastic “The Morning After” theme by Arun Kale is getting the Featured Area to work. I have one solution that might be what you are looking for!

Use the following as an easier implementation and FIX for featured posts!

Arun: if you want to incorporate these changes feel free!

In home.php copy the following text and place it where the old “home_featured” was.

<div id="home_featured"> <!-- start home_featured -->
<h3 class="home_featured">Featured Posts</h3>
<?php $the_query = new WP_Query('category_name=featured&showposts=5&orderby=post_date&order=desc');
while ($the_query->have_posts()) : $the_query->the_post();
$do_not_duplicate = $post->ID; ?>
<div class="feat_content">
<?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'featured_home_img', true) ) { ?>
<div class="feat_thumb"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory'); ?>/images/featured/<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "featured_home_img", $single = true); ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a></div>
<?php } ?>
<div class="feat_title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
<div class="feat_exc">
<p><?php the_content_rss('', FALSE, '', 30); ?></p>
</div>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div> <!-- end home_featured -->

Then in sidebar.php copy the following text and replace it where the old “h3 class=categories” was.

<h3 class="mast">Categories</h3>

<?php $catid = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT cat_ID FROM $wpdb->categories WHERE cat_name='Asides'"); ?>
<?php $featcat = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT cat_ID FROM $wpdb->categories WHERE cat_name='Featured'"); ?>
<ul class="cat">
<?php
wp_list_categories('title_li=&sort_column=name&show_count=0&show_last_updated=
1&use_desc_for_title=1&exclude=' .$catid. "," .$featcat. '') ?></ul>

All that is left, is to make a ‘Featured’ category, without the quotes… add a post to it and viola!

Popularity: 15% [?]