=== Mini Loops ===
Contributors: trepmal
Tags: recent, recent posts, most recent, category posts, thumbnail, loop, widget, shortcode, template tag
Donate link: http://kaileylampert.com/donate/
Requires at least: 3.1
Tested up to: 3.1.3
Stable tag: trunk

Get recent posts, posts from categories, and more. Display as widget or with shortcodes and template tags.

== Description ==
Widget for mini post loops.

Show most recent posts, posts from categories, and more. Can be displayed via widgets, shortcodes, and template tags.

This is a new release, please report bugs to trepmal (at) gmail (dot) com before leaving a poor review. Thanks

== Installation ==

= Installation =
1. Download the zip file and extract the contents.
2. Upload the 'mini-loops' folder to your plugin directory (default: wp-content/plugins/).
3. Activate the plugin through the 'plugins' page in WP.
4. See 'Appearance'->'Widgets' to place it on your sidebar. Set the settings.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How can I exclude categories? =
List its ID as a negative number.

== Screenshots ==

1. Widget Options

== Options ==

Explanation of options:

= Title: =
Your recent posts widget's title on your sidebar.

= Title Link: =
The page the title should link to.

= Number of Posts: =
Number of posts to be displayed

= Post Offset =
Number of posts to skip before displaying the list

= Post Type =
Post type to display

= Post Status =
Post status to display. Primarily useful to show upcoming (future) posts. But be creative!

= Order By =
What order the posts should be displayed in

= Order =
Ascending (good for order by title) or Descending (good for order by date)

= Show posts in reverse order? =
Perhaps you want the 3 most recent posts, but you want the oldest of those to be displayed first. If so, check this.

= Ignore sticky posts? =
I recommend ignoring, or the number of posts displayed may be inconsistent.

= Categories =
Comma separated list of category IDs to pull from. Use negative ID numbers to exclude a category.

= Tags =
Comma separated list of tag IDs to pull from. Use negative ID numbers to exclude a tag.

= Custom Taxonomies =
A clunky way to support custom taxonomies. To include terms 5, 6, 9 from taxonomy "Genre" do this:
`genre=5,6,9`

= Custom Fields =
For listing posts that have certain meta data. To list posts that have a custom field 'favorite_color' with a value of 'blue' do this:
`favorite_color=blue`

= Exclude Posts =
A comma separated list of post IDs to exclude.

= Before Item: =
Text/HTML to insert before the post list

= After Item: =
Text/HTML to insert after the post list

= Item Format =
HTML and shortcodes to format each item

= Shortcodes =
* [ml_title]
* [ml_url]
* [ml_excerpt] Attributes: length (100), wlength (0), after ('...'), space_between (0), after_link (1)
  * length = excerpt length in characters
  * wlength = excerpt length in words
  * after = what to show after the excerpt
  * space_between = force space between excerpt and 'after'
  * after_link = make the 'after' link to the post
* [ml_content]
* [ml_author]
* [ml_date] Attributes: format ('F j, Y')
  * format = PHP-style date format
* [ml_class] Attributes: class
  * class = classes to display in addition to the traditional post classes
* [ml_image] Attributes: from, cfname, class, width (50), height (50), crop, fallback
  * from = 'thumb' post thumbnail/featured image, 'customfield' get from custom field, 'first' first image in post
  * cfname = custom field to use if from=customfield
  * class = class for image
  * width = width of image
  * height = height of image
  * crop = 1 to crop, 0 to scale (not implemented yet)
  * fallback = URL of image to use if 'from' doesn't return anything
  
Inside of Item Format, shortcodes can be used without the `ml_` prefix.


== Planned ==
* options for is_single vs is_archive vs is_page...
* true image cropping

== Changelog ==

= Version 1.0 =
* Initial release version.