Mini Loops

Screenshots

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 Explanation of options: Widget Display Title: Your recent posts widget’s title on your sidebar. Default: Recent Posts [miniloop title=”Recent Posts”] get_miniloops( array(‘title’ => ‘Recent Posts’ ) ); Title URL: The page the title should link to. Default: none [miniloop title_url=”/blog/”] get_miniloops( array(‘title_url’ => ‘/blog/” ) ); Building the Query Number of Posts: Number of posts to be displayed. Default: 3 [miniloop number_posts=3] get_miniloops( array(‘number_posts’ => 3 ) ); Post Offset: Number of posts to skip before displaying the list. Default: 0 [miniloop post_offset=0] get_miniloops( array(‘post_offset’ => 0 ) ); Maximum Age: Don’t show posts more than X days old Default: 0 [miniloop maximum_age=0] get_miniloops( array(‘maximum_age’ => 0 ) ); Post Author: Get author’s post. By ID. Default: none [miniloop post_author=0] get_miniloops( array(‘post_author’ => 0 ) ); Post Type: Post type to display. Default: post [miniloop post_type=post] get_miniloops( array(‘post_type’ => ‘post’ ) ); Post Status: Post status to display. Primarily useful to show upcoming (future) posts. But be creative! Default: publish [miniloop post_status=publish] get_miniloops( array(‘post_status’ => ‘publish’ ) ); Order By: What order the posts should be displayed in. Default: date [miniloop order_by=date] get_miniloops( array(‘order_by’ => ‘date’ ) ); Order: Ascending (good for order by title) or Descending (good for order by date) Default: DESC [miniloop order=DESC] get_miniloops( array(‘order’ => ‘DESC’ ) ); Ordering by the values of some_key (works well if the values of some_key are strings/words): [miniloop order_by=meta_value order_meta_key=some_key] get_miniloops( array(‘order_by’ => ‘meta_value’, ‘order_meta_key’ => ‘some_key’ ) ); Ordering by the numeric values of some_key (works well if the values of some_key are numbers/integers): [miniloop order_by=meta_value_num order_meta_key=some_key] get_miniloops( array(‘order_by’ => ‘meta_value_num’, ‘order_meta_key’ => ‘some_key’ ) ); 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. Default: 0 [miniloop reverse_order=0] get_miniloops( array(‘reverse_order’ => 0 ) ); Shuffle post order? Shuffle the order of the posts matching your query. Perhaps showing the 5 most recent posts in randomized order. Default: 0 [miniloop shuffle_order=0] get_miniloops( array(‘shuffle_order’ => 0 ) ); Ignore sticky posts? Treat sticky posts as normal posts. I recommend ignoring, or the number of posts displayed may be inconsistent. Default: 1 [miniloop ignore_sticky=1] get_miniloops( array(‘ignore_sticky’ => 1 ) ); Exclude sticky posts? Don’t show sticky posts at all. Default: 0 [miniloop exclude_sticky=0] get_miniloops( array(‘exclude_sticky’ => 0 ) ); Only sticky posts? Show only sticky posts. Default: 0 [miniloop only_sticky=0] get_miniloops( array(‘only_sticky’ => 0 ) ); If viewing a single post, exclude it? If viewing a single post, remove it from the widget display. Default: 1 [miniloop exclude_current=1] get_miniloops( array(‘exclude_current’ => 1 ) ); Get posts from current category (if archive)? If viewing an archive, only show posts from the same category. Default: 0 [miniloop current_category=1] get_miniloops( array(‘current_category’ => 1 ) ); Get posts from first category (if single)? If viewing a single post, only show posts from the first category. Default: none [miniloop current_single_category=1] get_miniloops( array(‘current_single_category’ => 1 ) ); Get posts from current author (if single or archive)? Show more posts from the current author. Default: none [miniloop current_author=1] get_miniloops( array(‘current_author’ => 1 ) ); Categories: Comma separated list of category IDs to pull from. Use negative ID numbers to exclude a category. Default: none [miniloop categories=”1,8,13″] get_miniloops( array(‘categories’ => ‘1,8,13’ ) ); Tags: Comma separated list of tag IDs to pull from. Use negative ID numbers to exclude a tag. Default: none [miniloop tags=”15,40,88″] get_miniloops( array(‘tags’ => ‘15,40,88’ ) ); Custom Taxonomies: A clunky way to support custom taxonomies. Default: none. To include terms 5, 6, 9 from taxonomy “Genre” do this: [miniloop tax=”genre=5,6,9″] get_miniloops( array(‘tax’ => ‘genre=5,6,9’ ) ); Custom Fields: For listing posts that have certain meta data. Default: none. To list posts that have a custom field ‘favorite_color’ with a value of ‘blue’ do this: [miniloop custom_fields=”favorite_color=blue”] get_miniloops( array(‘custom_fields’ => ‘favorite_color=blue’ ) ); Exclude Posts: A comma separated list of post IDs to exclude. Default: none [miniloop exclude=”15,200,1032″] get_miniloops( array(‘exclude’ => ‘15,200,1032’ ) ); Display Before Items: Text/HTML to insert before the post list. Default: <ul> [miniloop before_items=””] get_miniloops( array(‘before_items’ => ” ) ); After Items: Text/HTML to insert after the post list. Default: </ul> [miniloop after_items=””] get_miniloops( array(‘after_items’ => ” ) ); 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 <!--more--> 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_author_avatar] Attributes: size (92), default (”), alt (false) size = avatar size, in pixels default = default if no gravatar. See Settings > Discussion alt = alt text [ml_field] Attributes: name, single (1), separator (‘, ‘), reverse (0) name = custom field name single = 1 get single value, 0 get all values matching name separator = string to separate each value reverse = 0 default order, 1 reverse display order [ml_taxonomy] Attributes: taxonomy, separator (‘, ‘), link (0), justone (0), reverse (0) taxonomy = taxonomy slug separator = string to separate each term link = 1 to link categories to their archive page, 0 for no links justone = 1 to show just first category, 0 to show all reverse = 0 default order, 1 reverse display order [ml_tax] Alias to [ml_taxonomy] [ml_category] Shortcut for [tax taxonomy=category] [ml_tag] Shortcut for [tax taxonomy=post_tag] [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 [ml_image from=thumb] from ‘attached’ first attached image [ml_image from=attached] from ‘customfield’ get from custom field [ml_image from=customfield] from ‘first’ first image in post [ml_image from=first] since 1.1.3, you can pass a comma-separated list to use as fallbacks. [ml_image from="thumb,first"] cfname = custom field to use if from=customfield [ml_image from=customfield cfname=thumbnail] 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. It is not recommended that you leave this option on. [ml_image from=thumb cache=clear] Inside of Item Format, shortcodes can be used without the ml_ prefix. Sample Item Formats Format 1: https://s.w.org/extend/plugins/mini-loops/screenshot-2.png (before: <ul> after: </ul>) [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: https://s.w.org/extend/plugins/mini-loops/screenshot-3.png (before: <ul> after: </ul>) [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: https://s.w.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' => '<ul>', 'item_format' => '<li><a href="[url]">[title]</a><br />[excerpt]</li>', 'after_items' => '</ul>', ); get_miniloops( $args ); Shortcode [miniloop] Use with all args listed above e.g. [miniloop number_posts=10] Exception – ‘item_format’ must be handled differently New way (since v0.9): Create a custom field named ml_format and save the item format there. Then adjust your [miniloop] shortcode e.g. [miniloop number_posts=10][ml_format][/miniloop] If needed, you can change the custom field. Just pass the name of the new custom field to the [ml_format] shortcode e.g. [miniloop number_posts=10][ml_format name="new_field"][/miniloop] Old way: ‘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}<br />[/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 Other Languages French (Thanks @maoneetag) Bilingual? Send your mo/po files to me at trepmal (at) gmail.com