List all posts of a custom post type ordered by the count of connections they have to another cpt

[fl0ri]

I have two cpts "partner" and "event". Now I want to list all "partners" according to the number of connections they have to "events". How do I query the connections to get the count?
PS: Plus it would be awesome to display the actual count of connections alongside the cpt (in brackets).

[bbtodd]

Hello, I have the same issue. Have you discovered a way to query for posts based on the number of connections? This would be most useful for querying for user to posts connections to determine the most popular posts.

[fl0ri]

No, unfortunately not. I couldn't find a way to query the count of relations/connections.

[bbtodd]

OK, thanks for the reply. I figured their probably isn't a way to do this. So I built a workaround, I created a meta field in functions.php called 'p2p_post_counter' and then wrote a small plugin with functions that increment and decrement that field every time a connection is made.

I only need this data for user to post connections, so in my case I added code to the plugin Restful P2P which is primarily for that type of connection. Now when a connection is made or a connection is deleted it calls the function that updates the counter.
https://thestizmedia.com/create-posts-2-posts-connections-wordpress-rest-api/

I could elaborate more if anyone is interested but the concept is pretty simple. The only drawback is it's not retroactive so to speak, so prior connections obviously won't be counted.

[fl0ri]

Wow. That’s neat. Thanks for posting.