Hey Webmasters,

I recently stumbled upon a small issue. My goal was to install wordpress and use it as a CMS. Now I want to query the latest post and echo it out on my homepage. Is there a WP function to do this? Because I noticed that the way that WP stores the posts in the database is very different.

Ideas?

If your home page is the same as your main blog page then you can set this up through WordPress admin setting. Choose to show only one post and choose to show the full post.

If your home page isn't not your main blog page, but is a WordPress page you can do something like this.

PHP Code:

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("showposts=1");
while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
<?php the_content() ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>

That will give you the title (linked to the single post) and the content of the post. The key is setting a new WP_Query and then using that new query in the loop.

Choose to show only one post and choose to show the full post.

I was thinking the same thing at first but then I realized that if a user wanted to go through the archives they'd have to view one post per page as well. I think you'd be better off using query_posts(posts_per_page=1) right before the loop. (Or if it is the index page then a conditional check if is_home(), etc.)

Also, where do you set "show the full post" in the admin area? I have never seen that?

This question actually sparked my interest when I realized the original goal might have been how to display a full post as the home page WITH the comments and comment form as well(just as if it were a post). That is something I have not done yet with a wordpress custom theme and it is a little weird imo that you can't choose a post directly from the admin area for a home page.

After a little research I saw that just before the loop you can add:

PHP Code:

<?php 
query_posts('posts_per_page=1');
$wp_query->is_single = true; 
// then start loop here as normal
?>

The $wp_query->is_single = true treats the page like a post and shows the FULL post instead of the intro.
The only other thing is that you'd have to add the comment call comments_template() if the home page template didn't have it.

Just thought I'd pass this along.

Use this plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...osts-per-page/

This will allow you to easily manage the number of posts in your homepage without affecting the archives and search results.