[FIXED] How do I get pagination to work for get_posts() in WordPress?

Issue

I'm working on a WordPress site and I've created a page template that displays posts by a category slug. To do this, I create a field for the page, WP_Catid, and set it equal to the category slug I want to display posts from. However, I only want five posts to show up per page with pagination links at the bottom of those posts. How do I get the pagination links to display properly?

My code is as follows:

<div id="container">
  <div id="content" role="main">
    <?php
      $btpgid=get_queried_object_id();
      $btmetanm=get_post_meta( $btpgid, 'WP_Catid','true' );
      $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

      $args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 5,
                     'category_name' => $btmetanm,
                     'paged' => $paged,
                     'post_type' => 'post' );

      $myposts = get_posts( $args );
      foreach ( $myposts as $post ) : setup_postdata( $post ); 
        echo "<div style='border:2px groove black; margin-bottom:5px;'><h3 class='btposth'>";
        the_title(); 
        echo "</h3><div class='btpostdiv'>";
        the_content();
        echo "</div></div>";
      endforeach; 
      next_posts_link( 'Older Entries'); //not displaying
      previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;'); //not displaying
      wp_reset_postdata();
    ?>
  </div><!-- #content -->
</div><!-- #container -->

Solution

The sweet and short of this, don't use get_posts if you need paginated queries. get_posts works perfectly if you are going to use a custom query that doesn't need pagination, but it really becomes a big complicated mess when you need to introduce pagination.

I think the easiest and most appropriate here is to make use of WP_Query to construct your custom query, that is, if you can't use pre_get_posts to alter the main query to get your desired output from the main query.

I do think that next_posts_link() and previous_posts_link() is better to use with a custom query, ie with WP_Query. You must just remember however to set the $max_pages parameter when you make use of a custom query, otherwise your pagination will break

With a few minor tweaks, your query should look like this

<div id="container">
<div id="content" role="main">
<?php
$btpgid=get_queried_object_id();
$btmetanm=get_post_meta( $btpgid, 'WP_Catid','true' );
$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 5, 'category_name' => $btmetanm,
'paged' => $paged,'post_type' => 'post' );
    $postslist = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $postslist->have_posts() ) :
        while ( $postslist->have_posts() ) : $postslist->the_post(); 


             echo "<div style='border:2px groove black; margin-bottom:5px;'><h3 class='btposth'>";
                 the_title(); 
             echo "</h3><div class='btpostdiv'>";
                 the_content();
             echo "</div></div>";

         endwhile;  

             next_posts_link( 'Older Entries', $postslist->max_num_pages );
             previous_posts_link( 'Next Entries &raquo;' ); 
        wp_reset_postdata();
    endif;
    ?>

</div><!-- #content -->
</div><!-- #container -->

Answered By - Pieter Goosen

Answer Checked By - Terry (PHPFixing Volunteer)