orderby the last activity date

Question

I currently have a build in progress and am trying to achieve somthing that seems to be simple but is proving not quite so.

I would like to list say 50 entries, those 50 entries should be in a chronological order of either entry_date or last_comment_date. Using entry_date is fine for strict chronological but I'm also looking to see last_comment_date as well. If last_comment_date is newer then anothers entry_date then it should be higher up the tree.

Using orderyby="most_recent_comment|entry_date" yields most recent comments first then lists by entry date which isnt what is required.

I basically want to order by the last activity date - comment or entry. Is this approach possible ?

Answer 1

I ended up using Stash. Stash records each entry into a stash_list with an extra item that checks if there is at least one comment (if there is it must be newer then the entry_date) if there are no comments then the entry_date is the value.

Save the result of the if if:else as Unix Timestamp and then use stash:get_list and orderby the Unix Timestamp Var :)

{stash:activity_date}
{if comment_total > 0}{recent_comment_date format="U%"}{if:else}{entry_date format="%U"}{/if}
{/stash:activity_date}

Yet another reason to use Stash :)