Automattic

Alex Mills

Nick Momrik

Creates functions to assist in displaying a list of the most recent comments. Provides more configurability than the widget that comes with WordPress.
<h3>Configuration</h3>
You may pass parameters when calling the function to configure some of the options. Parameters are accepted only in the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/How_to_Pass_Tag_Parameters#Tags_with_query-string-style_parameters" rel="nofollow ugc">query-string-style</a>.
<h4>list_most_recent_comments()</h4>
In addition to the parameters that <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_comments" rel="nofollow ugc">get_comments()</a> and <code>get_most_recent_comments()</code> (see below) accept, this function accepts the following parameters:
<ul>
<li><code>excerpt_words</code> — The number of words from the comment to display</li>
<li><code>excerpt_chars</code> — Or alternately the number of characters from the comment to display</li>
<li><code>comment_format</code> — Allows you to pick from two predefined display formats:</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li><a href="#commentlink" rel="nofollow ugc">Comment Author</a> on <a href="#postlink" rel="nofollow ugc">Post Title</a></li>
<li>Comment Author: <a href="#commentlink" rel="nofollow ugc">This is the comment excerpt</a></li>
</ol>
Example:
<pre><code><?php list_most_recent_comments( 'excerpt_words=5' ); ?>
</code></pre>
<h4>get_most_recent_comments()</h4>
A more powerful version of <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_comments" rel="nofollow ugc">get_comments()</a>. It accepts the same parameters as well as the following ones:
<ul>
<li><code>passworded_posts</code> — Boolean to control showing comments on passworded posts or not. Defaults to <code>false</code>.</li>
<li><code>showpings</code> — Boolean to control showing pings and trackbacks or not. Defaults to <code>false</code>.</li>
<li><code>post_types</code> — Array of post types to include comments from. Defaults to posts and pages: <code>array( 'post', 'page' )</code></li>
<li><code>post_statuses</code> — Array of post statuses to include comments from. Defaults to published posts and static pages: <code>array( 'publish', 'static' )</code></li>
</ul>
Arguments should likely be passed as an array instead of a string.
Example:
<pre><code><?php

list_most_recent_comments( array(
 'showpings' => true,
 'post_types' => array( 'post', 'page', 'foobar' ),
) );

?>
</code></pre>

Hector Cabrera

Let’s face it: WordPress’ default Recent Posts widget does the job as promised but it’s not very flexible. Things like excluding certain entries from the list or displaying recent posts by category can’t be done with the stock Recent Posts widget. Therefore, let me introduce Recently.
Recently is a WordPress widget that displays your site’s most recent posts. And it doesn’t stop there:
<h4>Main Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Multiple Recently lists – That is, you can have several Recently lists on your blog – each with its own settings!</li>
<li>Thumbnails! – Display a thumbnail of your recent posts! (see the <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently/wiki/3.-FAQ#how-does-recently-pick-my-posts-thumbnails" rel="nofollow ugc">FAQ section</a> for more details.)</li>
<li>Custom Post-type support – Want to show other stuff than just posts and pages, eg. Recent Products? <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently/wiki/3.-FAQ#i-want-to-have-a-recent-list-of-my-custom-post-type-how-can-i-do-that" rel="nofollow ugc">You can</a>!</li>
<li>Taxonomy filtering – List recent posts filtered by categories, tags, or custom taxonomies!</li>
<li>Use your own layout! – Recently is flexible enough to let you customize the look and feel of your recent posts list! (see <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently/wiki/3.-FAQ#how-can-i-use-my-own-html-markup-with-your-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">customizing Recently’s HTML markup</a> and <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently/wiki/4.-Styling-the-list" rel="nofollow ugc">How to style Recently</a> for more.)</li>
<li>WordPress Multisite support – Each site on the network can have its own recent posts list!</li>
<li>Localization – Translate Recently to your own language (See <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently/wiki/3.-FAQ#i-want-to-translate-your-plugin-into-my-language--help-you-update-a-translation-what-do-i-need-to-do" rel="nofollow ugc">translating Recently into your language</a> for more info).</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/" rel="ugc">Polylang</a>/<a href="https://wpml.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WPML 3.2+</a> support – Show the translated version of your recent posts!</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/" rel="ugc">WordPress Popular Posts</a> / <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-postratings/" rel="ugc">WP-PostViews</a> / <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/top-10/" rel="ugc">Top 10</a> support: – Display the views count of your recent posts!</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-postratings/" rel="ugc">WP-PostRatings</a> support. Show your visitors how your readers are rating your posts!</li>
</ul>
<h4>PSA: do not use the classic Recently widget with the new Widgets screen!</h4>
The classic Recently widget doesn’t work very well / at all with the new Widgets screen introduced with WordPress 5.8.
This new Widgets screen expects WordPress blocks instead of regular WordPress widgets. If you’re using the Recently widget on your block-based Widgets screen please replace it with the <a href="https://cabrerahector.com/wordpress/recently-4-0-new-recently-block-php-5-support-dropped-minimum-supported-wordpress-version-changed/" rel="nofollow ugc">Recently block</a>.
<h4>Support the Project!</h4>
If you’d like to support my work and efforts to creating and maintaining more open source projects your donations and messages of support mean a lot!
<a href="https://ko-fi.com/cabrerahector" rel="nofollow ugc">Ko-fi</a> | <a href="https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/cabrerahector" rel="nofollow ugc">PayPal</a>
Recently is now also on <a href="https://github.com/cabrerahector/recently" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>!

Recently

A highly customizable, feature-packed Recent Posts widget!

Recent Comments vs Recently