Mat Gargano

statenweb

Drag and drop the widget and fill out the appropriate fields. Some notes:
To display posts from a specific post type leave Taxonomy as “– No Specific Taxonomy –“
If you leave order by and/or order as “– Choose order parameter –” and/or “– Choose orderby parameter –” it will go with WordPress’ default(s), <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Order_.26_Orderby_Parameters" rel="nofollow ugc">see here</a> for more information.
The following filters are available:
<ul>
<li>srpw_get_args to override arguments of main query for the widget.</li>
<li>srpw_template to override the output template for the widget, see below for more information.</li>
<li>srpw_WIDGET_NAME_template to override the output template for the widget on a widget by widget basis, the WIDGET_NAME appears on the back-end in the widgets window see below for more information.</li>
<li>widget_title this is a WordPress core filter <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference" rel="nofollow ugc">see here</a> for more information.</li>
<li>srpw_post_types to override the post types available for this widget.</li>
<li>srpw_taxonomies to override the taxonomies available for this widget.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Usage of srpw_template filter</h4>
Add a “views” directory and file named “custom-srpw.php” to your template directory. The “custom-srpw.php” file will be your custom template for this example.
<h4>Example of using a custom template from within your theme pre-PHP 5.3</h4>
<pre><code> <?php

 function customize_srpw_template_filter( $template ){
 $template_dir = get_template_directory();
 return $template_dir . '/views/custom-srpw.php';
 }
 add_filter( 'srpw_template', 'customize_srpw_template_filter' );
 ?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Example of using a custom template from within your theme PHP 5.3+ which allows anonymous functions</h4>
<pre><code> <?php

 add_filter( 'srpw_template', function ( $template ){
 $template_dir = get_template_directory();
 return $template_dir . '/views/custom-srpw.php';
 } );
 ?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Grunt</h4>
This plugin takes advantage of Grunt for validating JavaScript, SASS compilation and minification. To take advantage of Grunt you have to have both <a href="https://npmjs.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">npm</a> and <a href="http://gruntjs.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Grunt</a> installed. Visit the respective sites for the applications and make sure they are installed. Once installed, if you want to edit/fork this plugin, it will be helpful to be familiar with these two tools.

Super Recent Posts Widget

Drag and drop the widget and fill out the appropriate fields. Some notes:

zackdesign

Turn your WordPress post categories into a search powerhouse! This plugin gives you the ability to provide your users with a widget full of dropdowns based upon parent categories and their sub-categories.
A new function has been added for release 2.2 – you can now set up an AJAX chained select box. For example, if you have multiple countries, and multiple states for each country, you can get a user to select a country. 
Upon selecting the country, the plugin looks for any states under that country, and then shows the dropdown box for the states under that country beneath the country dropdown.
Multiple subcategories spanning multiple parent categories (though multiple categories inside a single parent cannot be chosen) are chosen and intelligently filter your posts.
Please note that this plugin, while it is a widget, can be used on a sidebar you define anywhere within your theme that you like. Think of it as a ‘block’ area rather than a ‘sidebar’.
Sample Application:
Real Estate – set up parent categories such as ‘Bedrooms’, ‘Bathrooms’, ‘Price Range’, etc. Then put sub-categories beneath them. These are the ones that are searched.
Create a new post and tick all applicable sub-categories. Users should now be able to search for your post under all those categories!
Features:
<ul>
<li>Inclusive category search</li>
<li>Exclusive category search</li>
<li>Ordering of results</li>
<li>Automatically checks for the ‘uncategorized’ category and hides it</li>
<li>Generates complete URL </li>
<li>Now does a proper URL-Rewrite if permalinks are enabled</li>
<li>Pagination</li>
<li>If search is pressed, allows you to decide whether or not to show all posts (or a post category ID) or none</li>
<li>Exclude certain categories</li>
<li>Tested with All-in-one-SEO, WP Smart Sort, and sCategory Permalink. Now plays nice with all four! Required a bit of a logic rewrite, thus the 2.0</li>
<li>Supports the new WP 2.8+ widget class structure and as a result is now available in as many instances as needed</li>
<li>2-level AJAX chained select options</li>
</ul>
Please be aware that I’ll only be updating this if I need to or if I’m paid to. Feel free to come on board and contribute!

Multiple Category Selection Widget

This widget makes it easy for your site users to drill down into your Wordpress post categories.

Super Recent Posts Widget vs Multiple Category Selection Widget