Wordpress: Can't Get Pagination Links to Appear

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Hello there.

I'm making my first attempt at a paginated Wordpress wp_query page, but for some reason I just can't get Wordpress to load the "next" links.

It's a news page for a website, and I'm treating Wordpress's Posts as the website's news articles. So on this page, five posts should load, with their titles, dates, excerpts, and permalinks, then I'd like to have links appear at the end to allow users to view the previous five posts (or the next five posts, or both, as the case may be).

I've gotten everything working, but the "next" links.

Code below;

<?php
// Create WP_Query
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => 5,
        'order' => DESC,
        'orderby' => date,
        'paged' => $paged
    );

    $my_query = new WP_Query($args);

// Start Wordpress Loop
    if ( $my_query -> have_posts() ) : while ( $my_query -> have_posts() ) : $my_query -> the_post();

// Generate Content
    $output[] = '<h3>' . get_the_title($post->ID) . '</h3></a></p>';
    $output[] = '<p>';
    $output[] = '    Published on ' . get_the_date() . ' by ' . get_the_author() . '<br />';
    $output[] = '    ' . get_the_excerpt($post->ID) . '<br />';
    $output[] = '    <a href="' . get_permalink($post->ID) . '" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">read more &raquo;</a>';
    $output[] = '</p>';
    $output[] = '';
    $output[] = '<hr />';
    $output[] = '';

// End Wordpress Loop
    endwhile; else:
    $output[] = _e('<p>Sorry, there are no news posts at this time.</p>');
    endif;

// Implode and Echo Output Array
    if(isset($output))
        {
        $output = implode("\n",$output);
        echo($output);
        }

// Unset MySQL Loop Variables
    unset($output);
?>
<?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;', 0) ?>
<?php next_posts_link('&laquo; Older Entries', 0); ?>

The funny thing is that if I manually place myself on an older page (by adding ?paged=3 for example to my URL), I'm getting the "Newer Entries >" link fine. But that "Older Entries" isn't showing up at all!

Any suggestions, anyone?

I've been googling this for a long while now and getting nowhere.

Thanks!

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Okay, so I've narrowed it down to something with the "0" in this Wordpress function;

<?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;', 0) ?>

According to the Codex, zero in this function is supposed to mean limitless, but that's not happening or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

When I change it to;

<?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;',20) ?>

(arbitrarily hardcoding it to "20"), I get my "Newer Entries" links!

Problem is that obviously I can't leave it with an arbitrary number.

I suppose I could find a way to determine the maximum number of posts and divide by "5" (my number of posts per page) to get the correct number of pages to enter into that function, right?

Well, we'll see how that one goes.

Again, if anyone knows a more elegant or simpler solution, please share!

Thanks!

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

YES!

It worked perfectly!

<?php
// Create WP_Query
    $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => 5,
        'order' => DESC,
        'orderby' => date,
        'paged' => $paged
    );

    $my_query = new WP_Query($args);

// Start Wordpress Loop
    if ( $my_query -> have_posts() ) : while ( $my_query -> have_posts() ) : $my_query -> the_post();

// Generate Content
    $output[] = '<h3>' . get_the_title($post->ID) . '</h3>';
    $output[] = '<p>';
    $output[] = '    Published on ' . get_the_date() . ' by ' . get_the_author() . '<br />';
    $output[] = '    ' . get_the_excerpt($post->ID) . '<br />';
    $output[] = '    <a href="' . get_permalink($post->ID) . '" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">read more &raquo;</a>';
    $output[] = '</p>';
    $output[] = '';
    $output[] = '<hr />';
    $output[] = '';

// End Wordpress Loop
    endwhile; else:
    $output[] = _e('<p>Sorry, there are no news posts at this time.</p>');
    endif;

// Implode and Echo Output Array
    if(isset($output))
        {
        $output = implode("\n",$output);
        echo($output);
        }

// Unset MySQL Loop Variables
    unset($output);

// Calculate Number of WP Paged
    $published_posts = wp_count_posts()->publish;
    $number_of_pages = ($published_posts/5);
    $number_of_pages = ceil($number_of_pages);
?>

<?php next_posts_link('&laquo; Older Entries',$number_of_pages) ?>
<?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;',0) ?>