Mohit Chawla

This plugin adds the ability for the user to mark a post to be a featured post with just one click without the need of editing an individual post. The plugin also includes a widget which can display all the posts which have been marked featured.
<h4>Usage</h4>
<ul>
<li>Go to your admin dashboard page.</li>
<li>Open all posts page which displays the list of posts in table.</li>
<li>A column name ‘Featured posts’ will be there with a star icon in each row.</li>
<li>Click the star to make that post as featured.</li>
</ul>
Dashboard->Posts>All Posts
<h4>Instructions</h4>
Q1. How to display feature posts?
Plugin comes with a widget, which can be added to sidebar
Q2. How to display featured posts in any desired section of theme(Developers)?
In order to display featured posts in your theme, use the following code to fetch the posts.
<pre><code>$featured_posts = Thfp_public::thfp_get_featured_posts();
</code></pre>
The above code return WP_Query object which you can use in a loop. Above static function accepts a parameter(int) which limits the number of posts which it can return.
Show the posts with the help of custom loop:-
<pre><code>if($featured_posts->have_posts()):
 while($featured_posts->have_posts()): $featured_posts->the_post();
 //Your code here
 endwhile;
endif;
</code></pre>
You can also use your own wp_query. Make sure you use ‘tag’ key to be ‘featured’.
<pre><code>$args = array(
 'post_status' => 'publish',
 'tag' => 'featured',
 //Use any other needed args
);
$featured_posts = new WP_Query($args);
</code></pre>
and then use the loop to display posts.

Tidyhive Featured Posts

Set featured posts with single click, no page refresh from admin panel.

linkhousemedia

This plugin was initially designed as a theme function but we thought it might come in handy for someone else. It is designed to use the following plugins:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/" rel="ugc">Custom Post Type UI</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/taxonomy-images/" rel="ugc">Taxonomy Images</a></li>
</ul>
Of course you can create your own custom post types and taxonomies but the Custom Post Type UI plugin makes very light work of it.
The plugin creates a widget for adding featured posts. There are other plugins that do this but Featured Custom Posts allows for custom post types and taxonomies. It was created to show featured products that were created as custom post types.
Features
<ul>
<li>Select number of posts to display (default: 10)</li>
<li>Post Type</li>
<li>Custom Taxonomy</li>
<li>Custom Taxonomy Term</li>
</ul>
New In Version 1.1
<ul>
<li>Added Permalink Base for post URL (Defaults to post’s GUID)</li>
<li>Added Post Title as the link text if Taxonomy Images plugin isn’t present</li>
</ul>
Example Usage
Custom Post Type: “products” 
Taxonomy: “product-tags” 
Taxonomy Term: “featured”
In this example our custom post type of “products” allows us to add products in a similar way to posts. Now with our custom taxonomy of “product-tags” we can tag our products with the tag “featured”. Plug this information into the widget via the wp-admin area and you’re all set!
Future Updates
<ul>
<li>Allow for multiple taxonomy terms</li>
<li>Add thumbnail size support</li>
</ul>

Featured Custom Posts Widget

Widget that allows custom post types and taxonomies to be displayed.  Works well with Custom Post Type UI and Taxonomy Images plugins.

Tidyhive Featured Posts vs Featured Custom Posts Widget