Plugin: Customizable Post Listings

Anton: Your question is probably a multi-part question, with different answers for different parts. So it really depends on what exactly you are asking for. The “loop” does set global variables that other functions rely upon for typical “in the loop” sorts of activities, in which case many of those functions wouldn’t work properly. I’m sure there are certain sorts of things that could be added to this plugin, or could be hacked in some way. Point out specific things you are looking to do and I can tell you how necessary the loop is for them.

Pierre: I anticipate improved category support, including the case which you brought up, in a future version. Complex category handling can be tricky, so how much I implement and when is still up in the air.

Nathan: Rest assured a comment_excerpt substitution tag will be included in the next release.

Mark: You have the wrong plugin developer. You probably want ColdForged.

Thank you so much! This is just what I wanted for my small piece of the Internet. Works like a charm.

I’m very new to this system, and this is the first plugin im attempting to use.

I have problems installing it though:

I followed the installation instructions but it does not work. I simply placed the function:

function c2c_get_recent_posts ($num_posts = 5,
 $format = "<li>%post_date%: %post_URL%</li>",
 $categories = '',
 $orderby = 'date',
 $order = 'DESC',
 $offset = 0,
 $date_format = 'm/d/Y',
 $authors = '',
 $include_passworded_posts = false)

in the index.php as it said, between line. If I add a ‘{‘ it bring up yet another error.

Can anyone explain what I am doing wrong?

ColdForged: Heh; I’ve got my holds full with what I’ve got going here 🙂 Incidentally, I’ve finally begun updating the plugin. I’m doing it in various stages; the interim steps are visible at dev.wp-plugins.org. I’ll probably be able to roll in most of your customizations, except for the post_view_count stuff, which probably goes beyond the scope of this plugin. Thanks for contributing!

Valerie: Thanks for pointing out those bugs. Their fixes will be in the next release.

Dan: What you pasted into index.php was the code defining the function and not the code that calls the function. Look under the Tips & Examples section for what you want to put into index.php. Namely, you’d want something like:

<?php c2c_get_recent_posts(); ?>

Dan: Did you activate the plugin via the Admin’s Plugins page? If so, where in index.php did you put this function? For that matter, are you using WordPress 1.2+ or 1.5?

I got it working, it was my stupidity.

One more question: is it possible to have more than one class streamreader in a page? I wanted to draw the “get recent posts” from a different database to that of another on the page. Instead an error of: Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class streamreader in /home/fhlinux198/i/ifmicecouldmovemountains.com/user/htdocs/live/wp-includes/streams.php on line 26

The docs state for $format : “A string that uses percent substitution tags to define the data you want displayed for each listing and how you want it displayed;set it to ” (two single-quotes) to return an array of the requested post objects without outputting anything.”

I’m using:
$foo=c2c_get_recent_posts(1, $format=’%post_content%’);

but the post_content is still being displayed. I just want it stored in $foo for manipulation. How can I do this?

Thanks for this great plugin, Scott.
I’ve installed this plugin recently and noticed that %comments_count% actually counts all comments including ones marked as ‘spam’ and stored in the database.

So the function c2c_comment_count may be better if reads:

function c2c_comment_count ($post_id) {
  global $wpdb, $tablecomments;
  if (!isset($tablecomments)) $tablecomments = $wpdb->comments;
  return $wpdb-&gt;get_var("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM $tablecomments WHERE comment_post_ID = '$post_id' <strong>AND comment_approved = '1'</strong>");
} //end function c2c_comment_count()

Thanks.

Great Plugin. Will be using this for my Sites new version. 🙂

hey, I tried installing this and I get:

“Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ‘&’ or T_VARIABLE or T_CONST in line 33” which is:

  $format = “%post_date%: %post_URL%”,

no matter what type of plugin I try to get a “recent post” list going in my side bar, I get parse errors, was hoping you can help!

Amazing job with this plugin, using it on my site right now!

Hi I discovered it was my own XHTML being invalid causing the problems. Works perfectly, my only problem is that the page now invalidates with the plugin – if that makes sense? Any tips one what I can do to get the page valid with the use of the plugin?

If you try to validate reviews.sekhu.net you’ll find many ul and li errors listed, this I assume is the output of the plugin in order to create the lists.

Hope you can help.

GREAT set of tools…. even works with the new 1.5 version…… just add a little CSS styling and it looks perfect….

Great job…..

Is there a way to not include the posting date when using the recent posts function?

Found a compatibilty problem!

IF you have this and the comments plugin installed, and then try to have activate both you will cause a “duplicate function” error. c2c_comment_count() function is declared in both plugins. Simple, but dodgy fix is just to rename one of the functions :P.. I guess there is a better way around this, however at least that way both plugins will still work independently …

is it possible to modify the query to get all posts from a chosen category? I’m trying to set a category page.