Take your site’s slideshows to the next level with the following:

[code language=”php”]// Slightly different way of getting a previous post than get_adjacent_post(), this
// function will grab a post in a SINGLE specific category. We’ll go ahead and
// return it as a permalink since that’s ultimately what we want anyways.
function rdc_get_prev_url_in_category( $in_category ) {
global $post, $wpdb;

// Convert category to id if it’s a slug
if ( ! is_numeric( $in_category ) )
$in_category = get_category_by_slug( $in_category )->term_id;

// This query will grab the preceding post id in $in_category
$query = $wpdb->prepare( "
SELECT p.ID FROM $wpdb->posts AS p
INNER JOIN $wpdb->term_relationships AS tr ON p.ID = tr.object_id
INNER JOIN $wpdb->term_taxonomy tt ON tr.term_taxonomy_id = tt.term_taxonomy_id
AND tt.taxonomy = ‘category’
AND tt.term_id IN (%d)
WHERE p.ID < %d
AND p.post_type = ‘post’
AND p.post_status = ‘publish’
ORDER BY p.ID DESC LIMIT 1
", $in_category, $post->ID );

// Formulate cache key and see if it exists
$query_key = ‘rdc_previous_post_’ . md5( $query );
$result = wp_cache_get( $query_key );

// Cache key exists so lets use it
if ( false !== $result ) {
if ( $result )
$prev_post = get_post( $result );
return get_permalink( $prev_post->ID );
}

// Cache key didn’t exist, lets run a new query
$result = $wpdb->get_var( $query );

// Query failed for some reason, probably this is
// the first post in the category. Go home instead.
if ( null === $result )
return get_bloginfo( ‘home’ );

// Save query result for use later
wp_cache_set( $query_key, $result );

// Return the permalink of the resulting post id
if ( $result ) {
$prev_post = get_post( $result );
return get_permalink( $prev_post->ID );
}

// Something crazy happened to get here, but you
// never know …
return get_bloginfo( ‘home’ );
}[/code]

The next part actually filters the wp_link_pages arguments and decides where to put a next button where one didn’t previously exist. I also threw in an additional previous button, which uses some javascript to take the user back to the previous page. There’s probably some creative logic you can write to do it without javascript, but that’s probably unnecessary in today’s world.

[code language=”php”]function rdc_filter_wp_link_pages_args( $r ) {
global $page, $numpages;

// These links should match the design of your existing links
// and you should change 12345 to your slideshow category

// If last page of a slideshow, show a "next" button where there wouldn’t normally be one
if ( $r[‘next_or_number’] == ‘next’ &amp;&amp; $page == $numpages &amp;&amp; ” == $r[‘previouspagelink’] ) {
$repl_next_link = ‘<a href="’ . rdc_get_prev_url_in_category( 12345 ) . ‘">NEXT &amp;raquo;</a>’;
echo $r[‘before’] . $repl_next_link . $r[‘after’];
}

// If first page of a slideshow, showing "back" button where there wouldn’t normally be one
if ( $r[‘next_or_number’] == ‘next’ &amp;&amp; $page == 1 &amp;&amp; ” == $r[‘nextpagelink’] ) {
$repl_prev_link = ‘<a onclick="window.history.back();">&amp;laquo; PREVIOUS</a>’;
echo $r[‘before’] . $repl_prev_link . $r[‘after’];
}

return $r;
}
add_filter( ‘wp_link_pages_args’, ‘rdc_filter_wp_link_pages_args’ );[/code]