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.

pjgalbraith

An advanced version of the WordPress Recent Posts widget allowing increased customization.
Features Include:
<ul>
<li>Display post thumbnails, with customizable size.</li>
<li>Display post excerpt, author, comment count, and more. </li>
<li>Provides options to trim the number of characters in the title and excerpt.</li>
<li>Override the post order to order by; date modified, title, post ID, random, comment count etc.</li>
<li>Exclude or include specific posts, authors, tags, or categories.</li>
<li>Also includes a simple template parser so you can override the default output making custom styling easy.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Documentation</h3>
See documentation at http://www.pjgalbraith.com/2011/08/recent-posts-plus/

NS Recent Posts vs Recent Posts Plus