Like I promised in a previous post, here is the code required to show latest 5 posts followed by 15 more, like on my homepage. You need to edit the index.php template and add 2 sub-loops separated by wp_reset_query(). Simple as that. Here is the entire index.php code (you should be able to pull the entire loop from there):

<?php get_header();?>
<div id="content">

<br clear="all" /><br />
<?php if(have_posts()) : ?>
 <?php
 query_posts('posts_per_page=5&offset=0');
 while(have_posts()) : the_post();
 ?>
 <div id="post-<?php the_ID();?>" <?php post_class();?>>
 <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to <?php the_title();?>"><?php the_title();?></a></h2>
 <small><?php the_time('j F Y');?> by <?php the_author();?></small>
 <div>
 <div style="float:left; margin-right:8px"><?php echo get_the_image_link(array('Thumbnail','My Thumbnail'),'thumbnail');?></div>
 <?php the_excerpt('Read more &raquo;');?>
 </div>
 <div style="clear:both"></div>
 <p>Category: <?php the_category(', ');?> | <?php comments_popup_link('No comments &#187;', '1 comment &#187;', '% comments &#187;');?><br /><?php the_tags(); ?></p>
 </div>
 <?php endwhile;?>

 <?php wp_reset_query();?>

 <h2>More recent articles</h2>
 <br /><br />
 <?php
 query_posts('posts_per_page=15&offset=6');
 while (have_posts()) : the_post();
 ?>
 <div id="post-<?php the_ID();?>" <?php post_class();?>>
 <p>
 <strong><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to <?php the_title();?>"><?php the_title();?></a></strong><br />
 <small><?php the_time('j F Y');?> by <?php the_author();?></small>
 </p>
 </div>
 <?php endwhile;?>

 <div>
 <div><?php next_posts_link(__('&laquo; Older Entries','whiskey'));?></div>
 <div><?php previous_posts_link(__('Newer Entries &raquo;','youdrunk'));?></div>
 </div>

 <?php else : ?>
 <h2>Not found</h2>
 <p>No results found.</p>
 <?php endif;?>
</div>
<?php get_sidebar();?>
<?php get_footer();?>

Download index.php here.

You may have noticed that I’m using an unsanitized function, get_the_image_link, to show a thumbnail next to each excerpt. I noticed it when copying the code. Still waiting for a new version of Whiskey Air?

During the weekend I updated no less than 15 WordPress blogs. The operation went as smooth as a baby’s butt, and hours later, plugin updates starting pouring in. Thanks to the mass updater feature, I was able to install them all at once.

If you’re a developer and you’re interested in what’s new when a plugin updates, check out Changelogger, a plugin which:

[...] shows the latest changelog right on the plugin listing page, whenever there’s a plugin ready to be updated.

The changelog on a plugin update is being shown if the plugin author added a changelog section based on the new readme.txt example file to their plugin.

If you need to optimize your database before updating, but you don’t have access to a phpMyAdmin interface, use Portable phpMyAdmin plugin.

I’m sure a maintenance release will follow in January, perhaps to improve the new features (I still don’t like the post thumb feature and I still use the Get the Image plugin), or to fix the omnipresent bugs. Don’t get me wrong, but new releases always bring new and fresh bugs.

Happy 2.9.

I was doing some research the other day to minimize the space occupied by my single-worded categories, and I found a nice way to do it.

Add the following to your CSS stylesheet:

.right {float:left; width:160px;}
.left {float:left; width:160px;}

Add the following to your sidebar, making sure you respect the widget styles:

<div class="widget_box">
<h3>Categories</h3>
<?php
$cats = explode('<br />', wp_list_categories('title_li=&echo=0&show_count=1&depth=1&style=none'));
$cat_n = count($cats) - 1;

for($i=0;$i<$cat_n;$i++):
	if($i<$cat_n/2):
		$cat_left = $cat_left.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
	elseif($i>=$cat_n/2):
		$cat_right = $cat_right.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
	endif;
endfor;
?>

<ul class="left">
	<?php echo $cat_left;?>
</ul>
<ul class="right">
	<?php echo $cat_right;?>
</ul>
</div>

That’s it! Test it and tell me how it works.

First of all you need the Simplepie library. You only need the simplepie.inc file included in the archive.

My example extracts 5 items from a recipe blog:

<div class="block">
	<h2>Latest Culinary Recipes</h2>
	<div class="content">
		<?php $feed = new SimplePie('http://www.wordpress-site.com/feed');?>
		<ul>
			<?php foreach ($feed->get_items(0, 5) as $item): ?>
				<li>&raquo; <a href="<?php print $item->get_permalink();?>"><?php print substr(($item->get_title()),0,23);?> [...]</a></li>
			<?php endforeach; ?>
		</ul>
	</div>
</div>

I have also included a substr() function to show only the first 23 characters in the title. It fitted my web site better.

Don’t forget to have the simplepie library included at the top:

include('includes/simplepie.inc');

I just launched my first WordPress plugin. I needed an easy way to access the MySQL database without going to cPanel for each of my clients’ blogs. So I developed a wrapper for phpMyAdmin, and you can now access it straight from your WordPress Dashboard.

Read more and download Portable phpMyAdmin plugin here.

Stay tuned for more portable plugins!