BNS Featured Tag

Plugin with multi-widget functionality that displays most recent posts from specific tag or tags (set with user options). Also includes user options to display: Tag Description; Author and meta details; comment totals; post categories; post tags; and either full post, excerpt, or your choice of the amount of words (or any combination).

Download

Latest version: Download BNS Featured Tag v1.7.2 [zip]

Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

1. Upload bns-featured-tag.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate through the ‘Plugins’ menu.
3. Place the BNS Featured Tag widget appropriately in the Appearance | Widgets section of the dashboard.
4. Set options to personal preferences:

* Widget Title
* Tag Names – separated by commas
* Show (first) Tag Description (checkbox)
* Show Author and date/time details of post (checkbox)
* Show all categories attached to post (checkbox)
* Show all tags attached to post (checkbox)
* Show post in full or use default of post excerpt (checkbox)

– or -

1. Go to ‘Plugins’ menu under your Dashboard
2. Click on the ‘Add New’ link
3. Search for bns-featured-tag
4. Install.
5. Activate through the ‘Plugins’ menu.
6. Place the BNS Featured Tag widget appropriately in the Appearance | Widgets section of the dashboard.
7. Set options to personal preferences:

* Widget Title
* Tag Names – separated by commas
* Show (first) Tag Description (checkbox)
* Show Author and date/time details of post (checkbox)
* Show all categories attached to post (checkbox)
* Show all tags attached to post (checkbox)
* Show post in full or use default of post excerpt (checkbox)

Reading this article for further assistance: http://wpfirstaid.com/2009/12/plugin-installation/

FAQ

Q. Can I use this in more than one widget area?
A. Yes, this plugin has been made for multi-widget compatibility. Each instance of the widget will display, if wanted, differently than every other instance of the widget.

Q. How can I style the plugin output?
A. The plugin uses several “common” WordPress functions that create standard class and id elements that can be styled in the style.css file
* the classes generated by the post_class() function; and, the id generated by “post-” apended to the_ID() function wrap the general post output
* the plugin class post-details wraps the general meta details of the post, such as the Author, Categories, Tags, etc.
* the overall plugin may also be wrapped in a widget “container” class, or id, specific to the theme itself such as (but not limited to): widget, sidebar, left, right, etc.

With the addition of the display Tag Description option an additional class was written into the plugin. To style the tag description displayed add the class ‘bnsfc-tag-desc’ to your style.css file then use your choice of properties to style the text, for example:

.bnsfc-tag-desc {font-style: italic;}

Q. Can I increase the maximum posts to display?
A. As of version 1.6.2 the Total Posts to Display is independent of the “posts per page” setting as set under Settings | Reading.

Changelog

1.7.2

• released: July 5, 2010
• added wp_reset_query();

1.7.1

• released: June 13, 2010
• format tag names into tag slugs for use in the query (needs to be further addressed)
• cleaned up code to meet WP Standards

1.7

• compatible with WordPress version 3.0
• updated license declaration

1.6.3

• removed the_ID() function as redundant

1.6.2.3

• compatible with WordPress version 2.9.2
• updated license declaration

1.6.2.2

• clarified the plugin’s release under a GPL license

1.6.2.1

• compatibility check for 2.9.1 completed

1.6.2

• Total Posts to Display can now exceed the posts_per_page option value.
• matched version number to BNS Featured Category – future versions should also stay in step

1.6

• corrected issue with checkboxes not displaying their state correctly
• minor correction to variable structure to allow for multiple instances of the plugin with independent post counts
• added option to display the description for the (first) tag choice as taken directly from the Tags panel under Posts in the Dashboard
• wrapped Tag Description in its own class: ‘bnsfc-tag-desc’

1.5

• added option to set the quantity of the first words of the post to display instead of the default excerpt.
• modified description to reflect new functionality
• slightly increased the size of option panel to better display controls

1.4

• added version control compared against $wp_version
• added horizontal rule to option panel for clarity

1.3

• code cleanup and error trapping
• added dynamic reference of maximum posts based on blog Settings | Reading “posts per page”

1.2

• code clean up
• changed the_content(__(‘Read more …’)) to the_content() as a more “default” version

1.1

• added option for Post Titles only
• added

1.0

• Initial Release.