=== 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: 3.2.1 Stable tag: 0.7 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 == 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. = My site broke after customizing the excerpt. What happened? = Did you set the strip_tags attribute to false? (`[excerpt strip_tags=0]`). If tags haven't been stripped, it may have cut off the text before an HTML tag was properly closed, thus breaking the page. Setting strip_tags to false should only be used if you're carefully managing the excerpt's output. == Screenshots == 1. Widget Options 2. Sample Format 1 (see Other Notes) 3. Sample Format 2 (see Other Notes) 4. Sample Format 3 (see Other Notes) == Other Notes == 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), custom (0), strip_tags (1), strip_shortcodes (1) * length = excerpt length in characters (0 for none, -1 for full length) * 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 * custom = 1 to default/customized excerpts, 0 to trim by lentgh * strip_tags = 1 to strip HTML tags, 0 to keep. **CAREFUL:** it is not generally recommended to keep the tags. Character excerpts may break tags, and thus break an entire page's layout. * strip_shortcodes = 1 to strip shortcodes, 0 to keep * up_to_more = 1 to get everything up to the `` tag (the 'more' text), if it exists, otherwise use char/word limit excerpt. 0 use char/word limited excerpt * after_with_more = (with up_to_more) 1 to use the 'after' text with the 'more' text, 0 to add nothing after the 'more' text * [ml_content] * [ml_comment_count] * [ml_author] * [ml_author_link] * [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 (options: thumb, attached, customfield, first) * *from* 'thumb' post thumbnail/featured image * *from* 'attached' first attached image * *from* 'customfield' get from custom field * *from* '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 * cache = set to 'clear' to generate new thumbnails Inside of Item Format, shortcodes can be used without the `ml_` prefix. = Sample Item Formats = Format 1: http://s.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mini-loops/screenshot-2.png (before: ``) `

  • [image from=customfield cfname=image width=50 height=50 class=alignright fallback='http://dummyimage.com/50'][title]
    [excerpt wlength=30 space_between=1 after="..." after_link=1]

    By [author] on [date format="n/j/y"]

    • ` Format 2: http://s.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mini-loops/screenshot-3.png (before: ``) `

  • [date format="F j, Y"]
    [image from=customfield cfname=image width=180 height=100 class=aligncenter fallback='http://placekitten.com/180/100'] [excerpt length=90 space_between=1 after="..." after_link=1]

    • ` Format 3: http://s.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mini-loops/screenshot-4.png (before: -- after: --) `

    [title]
    [image from=customfield cfname=image width=140 height=140 class=aligncenter fallback='http://placepuppy.it/200/300&text=++woof++']

    ` == Template Tag == use `miniloops( $args )` or `get_miniloops( $args )` Like WordPress function, the 'get_' variant will simply return the results. Here are the acceptable arguments and their default values: `$args = array( 'title' => __( 'Recent Posts', 'mini-loops' ), 'hide_title' => 0, 'title_url' => '', 'number_posts' => 3, 'post_offset' => 0, 'post_type' => 'post', 'post_status' => 'publish', 'order_by' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC', 'reverse_order' => 0, 'shuffle_order' => 0, 'ignore_sticky' => 1, 'only_sticky' => 0, 'exclude_current' => 1, 'categories' => '', 'tags' => '', 'tax' => '', 'custom_fields' => '', 'exclude' => '', 'before_items' => '', ); get_miniloops( $args );` = Shortcode = `[miniloop]` Use with all args listed above e.g. `[miniloop number_posts=10]` Exception 'item_format' must go into the content of the shortcode, and square brackets must be replaced with curly brackets. e.g. `[miniloop number_posts=10]{title}by {author}
    [/miniloop]` Also, if you are using html inside the item_format, you must add this into the HTML editor, else your markup will be rendered, not parsed = Planned = * true image cropping for remote images == Upgrade Notice == = 0.7 = New: more excerpt options = 0.6 = New: get posts from current category (if archive) option = 0.5 = Real image croping for thumbnails and several other new features. See Changelog. = Version 0.5 = == Changelog == = Version 0.7 = * New: more excerpt options (use automated/custom excerpts rather than trim by length, option to bypass tag/shortcode stripping). Please report issues. * Fix: stipping slashes for before/after item during output = Version 0.6 = * New (sorta): shortcode option `[miniloop]` (see Other Notes for usage). Why "sorta"? shortcode has existed the whole time, I only just now added some docs * New: get posts from current category (if archive) * New: custom taxonomies, if only 1 ID given, and it's negative, treat it like "NOT IN" * Fix: added missing echo in instructions * General code optimization = Version 0.5 = * New: get only sticky posts * New: shuffle order * New: [ml_author_link] shortcode * New: [ml_comment_count] shortcode * New: thumbnail cropping for local images * New: Ready for localization = Version 0.4 = * New image option: get first attached image (great for galleries!) * Bug fix: broken image if no fallback is set = Version 0.3 = * Bug fix: post status works now = Version 0.2 = * Improvements: hide title, link title, exclude current single post options = Version 0.1 = * Initial release version.