Recent posts on homepage: different thumbnail based on logged in status and post category

Question

This works well on archive.php, but not working on the homepage. For some reason, the first statement doesn't get applied: if a post is in Members category and user is not logged in, it's supposed to show a default placeholder image, but instead it's still showing the actual post thumbnail.

<?php if (!is_user_logged_in() && in_category('members')) { ?>
    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
        <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/img/default-login.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
    </a>
                                
<?php } 
    else if (is_user_logged_in() || !in_category('members')) { ?>                 

        <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($post_item['ID']) ?>">
            <?php echo get_the_post_thumbnail($post_item['ID'], 'news-thumb'); ?>
        </a>
                                    
    <?php } else { ?>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
                <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/img/default.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
            </a>

    <?php } ?>

I'm using:

<?php
$recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts(array(
    'numberposts' => 6, // Number of recent posts to display
    'post_status' => 'publish' // Show only the published posts
));

foreach( $recent_posts as $post_item ) : ?>

Final version so far:

<?php
    $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( array(
    'numberposts' => 6,        // Number of recent posts to display
    'post_status' => 'publish' // Show only the published posts
    ), OBJECT );  // 1. Set the second parameter to OBJECT.
                        
    global $post; // 2. Access the global $post variable.
        foreach ( $recent_posts as $post ) : // 3. Rename $post_item to $post
        setup_postdata( $post );         // 4. Set up global post data. ?>
                            
<div>
<?php if (!is_user_logged_in() && in_category('members')) { ?>
                            
    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
        <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/img/default-login.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
    </a>
                                
<?php } 
    else if (is_user_logged_in() || !in_category('members')) { ?>                 
        <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($post_item['ID']) ?>">
            <?php echo get_the_post_thumbnail($post_item['ID'], 'news-thumb'); ?>
        </a>
                                    
<?php } else { ?>
        <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
        <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/img/default.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
         </a>
<?php } ?>
                                    
    <a rel="bookmark" href="<?php echo get_permalink($post_item['ID']) ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
    <h6><?php the_title(); ?></h6>
    </a>
    <div><time datetime="<?php echo get_the_date('c'); ?>">
        <?php echo get_the_date(); ?></time>
    </div>
    <div>
        <?php
            $content = get_the_content();
            $content = preg_replace("~(?:\[/?)[^/\]]+/?\]~s", '', $content);  # strip shortcodes, keep shortcode content

            $trimmed_content = wp_trim_words( $content, 14, '... <br /><a href="'. get_permalink() .'">Continue reading &gt;</a>' );            
        echo $trimmed_content;
            ?>
        </div>
</div>
                            

Answer 1

If you want to use the the_ functions (e.g. the_permalink() and the_title()) and including in_category() (without specifying the second parameter) outside of The Loop (the standard one which calls the_post()), you should access the global $post variable and call setup_postdata() to set up global post data and after your foreach ends, call wp_reset_postdata() to restore the $post back to the current post in the main query.

You also must rename the $post_item variable to $post and I'd also use OBJECT as the second parameter value for wp_get_recent_posts(), although you could actually do setup_postdata( (object) $post ).

Working Example

$recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( array(
    'numberposts' => 6,        // Number of recent posts to display
    'post_status' => 'publish' // Show only the published posts
), OBJECT );  // 1. Set the second parameter to OBJECT.

global $post; // 2. Access the global $post variable.
foreach ( $recent_posts as $post ) : // 3. Rename $post_item to $post
    setup_postdata( $post );         // 4. Set up global post data.

    // ... your code here ..
    echo ( in_category( 'members' ) ? 'In' : '<b>Not</b> in' ) . ' Members category';
    the_title( '<h3>', '</h3>' );
endforeach;

wp_reset_postdata(); // 5. Restore the $post variable.

Remember, you need to change the $post_item in your code to $post and use the "arrow" to access the post data, e.g. $post->ID and not $post['ID']! :)