[uspatriot55Participant]

Hi there,

I’d like to be able to include excerpts in the recent blog post element. What’s the best way to do that?

Is it still a matter of adding code to my function.php file as listed here: https://community.theme.co/forums/topic/add-excerpt-to-recent-posts-shortcode/

See attachment for what I’m trying to achieve. CSS isn’t a problem, btw. I just need the content there so I can work with it.

[ZeshanMember]

Hi there,

Thanks for writing in!

Recent Posts doesn’t show excerpt by default, but you can enable it with custom development. Because this requires a template change, I’d advise that you setup a child theme. This allows you to make code changes that won’t be overwritten when an X update is released. After your child theme is setup, please review how we recommend making template changes in Customization Best Practices.

After that, add following code in your child theme’s functions.php file:

// =============================================================================
// Custom Excerpt Length - Call: echo excerpt($length);
// =============================================================================

function excerpt($limit) {
   $excerpt = explode(' ', get_the_excerpt(), $limit);
   if (count($excerpt)>=$limit) {
      array_pop($excerpt);
      $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt).'.';
   } else {
      $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt);
   } 
   // $excerpt = preg_replace('<code>\[[^\]]*\]</code>','',$excerpt);
   return $excerpt;
}

// =============================================================================
// Add Excerpt to Recent Posts -> [x_recent_posts]
// =============================================================================

function x_shortcode_recent_posts_excerpt( $atts ) {
  extract( shortcode_atts( array(
    'id'          => '',
    'class'       => '',
    'style'       => '',
    'type'        => 'post',
    'count'       => '',
    'category'    => '',
    'offset'      => '',
    'orientation' => '',
    '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';
  $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' => true
    ) );

    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';
      }

      $output .= '<a class="x-recent-post' . $count . ' ' . $image_output_class . '" href="' . get_permalink( get_the_ID() ) . '" title="' . esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'Permalink to: "%s"', csl18n() ), 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>'
                       . do_shortcode('[x_gap size="10px"]')
                       . '<span class="x-recent-posts-excerpt">' .  strip_tags(excerpt(25))  . '</span>'
                     . '</div>'
                   . '</div>'
                 . '</article>'
               . '</a>';

    endwhile; endif; wp_reset_postdata();

  $output .= '</div>';

  return $output;
}

add_action('wp_head', 'update_x_recent_posts_to_v2');

function update_x_recent_posts_to_v2() {
  remove_shortcode( 'x_recent_posts' );
  add_shortcode( 'x_recent_posts', 'x_shortcode_recent_posts_excerpt' );
}

Thank you!

[Author]

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