Use Shortcode to add “Category Posts Widget” to the content

YES!, the Category Posts Widget is escaping the WordPress sidebar and making its way into any place you can use Shortcode. I think the utility of such a feature is obvious, but to explicitly name at least one obvious use case it will be to give the list of the latest new/PR release. A more respectable place on your home page.

It is also creates a better experience for people that use page builders and tried to integrate the widget into the page builder content.

We areย  doing something innovative here. We are assuming that we will have to iterate several times before making it perfect. For that we will need your feedback ๐Ÿ˜‰

How can you use it

The usage of the “widget in a shortcode” has several easy to follow phases:

  1. Just place the shortcode [catposts] at whatever place in the post you want the list of posts to be displayed.
    write-shortcode-to-the-content
  2. Go to preview of the post (it doesn’t have to be preview, any way in which you get the admin bar to show up when you are looking at the post will work)
  3. Enter the customizer by clicking the “Customize” link located at the admin bar.
    customize
  4. Locate the section named “Category Posts Shortcode” and click it (it should be at the bottom of the sections list)
    custshrt
  5. Voila, you should see now all the settings in exactly the same way and functionality as you see them when configuring the widget when it is part of the sidebar.
  6. Once you are happy with the changes, just save and the new settings will be saved

The shortcode itself do not change as a result of the manipulation in the customizer and there is no need to add to it any attributes which will clutter your content.

Limitations

  • You can have only one Shortcode per post. This is just a current code limitation, and we will probably remove this restriction if there is demand for more then one.
  • There is no simple way to duplicate the settings of one Shortcode into a short code in a different post
  • There are all kinds of plugins that let you “include” Shortcodes in all kinds of places. The result of using this shortcode with them are unexpected. We might look into how to integrate with specific plugins if there will be a lot of demand.

 

34 Replies to “Use Shortcode to add “Category Posts Widget” to the content”

  1. Great Widget – works really well but the limitation of only once per page is a big limitation – if that makes sense?

    1. Hi Dave,

      thanks for your comment and thank you for your praise.
      It’s very good if you telling us that there is interest to use multiple widgets on a page. We basically just waiting to get notify from our users and if they ask us.
      So in principle, we will soon support multiple widgets per page. It is only a matter of time.

      I have just used it at a customer site and it begs the question to place the widget up and down on one side. It was then but not absolutely necessary. Because I placed one in the widget area and one at the site content. At the moment enough.
      That means that we know and have also made it known that it can be placed at the moment only once.

      We are even a bit proud that configuring via WordPress Customizer and Live Preview works so well. It has also prepared a lot of work!

      If you want you can send us something about how you used the widget?

      Thanks,
      Daniel

      1. I installed this widget thinking that I could use it multiple times per page but also customize the title and the category each different time on the same page. This looked to be a possibility several years ago. Anything now?

  2. Hi,
    I followed all the steps as descibed above but the menu item ‘category post shortcode’ does not show up in the customizer. I can edit the category post widget via the customizer. Can you help?

    1. Which version do you use? The free version from WordPress.org Category Posts Widget or the premium version from tiptoppress.com Term and Category Based Posts Widget.
      You get this menu entry “Category Posts Shortcode” when you use the shortcode [catposts] (for the free version) or [termposts] (for the premium version) in the content. As it’s descriped above.

  3. Hi there. Can you please point me to some documentation on the shortcode parameters that are available for [catposts]? The customizer doesn’t work with my theme, apparently and I’d like to be able to filter by date, tag, category, add thumbnails, etc.

    1. Hello Amy, it depends on your Role you’re logged in? To see the customizer you need a Administrator role: https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

      If you can’t also switch to another Theme, you haven’t a Administrator role. But If you can change the used Theme, please make this test and change it if you see the customizer with another one.

      1. I’m seeing this same issue, using tagDiv Newspaper Theme with visual composer. I am an admin. Is there a way to configure the shortcode manually?

  4. Hi Daniel,

    is it also possible to show the latest posts in total (not just the title of the post)?

    Best, Martin

    1. Hi Martin,

      There is no UI for it, but we use a filter “cpw_excerpt” to let users filter the generate excerpt if they want to write the code for it, and it is possible for you to write a small piece of code to utilize it and output the full content of the post instead of the excerpt.

  5. Hi there,

    this could be the exactly the PlugIn I’ve been searching for, but โ€œCategory Posts Shortcodeโ€ does not appear in my Customizer … Any ideas what’s wrong?

    1. I just saw, that heleen had the same problem last year. To answer the questions you asked her:

      I use the free version from WordPress.org Category Posts Widget.
      I have a page which uses [catposts name="my name"] and it shows a list of the last 10 recent posts, but there’s no menu entry in the Customizer.

      1. Hi Marion,

        Do you see the “customize” link in the toolbar when you edit the post/page? If not, do you use a pagebuilder?

  6. Yes, I see and use the Customizer-Link in the Toolbar.

    Well … I just wanted to make a screenshot for you and you won’t believe me: Suddenly the menu entry appeared! I swear it hasn’t been there! lol

    Damn … I look like an idiot now …

    Anyway: Thanks for your reply and this very nice PlugIn! ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. And now it’s gone again and this leads me to the solution!
      FYI: My category-name has been too long. I shortened it and now it works!

  7. Hi, I’m having the same problem. I’m self-hosted, using the free version.
    My theme is build on Genesis.

    I can see the l the little [CP], I used in the blog post. When I review, I can see 20 links, with Recent Posts on the top. When I click on my customize button on top, I get my regular customize taps but NO Category Posts Shortcode.

    I would really love to figure this out, because the end result is exactly what I want in for my blog. I need to make this work. ๐Ÿ˜€

    Thank you,

    Corina

    1. We could find the issue via Skype with the used page builder.

      We’re looking forward, if it works and hear again from you.

  8. Hello,

    I followed all of the steps listed above but am not seeing the menu item. To recap I:
    1) downloaded & activated free plug-in.
    2) inserted [catposts] in the page I want to show my posts by category
    3) went to preview the page and saw the code in the content area displaying the word “[catposts]”
    – I assume I shouldn’t be seeing the actual code ๐Ÿ™
    4) Went to customizer and am unable to Category Posts Shortcode.

    1. Please don’t copy&past the shortcode from our page.
      Because you have more Html as you need with copy&past.

      Write the shortcode manually or use the button in the editor tool-bar +[cp].

  9. Hi, Good day its would be of great help if a tutorial on how to customise the categorypost title is provided it really looks un-professional how small the titlte appears in the home page and individual page

    1. Hi chisco,

      Right now we are planning on adding a more versatile CSS control as part of the “widget” which will let you have a control over general CSS aspects and not only the ones related to layout. But since we do need to make money sometimes ๐Ÿ˜‰ this is going to be part of the “pro” plugin

  10. Hi, Good day. from the review of previous question I saw a lot with sane issue but no genuine answer was given. And I repeat I use executive pro theme and can’t find the category-post-shortcode on l the custumizer menu

    1. It might happen if the theme do not follow wordpress best practice, in which case there isn’t much we can do. The settings are too complex to be handled without UI.

      You should contact the author of the theme, or use the widget in your page builder (I assume you are using a page builder, as this is were most of similar problems arise from)

  11. Is this plugin usable on a wordpress.com website? I have activated it and placed a shortcode in the page, but when I am editing a page I do not have the same menu options that would appear in a self-hosted wordpress editor. I am able to see the +[CP] in the editing block, but it only gives me the option to customize the name of the shortcode.

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