Add excerpt to recent post

Hi,

I’m looking to add a post excerpt to the recent post element. I’ve followed the instructions on a previous post showing me to add a section of code to my child theme but this hasn’t worked.

Please help.

Thanks

Alex

Hi Alex,

We could not access your site as it is currently under construction mode.

You can try adding this in your child theme functions.php file.

function x_shortcode_recent_posts_v2code( $atts ) {
  extract( shortcode_atts( array(
    'id'           => '',
    'class'        => '',
    'style'        => '',
    'type'         => 'post',
    'count'        => '',
    'category'     => '',
    'offset'       => '',
    'orientation'  => '',
    'show_excerpt' => 'true',
    'no_sticky'    => '',
    'no_image'     => '',
    'fade'         => ''
  ), $atts, 'x_recent_posts' ) );

  $allowed_post_types = apply_filters( 'cs_recent_posts_post_types', array( 'post' => 'post' ) );
  $type = ( isset( $allowed_post_types[$type] ) ) ? $allowed_post_types[$type] : 'post';

  $id            = ( $id           != ''     ) ? 'id="' . esc_attr( $id ) . '"' : '';
  $class         = ( $class        != ''     ) ? 'x-recent-posts cf ' . esc_attr( $class ) : 'x-recent-posts cf';
  $style         = ( $style        != ''     ) ? 'style="' . $style . '"' : '';
  $count         = ( $count        != ''     ) ? $count : 3;
  $category      = ( $category     != ''     ) ? $category : '';
  $category_type = ( $type         == 'post' ) ? 'category_name' : 'portfolio-category';
  $offset        = ( $offset       != ''     ) ? $offset : 0;
  $orientation   = ( $orientation  != ''     ) ? ' ' . $orientation : ' horizontal';
   $show_excerpt  = ( $show_excerpt == 'true' );
  $no_sticky     = ( $no_sticky    == 'true' );
  $no_image      = ( $no_image     == 'true' ) ? $no_image : '';
  $fade          = ( $fade         == 'true' ) ? $fade : 'false';

  $js_params = array(
    'fade' => ( $fade == 'true' )
  );

  $data = cs_generate_data_attributes( 'recent_posts', $js_params );

  $output = "<div {$id} class=\"{$class}{$orientation}\" {$style} {$data} data-fade=\"{$fade}\" >";

    $q = new WP_Query( array(
      'orderby'             => 'date',
      'post_type'           => "{$type}",
      'posts_per_page'      => "{$count}",
      'offset'              => "{$offset}",
      "{$category_type}"    => "{$category}",
      'ignore_sticky_posts' => $no_sticky
    ) );

    if ( $q->have_posts() ) : while ( $q->have_posts() ) : $q->the_post();

      if ( $no_image == 'true' ) {
        $image_output       = '';
        $image_output_class = 'no-image';
      } else {
        $image              = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id(), 'entry-cropped' );
        $bg_image           = ( $image[0] != '' ) ? ' style="background-image: url(' . $image[0] . ');"' : '';
        $image_output       = '<div class="x-recent-posts-img"' . $bg_image . '></div>';
        $image_output_class = 'with-image';
      }

       $excerpt = ( $show_excerpt ) ? '<div class="x-recent-posts-excerpt"><p>' . preg_replace('/<a.*?more-link.*?<\/a>/', '', cs_get_excerpt_for_social() ) . '</p></div>' : '';

      $output .= '<a class="x-recent-post' . $count . ' ' . $image_output_class . '" href="' . get_permalink( get_the_ID() ) . '" title="' . esc_attr( sprintf( csi18n('shortcodes.recent-posts-permalink'), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ) ) . '">'
                 . '<article id="post-' . get_the_ID() . '" class="' . implode( ' ', get_post_class() ) . '">'
                   . '<div class="entry-wrap">'
                     . $image_output
                     . '<div class="x-recent-posts-content">'
                       . '<h3 class="h-recent-posts">' . get_the_title() . '</h3>'
                       . '<span class="x-recent-posts-date">' . get_the_date() . '</span>'
                        . $excerpt
                     . '</div>'
                   . '</div>'
                 . '</article>'
               . '</a>';

    endwhile; endif; wp_reset_postdata();

  $output .= '</div>';

  return $output;
}

add_action('wp_head', 'change_recent_posts_to_v2');
function change_recent_posts_to_v2() {
  remove_shortcode( 'x_recent_posts' );
  add_shortcode( 'x_recent_posts', 'x_shortcode_recent_posts_v2code' );
}

Then use shortcode to display your recent posts.

[x_recent_posts show_excerpt="true" count="4"]

Hope that helps

March 2021 Update: The above code example has been adjusted to account for a change to a function name.