How to combine ordering on multiarray meta_key query - wordpress

Question

I have a query, where I'm first checking for all posts which have meta_key topbox (kind of featured post). After that I'm checking, what custom order they have set in meta_key topbopx_order.
So far it works fine, unless two posts have the same order value, then it starts behave unpredictably. It seems to me, that it doesn't take date into account at all, because I have many more posts in the row, which have newer publish date and order set to 1, but they don't display.
This is my query so far
$feat_args = array(
'posts_per_page' => 5,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => 'topbox_order',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'asb_topbox',
'value' => 'yes',
'compare' => '='
),
array(
'key' => 'topbox_order',
'value' => array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5),
'compare' => 'IN'
)
),
'orderby' => array (
'meta_value_num' => 'ASC',
'date' => 'DESC'
),
'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
'no_found_rows' => true,
);
$feat = new WP_Query( $feat_args );
Plus I'm setting topbox_order default for all posts to value 1.
Edit
I see now, that I'm maybe trying to achieve something impossible. I'd like to set the order to posts, but at the same time, I like them to be pushed down by newer posts with same or higher order number. Is there a combination of compare that would allow this behavior?

Answer 1

The solution was way over my head and seemed too complicated. After some talk with client we decided to go a different route - to control only the first post in the row.
Here is what I ended up with - I'm calling two sets of posts, order them before they get to the main wp_query and just display.
// first query
$first_ids = get_posts( array(
'fields' => 'ids',
'posts_per_page' => '1',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'orderby' => 'date',
'meta_key' => 'asb_topbox',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'asb_topbox',
'value' => 'yes',
'compare' => '='
),
array(
'key' => 'topbox_ofset',
'value' => 'no',
'compare' => '='
)
)
));
// second query
$second_ids = get_posts( array(
'fields' => 'ids',
'posts_per_page' => '5', // because one can be the same as first
'post_status' => 'publish',
'orderby' => 'date',
'meta_key' => 'asb_topbox',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'asb_topbox',
'value' => 'yes',
'compare' => '='
),
array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => 'topbox_ofset',
'compare' => 'EXISTS'
),
array(
'key' => 'topbox_ofset',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS'
)
)
)
));
// Remove duplicates
$mergedposts = array_unique( array_merge( $first_ids, $second_ids));
$feat_args = array(
'posts_per_page' => 5,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post__in' => $mergedposts,
'orderby' => 'post__in',
'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
'no_found_rows' => true
);
In principle, you can set the post to skip to second position. And no, I didn't wanted to use sticky for this, as with time I would have sticky posts all over the place and didn't wanted to keep in mind, that I have to make them unstick. My solution keeps the date flow and I can hold the first posts for some longer time without affecting the rest of the archives.