Yann "Bug" Dubois

Here are the installation, set-up and customization instructions for using the YD Recent Posts Widget on your WordPress blog or site, illustrated with screenshots.

Installation

Legacy regular manual installation procedure:

1. Unzip yd-recent-posts-widget.zip
2. Upload the yd-recent-posts-widget directory and all its contents into the/wp-content/plugins/ directory
3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
4. Use the widget admin page to add the widget to one of your sidebars and configure it
5. Use the ‘YD Recent Posts’ settings page to clear the cache when you make changes.
6. If you want to include the list in your page content, use the[ yd_list_posts ] short code.
7. If you want to include it in your template, use the <?php display_yd_recent_posts_here() ?> function.
8. Use the <?php display_yd_previous_posts_here() ?> function to display a list of previous posts. For specific installations, some more information might be found on the YD Recent Posts Widget plugin support page

Alternatively, you can use the automatic installation procedure of the recent WordPress versions:

• In your administrative interface, go to Plugins > Add New

• In the “Search for plugins by keyword, author, or tag.” field, select “Term” and just type “YD”, then click on the “Search Plugins” button.

• In the result set, locate “YD Recent Posts Widget”, and click “Install Now”

• To the question “Are you sure you want to install this plugin?” answer Yes to continue with the installation.

• The automatic installation process takes place. once you see the phrase “Successfully installed the plugin YD Recent Posts Widget…” you are all done!

Activate the plugin

• In the administration interface, go to Plugins > Plugins

• Locate the “YD Recent Posts with thumbnails” plugin (on a grey background if not activated yet), and click on “Activate”.

• The message “Plugin activated” will appear on a yellow background, and if you scroll down the plugins list, you will see that “YD Recent Posts with thumbnails” is now on a white background.

• You are all set, the YD Recent Posts Widget plugin is now correctly installed and activated, you may proceed with the basic settings.

Global plugin settings

• Go to Settings > YD Recent Posts to access the main / global settings screen.

• Here are the default settings for this screen:
  • Main plugin settings:
    • Load default CSS stylesheet: checked
    • Image inline CSS Style: width:60px;height:60px;padding-right:5px;padding-bottom:5px;float:left;
    • Default image URL: http://www.yann.com/yd-recent-posts-widget-v301-logo.gif
    • Display as a ul / li list: checked
    • Skip latest posts on home page: checked
    • Keep HTML formatting in excerpts: unchecked
    • Strip shortcodes/captions/[square bracket-enclosed] special tags: checked
    • Strip {curly bracket-enclosed} special tags: unchecked
    • Use WP2.9+ post thumbnails: checked
    • Default text string cut length: 128
    • Ellipsis string: … »
  • Optional Timthumb settings:
    • Use Timthumb: unchecked
    • Timthumb complete path: actually depends on your site setup (often just: /wp-content/plugins/yd-recent-posts-widget/timthumb/timthumb.php)
    • Width: 60
    • Height: 60
  • Other options:
    • Show debug messages: unchecked
    • Disable backlink in the blog footer: unchecked
• You can revert to the default settings by clicking on the “Reset plugin settings” button. Please be aware that this will also reset your widget custom settings (as seen hereunder).
• When you do changes to those settings, click on the “Update plugin settings” button to record and immediately apply the changes (this will also automatically clear the cache).
• When you feel that the content displayed in the widget or recent post list does not accurately reflect your blog content or your design changes, you can manually purge the display cache by clicking the “Clear cache” button.

Adding the widget to your blog’s sidebar

• Go to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress administration interface:

• Locate the “YD Recent Posts” widget in the left area of the page and drag it with your mouse over one of your sidebar areas on the right side (the actual number of sidebar areas will depend on your active theme). To drag the widget, click on it, and maintain the left mouse button down while you move it to it’s new location. Drop it to its new location by releasing the mouse button.

Widget options

• To view or change the actual widget options in order to customize the widget features and display, click on the downward arrow at the right of the widget title once it is in-place. This will open the widget option panel.

• Here is the YD Recent Posts Widget option panel with its default settings:

• Home page widget options:
  • Title: YD Recent Posts
  • Only show posts with this tag: blank
  • # no. of posts to show: blank
  • Display post thumbnail: checked
  • Display post title: checked
  • Title cut length: blank
  • Display post date: unchecked
  • Date format: Will depend on your actual blog l10n settings, usually “j F Y”
  • Display meta: blank
  • Display post excerpt: checked
  • Use WP excerpt field: unchecked
  • Excerpt cut length: blank
  • Additional query parameters: blank
  • Bottom text: <small>[&rarr;YD Recent Posts Widget]</small>
  • – link: http://www.yann.com/en/wp-plugins/yd-recent-posts-widget
  • Same settings on other pages: checked
• If you uncheck the “Same settings on other pages:” checkbox and click the “Save” button, you will gain access to the extended option panel, which allow you to configure distinct settings on the blog pages as opposed to the home page.
• Here is a view of the extended panel:

… And here are its default settings, most of them are similar to the options find in the regular option panel which governs the layout of the widget on the home page:

• Other pages widget options:
  • Title: YD Recent Posts
  • Only show posts with this tag: blank
  • # no. of posts to show: blank
  • Display post thumbnail: checked
  • Display post title: checked
  • Title cut length: blank
  • Display post date: unchecked
  • Date format: depends on blog locale
  • Display post excerpt: checked
  • Use WP excerpt field: unchecked
  • Excerpt cut length: blank
  • Additional query parameters: blank
  • Bottom text: [&rarr;YD Recent Posts Widget]
  • – link: http://www.yann.com/en/wp-plugins/yd-recent-posts-widget
• Click on the “Save” button to immediately update your settings. This will automatically clear the cache.

Advanced settings and use

Hints to advance use and configuration of the plugin can be found in the official FAQ page, and by browsing comments on the official community support page and in the older comments archives page.

Par : Yann Dubois