Returns an array of the most recent posts. Simple and powerfull.
<h3>Usage</h3>
Function <code>ns_recent_posts(10, 0, 200, false, ", ")</code> returns an array of objects of recent posts.
Params for function:
<ul>
<li>$no_posts – number of posts to display. Default 10.</li>
<li>$first – Number of the first post. Used when is needed to display, for example, posts from 10 to 20, but not from the first post. Default 0.</li>
<li>$excerpt_len – Number of symbols in excerpt. Default 200.</li>
<li>$db_unicode – boolean value variable. Determines if your wordpress database is in unicode format (UTF-8). Default FALSE. FALSE – non-Unicode, uses standart string functions. TRUE – Unicode(UTF-8), uses mbstring functions.</li>
<li>$tags_divider – string value of categories list divider. Default “, “.</li>
</ul>
Use function <code>ns_recent_posts()</code> in a loop.
Objects returned by array has properties, that is used in construction: $object->property, where “$object” – your variable used in a loop, but “property” can be:
<ul>
<li>post_title – Title of a post</li>
<li>permalink – Link to post</li>
<li>bookmark – Title of a post of “title” attribute</li>
<li>day – day</li>
<li>month – month</li>
<li>year – year</li>
<li>post_content – post preview (excerpt)</li>
<li>post_tags – list of categories (tags)</li>
<li>comment_count – number of categories</li>
</ul>
<h4>Example</h4>
<pre><code><?php
foreach (ns_recent_posts(10, 0, 200, false, ", ") as $re_post){
echo <<<HTML
<div class="recent-post">
 <h3><a href="{$re_post->permalink}" rel="bookmark" title="{$re_post->bookmark}>
 {$re_post->post_title}
 </a></h3>
 {$re_post->day}.{$re_post->month}.{$re_post->year}
 <div class="entry">
 {$re_post->post_content}
 Tags: {$re_post->post_tags}
 
 <a href="{$re_post->permalink}#respond">Comments ({$re_post->comment_count}) &raquo;</a>
 
 </div>
</div>
HTML;
}
?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Note</h4>
<ul>
<li>Place this code to any place in any file of your template.</li>
<li>To show value of property of object in “echo”, add braces in construction: {$object->property}</li>
<li>Plugin also erases all tags, and leaves simple text in excerpt.</li>
</ul>

NS Recent Posts

Returns an array of the most recent posts. Simple and powerfull.

Paul Annekov

<h4>Looking for maintainer. Write me to paul.annekov@gmail.com</h4>
Flexible Recent Posts (FRP) plugin gives you possibility to add widget to your blog with recent posts using user-defined template.
The main features are:
<ul>
<li>Template for each post in widget. You can write your HTML-template or overwrite default in widget form.</li>
<li>Shortcodes support in template. You can use built-in shortcodes to insert info related to current post in widget: <code>title</code>, <code>featured image</code>, <code>excerpt</code>, <code>date</code>, <code>permalink</code>, <code>author</code>, <code>comments</code>.</li>
<li>Restrict terms from which you want to display posts. Display posts from all terms or from selected only.</li>
<li>Number of posts to display. Set number of latest posts that will be displayed in widget.</li>
<li>All posts links. Select option to display link near the title or/and after all posts that will open selected posts category page. Set link title or custom link URL.</li>
</ul>
Useful links:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flexible-recent-posts/other_notes/" rel="ugc">Template shortcodes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://frp.idea.informer.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Feature requests</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/tags/flexible-recent-posts?forum_id=10#postform" rel="ugc">Bugs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://flattr.com/thing/646464" rel="nofollow ugc">Donate (Flattr)</a></li>
</ul>
Translators:
<ul>
<li>Russian (ru) – <a href="http://www.steelrat.info/en/" rel="nofollow ugc">Paul Annekov</a></li>
</ul>
Licenses
<ul>
<li>Uses <a href="http://www.fatcow.com/free-icons" rel="nofollow ugc">FatCow Icon Set</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/" rel="nofollow ugc">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Shortcodes</h3>
Plugin template system supports 5 shortcodes related to current widget post, that you can use in your template:
Title [frp_title]
Displays post title.
Example: <code><h4>[frp_title]</h4></code>
Excerpt [frp_excerpt length=””]
Displays post excerpt using <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_excerpt" title="Visit function reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">get_the_excerpt</a> function. 
You can specify excerpt length using <code>length</code> attribute. If not specified – default WordPress excerpt length used.
Example: <code><div class="excerpt">[frp_excerpt]</div></code>, <code>[frp_excerpt length="15"]</code>
Date [frp_date format=”F j, Y” time_since=”0″]
Displays post date. You can add <code>format</code> shortcode parameter to change date format. Read about format value <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time" title="Visit customizing time and date reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>. 
Add <code>time_since</code> parameter with 1 as value to display amount of elapsed time: <code>30 seconds ago</code>, <code>5 minutes ago</code>, <code>12 hours ago</code>, <code>3 Jun</code>.
Example: <code><div class="date">[frp_date format="Y/m/d g:i:s A"]</div></code>, <code><div class="elapsed">[frp_date time_since="1"]</div></code>
Link [frp_link]
Displays post permalink.
Example: <code><a href="[frp_link]">read more</a></code>
Featured image [frp_thumbnail size=”32×32″]
Displays featured post image. Add <code>size</code> shortcode parameter to change image size. You can define size using WIDTHxHEIGHT as value or size name (built-in or defined in theme).
Examples: <code>[frp_thumbnail]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="thumbnail"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="128x128"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="full"]</code>
Author [frp_author link=”1″]
Displays name of the post’s author. Set <code>link</code> parameter to 0 if you want to disable link (author’s site) from author name.
Examples: <code>[frp_author]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="0"]</code>
Comments [frp_comments no_text=”1″]
Displays the number of comments. Set <code>no_text</code> parameter to 1 if you want to disable comment text (just “23” instead of “23 Comments”).
Examples: <code>[frp_comments]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="0"]</code>

Flexible Recent Posts

Displays recent posts using flexible template system. Define template for each post entry, set needed taxonomy and much more.

NS Recent Posts vs Flexible Recent Posts