Display channel entry by date and limit to upcoming only

Question

Unsure how to get this... I need to display from a gigantic list of events, sorted by start-date but only displaying 1 event that is set to happen the soonest but not already ended.

{if entry_date >= current_time}
    {title}
{/if} 

The above shouldn't work because the limit applies before the loop. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You can use the start_on parameter within the channel entries tag. Something like:

{exp:channel:entries
    channel="channel_name"
    limit="1"
    sort="asc"
    start_on="{current_time format='%Y-%m-%d %H:%i'}"
    show_future_entries="yes"
}

Answer 2

You could use the free Solspace add-on called Date Field Filter. It would allow you to dynamically set a start date of current_time which would then be future-friendly in the way you're looking for.

Answer 3

Using the start_on and stop_on has flexibility without using an add-on. Add a bit of PHP to increase your options. I frequently want to display just entries that are dated either in the next and/or last 7 days. You need to allow PHP on input in the template. Change the 604800 to however many seconds you want the time period to be.

<?php
$start_time = $this->EE->localize->format_date('%Y-%m-%d %H:%i', $this->EE->localize->now - 604800);
?>
<?php
$stop_time = $this->EE->localize->format_date('%Y-%m-%d %H:%i', $this->EE->localize->now + 604800);
?>

{exp:channel:entries channel="channel_name" show_future_entries="yes" dynamic="no" start_on="<?php echo $start_time; ?>" stop_before="<?php echo $stop_time; ?>" orderby="entry_date" sort="desc"}