This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Recent Posts Widget Extended

Description

Plugin description

This plugin will enable a custom, flexible and advanced recent posts, you can display it via shortcode or widget. Allows you to display a list of the most recent posts with thumbnail, excerpt and post date, also you can display it from all or specific or multiple taxonomy, post type and much more!

Support this project

If you are enjoying this plugin. I would appreciate a cup of coffee to help me keep coding and supporting the project! Support & donate.

Features Include

  • Display by date, comment count or random.
  • Enable thumbnails, with customizable size and alignment.
  • Enable excerpt, with customizable length.
  • Display from all, specific or multiple category or tag.
  • Enable post date.
  • Display modification date.
  • Display comment count.
  • Post type support.
  • Taxonomy support.
  • Post status.
  • Custom HTML or text before and/or after recent posts.
  • Shortcode feature.
  • Crop image on the fly.
  • Enable Read more.
  • Custom CSS.
  • Multiple widgets.
  • Available filter for developer.

Links

Screenshots

  • Classic widget
  • Block widget
  • Shortcode
  • Siteorigin page builder

Installation

Through Dashboard

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel and go to Plugins -> Add New
  2. Type recent posts widget extended in the search box and click on search button.
  3. Find Recent Posts Widget Extended plugin.
  4. Then click on Install Now after that activate the plugin.
  5. Go to the widgets page Appearance -> Widgets.
  6. Find Recent Posts Extended widget.

Installing Via FTP

  1. Download the plugin to your hardisk.
  2. Unzip.
  3. Upload the recent-posts-widget-extended folder into your plugins directory.
  4. Log in to your WordPress admin panel and click the Plugins menu.
  5. Then activate the plugin.
  6. Go to the widgets page Appearance -> Widgets.
  7. Find Recent Posts Extended widget.

FAQ-e

Shortcode Explanation

Explanation of shortcode options:

Basic shortcode

[rpwe]

Display 10 recent posts

[rpwe limit="10"]

Display 5 random posts

[rpwe limit="5" orderby="rand"]

Display 10 recent posts without thumbnail

[rpwe limit="10" thumb="false"]

Open post link in new tab

[rpwe link_target="true"]

Disable default style

[rpwe styles_default="false"]

Shortcode Arguments

Here are the full default shortcode arguments

limit="5"
offset=""
order="DESC"
orderby="date"
post_type="post"
cat=""
tag=""
taxonomy=""
post_type="post"
post_status="publish"
ignore_sticky="1"
taxonomy=""

post_title="true"
link_target="false"
excerpt="false"
length="10"
thumb="true"
thumb_height="45"
thumb_width="45"
thumb_default="https://via.placeholder.com/45x45/f0f0f0/ccc"
thumb_align="rpwe-alignleft"
date="true"
readmore="false"
readmore_text="Read More »"

styles_default="true"
css_id=""
css_class=""
before=""
after=""

How to filter the post query?

You can use rpwe_default_query_arguments to filter it. Example:

add_filter( 'rpwe_default_query_arguments', 'your_custom_function' );
function your_custom_function( $args ) {
    $args['posts_per_page'] = 10; // Changing the number of posts to show.
    return $args;
}

Ordering not working!

Did you installed any Post or Post Type Order? Please try to deactivate it and try again the ordering. (related question)

No image options

Your theme needs to support Post Thumbnail, please go to https://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Thumbnails to read more info and how to activate it in your theme.

How to add custom style?

First, please uncheck the Use Default Style option then place the css code below on the Additional CSS panel on Customizer, then you can customize it to fit your needs

.rpwe-block ul {
    list-style: none !important;
    margin-left: 0 !important;
    padding-left: 0 !important;
}
.rpwe-block li {
    border-bottom: 1px solid #eee;
    margin-bottom: 10px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
    list-style-type: none;
}
.rpwe-block a {
    display: inline !important;
    text-decoration: none;
}
.rpwe-block h3 {
    background: none !important;
    clear: none;
    margin-bottom: 0 !important;
    margin-top: 0 !important;
    font-weight: 400;
    font-size: 12px !important;
    line-height: 1.5em;
}
.rpwe-thumb {
    border: 1px solid #eee !important;
    box-shadow: none !important;
    margin: 2px 10px 2px 0;
    padding: 3px !important;
}
.rpwe-summary {
    font-size: 12px;
}
.rpwe-time {
    color: #bbb;
    font-size: 11px;
}
.rpwe-alignleft {
    display: inline;
    float: left;
}
.rpwe-alignright {
    display: inline;
    float: right;
}
.rpwe-aligncenter {
    display: block;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
}
.rpwe-clearfix:before,.rpwe-clearfix:after {
    content: "";
    display: table !important;
}
.rpwe-clearfix:after {
    clear: both;
}
.rpwe-clearfix {
    zoom: 1;
}

Why so many !important in the css code?

I know it’s not good but I have a good reason, the !important is to make sure the built-in style compatible with all themes. But if you don’t like it, you can turn of the Use Default Styles and remove all custom css code in the Custom CSS box then create your own style.

Available filters

Default arguments

rpwe_default_args

Post excerpt

rpwe_excerpt

Post markup

rpwe_markup

Post query arguments

rpwe_default_query_arguments

Reviews

16 February 2023
Needed a recent post plugin that works with shortcode and can be used on page/post/block etc. This one does it. Awesome. Keep up the good work. Thank you!
09 December 2021
This is an excellent Plugin! It is well designed, does what it claims to do, and doesn’t waste your time. I tried other plugins before finding this one. This one is the REAL THING!
Read all 160 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Recent Posts Widget Extended” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Recent Posts Widget Extended” has been translated into 17 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Recent Posts Widget Extended” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.0.2
Release Date: Oct 05, 2022

Bug fixes:

  • Prevent double slash when loading the php file.
  • Use display: block for the list, inline-block causing issue for some websites.

Enhancements:

  • Minor issue with the auto generate thumbnail function.
  • Fix translation issue. Thanks Alex Lion.
  • CSS tweak.

2.0.1
Release Date: Sept 28, 2022

Bug fixes:

  • Compatibility issue with Siteorigin Page Builder.

Enhancements:

  • Re-enable custom CSS setting.
  • Full support Siteorigin Page Builder.
  • Adds display: inline-block; to the default style, to make sure each list align properly. Thank you outrospective!

2.0 – Major Changes
Release Date: Sept 22, 2022

This release comes major changes to the codebase, several fixes and enhancements. The reason was to follow the latest WordPress coding standard, more secure. Classic widget and block widget is now supported!

Breaking Changes:

  • CSS ID shortcode attribute for the container was cssID or cssid, please use css_id instead.
  • CSS ID widget, please re-added your ID to the input field.
  • before and after shortcode attribute move to inside the recent posts container.
  • Widget custom style location change. If your style is not loaded, please re-save the widget.
  • Custom CSS no longer editable, please move your custom CSS to the Additional CSS panel on Customizer.

Enhancements:

  • Classic & blocks widget supported!
  • Support lazy loading for the thumbnail.
  • No more inline CSS, by default rpwe-frontend.css will be loaded if shortcode or widget present.
  • No more extract(). ref
  • New show hide the post title.

Bug fixes:

  • Default image wasn’t working correctly.
  • true or false shortcode value.