How to Avoid Duplicates When Using "Random" in a Query Loop?

[vaipan]

If anyone can point me toward a tutorial or any code for this or tell me how to debug this, I’d be incredibly grateful.

I have a CSS Grid. I have seven blocks in the grid that each use a query loop to pull a random post. I want to avoid duplicates when the posts load in the blocks. What would be the best method to do this?

This is my query loop PHP:

return array(
‘post_type’ => ‘post’,
‘posts_per_page’ => 1,
‘orderby’ => ‘rand’,
‘post__not_in’ => $excluded_ids
);

This is the PHP I’m using in a code element:

<?php

function initialize_and_fetch_posts() {

    $excluded_ids = get_transient('excluded_post_ids');
    if ($excluded_ids === false) {
        $excluded_ids = array();
    }

    $block_queries = array();

    for ($i = 1; $i <= 7; $i++) {
        $query_args = array(
            'post_type'        => 'post',
            'posts_per_page'   => 1,
            'fields'           => 'ids',
            'post__not_in'     => $excluded_ids,
            'orderby'          => 'rand'
        );
        $query = new WP_Query($query_args);

        $excluded_ids = array_merge($excluded_ids, $query->posts);
        $block_queries[$i] = $query->posts;
    }

    set_transient('excluded_post_ids', $excluded_ids, 60);

    return $block_queries;
}
?>

Thanks!

[ChrisBeattie]

Why not just have one block in your grid with the query set and have the options to show 7 posts, and set the order to random?

This way the block will get looped, show 7 blocks with the random order and no duplicates.

[vaipan]

Thanks for responding!

When I apply a query loop to show 7 posts, it shows seven posts inside of the block (see the image). When I apply a query loop to show 7 posts to the block that wraps the block, it duplicates that block seven times and doesn’t fill the other blocks. When I apply the query loop to the container grid, the container that wraps the container grid, or the section, it duplicates the entire grid 7 times and each block in each duplicate grid is the same post repeated seven times.

I also tried to create a new query, but I’m very new to all of this and don’t know where I’m going wrong. I debugged it a bit and it seems to be getting post IDs, but something’s wrong with it not applying it properly when I set the “Type” in the query loop to “Random Unique Posts.”

I don’t know if I’m overthinking this and not seeing an easier answer. I’ve been trying everything I can think of to get this to work for days, but I feel more out of my depth the more I try to get it to work.

This is the query code, but I’m pretty sure it has major issues:

/** Code to avoid duplicate posts */
add_filter('bricks/setup/control_options', 'bl_setup_query_controls');
function bl_setup_query_controls($control_options) {
    $control_options['queryTypes']['random_unique_posts'] = esc_html__('Random Unique Posts');
    return $control_options;
}

/* Run new query if option selected */
add_filter('bricks/query/run', 'bl_maybe_run_new_query', 10, 2);
function bl_maybe_run_new_query($results, $query_obj) {
    if ($query_obj->object_type !== 'random_unique_posts') {
        return $results;
    }
    
    $results = run_new_query();
    
    return $results;
}

/* Return results from our custom WP Query arguments */
function run_new_query() {
    $excluded_ids = get_transient('excluded_post_ids');
    
    if ($excluded_ids === false) {
        $excluded_ids = array();
    }

    $query_args = array(
        'post_type'      => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => 7,
        'orderby'        => 'rand',
        'post__not_in'   => $excluded_ids,
        'no_found_rows'  => true,
    );
    
    $query = new WP_Query($query_args);

    $posts = array();
    if ($query->have_posts()) {
        while ($query->have_posts()) {
            $query->the_post();
            $post_id = get_the_ID();
            $posts[] = array(
                'id'    => $post_id,
                'title' => get_the_title(),
                'video' => get_field('video'),
            );
            $excluded_ids[] = $post_id;
        }
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }

    set_transient('excluded_post_ids', $excluded_ids, 6);
    
    return $posts;
}

[ChrisBeattie]

You just need to set it up a little differently.

Move the inner block you have with the query loop set on as the first element in your container and delete the rest.

Like this:

It should work fine for you then

[ChrisBeattie]

It should automatically render in the builder for you, like this:

[vaipan]

Thank you so much for helping with this!

The blocks have different styling with custom css and some of the blocks won’t contain post data. The top grid is I want the layout to look like, just without the duplicate posts. If I delete the rest of the blocks, it looks like the bottom grid, so I lose the styling and span.

In that case, would I do something like write nth-child CSS to style the grid and put it in the container grid’s custom CSS?

[ChrisBeattie]

Yes exactly, the query loop is supposed to be based on one element, that will get duplicated, or ‘looped’ to your requirements.

For individual styling of each use the :nth-child method, but you would write it on the query looped element like this:

%root%:nth-child(1) {
  // Your styles
}

%root%:nth-child(2) {
  // Your styles
}

// etc

Happy building!

[vaipan]

Thanks. I was able to get it figured out by adding this code to functions.php and the other code to the Query Editor (PHP). There’s a ton of styling and other stuff that I didn’t want to rewrite as nth-child. The code below doesn’t duplicate posts on each refresh. Leaving this up in case anyone deals with this in the future.

/** Code to avoid duplicate posts */
function get_unique_random_posts($num_posts = 1) {

    if (!isset($_SESSION['displayed_posts'])) {
        $_SESSION['displayed_posts'] = [];
    }

    $args = [
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => $num_posts,
        'orderby' => 'rand',
        'post__not_in' => $_SESSION['displayed_posts']
    ];

    $query = new WP_Query($args);

    if ($query->have_posts()) {
        while ($query->have_posts()) {
            $query->the_post();
            $_SESSION['displayed_posts'][] = get_the_ID();
            $post_titles[] = get_the_title(); 
        }
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }

    return $query->posts; // Return the post objects
}


/** Query editor (PHP) code */

$posts = get_unique_random_posts();
return [
	'posts_per_page' => 1,
	'post__in' => array_map(function($post) { return $post->ID; }, $posts),
	'orderby' => 'post__in'
];