Series Posting in Wordpress ...

In my functions.php file, I have some code which implements series posting. This relies on the thematic framework

01 function childtheme_article_footer($footer) {
02     // This variable is the stuff I put before the regular footer
03     $extra_stuff=;
04 
05     global $id, $post;
06     $series = get_post_meta($post->ID, Series, true);
07     $pstlink = get_permalink();
08     $psttitle = get_the_title();
09     $pstbody = get_the_excerpt();
10 
11     // Check for a iseries as a custom field - if there is one, grab the value contained
12     if($series) :
13         $args = array(
14             umberposts => -1,
15             ameta_key => Series,
16             ameta_value => $series,
17         );
18 
19         // This bit grabs the series posts, and stores the HTML linking to them in $extra_stuff variable
20         $series_posts = get_posts($args);
21         if($series_posts) :
22             $class = preg_replace("/[^a-z0-940.-\_]/i", "", $series);
23             $class = strtolower(str_replace(array( , ), -, $class));
24             if (is_single()) {
25                 $extra_stuff = <div class="series series- . $class . "><h4 class="series-title"> . __(Articles in this series) . </h4><ul>;
26                 foreach($series_posts as $serial) :
27                     if($serial->ID == $post->ID)
28                         $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff . <li class="current-post"> . $serial->post_title . </li>;
29                     else
30                     $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff .  <li><a href=" . get_permalink($serial->ID) . " class="postID_ . $serial->ID . " title=" . str_replace(", ", $serial->post_title) . "> . str_replace(", ", $serial->post_title) . </a></li>;
31                 endforeach;
32                 $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff .  </ul></div>;
33             } else {
34                                 $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff .  <div class="series series- . $class . ">;
35                                 $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff .  <h4 class="series-title"><a href=" . $pstlink . "> . $psttitle . </a>;
36                                 $extra_stuff = $extra_stuff .  is part of a series . </h4></div>;
37                         }
38         endif;
39     endif;
40 
41        // This is irrelevant to series list, but it does add twitter links and the like
42     $pageurl = get_bloginfo( isiteurl);
43         $pageurl = $pageurl . "?p=" . $post->ID;
44     $extra_stuff_post = <div class="socialnetwork"><ul>;
45     $extra_stuff_post = $extra_stuff_post . <li>Send to: <a class="twitterlink" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading . $pageurl . " title="Click to send . $psttitle . to Twitter!" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>;
46     $extra_stuff_post = $extra_stuff_post . <li><a class="deliciouslink" href="http://del.icio.us/post?url= . $pstlink . &title= . $psttitle . " title="Click to bookmark . $psttitle . on del.icio.us!" target="_blank">del.icio.us</a></li>;
47     $extra_stuff_post = $extra_stuff_post . <li><a class="digglink" href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url= . $pstlink . &title=. $psttitle . &bodytext= . $pstbody . " title="Click to bookmark . $psttitle . on Digg!" target="_blank">Digg</a></li>;
48     $rss_url = get_bloginfo( ss2_url);
49     $extra_stuff_post = $extra_stuff_post . <li>Use the: <a class="rsslink" href=" . $rss_url . " title="Click to Subscribe to the Feed"  rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" target="_blank">RSS Feed</a></li>;
50     $extra_stuff_post = $extra_stuff_post . </ul></div>;
51 
52     // This slams it all together at the end of the post
53     $footer = $extra_stuff . $footer . $extra_stuff_post;
54     return $footer;
55 }
56 
57 // This replaces thematics stuff with mine
58 add_action( hematic_postfooter,childtheme_article_footer);

It’s been a while since I did this, and my aim of tidying the output is now further away than it was. What I want is for the code to ONLY output the first post in a series, the previous post, the current post (with no link), the next post and the last post. If any of these posts are one and the same, they would only be output once.

I’m really drawing a bit of a blank on how to do this – though I sense I’m missing a trick. If anyone has any bright ideas, I’d be glad to hear them.

 Original Source:
http://www.murky.org/blg/series-posting-in-wordpress/