Using WP Show Posts

dexter@brightlinesocial.com

Uncategorized

Adding post lists and grids to your Site couldn’t be easier than with the WP Show Posts plugin. Dispatch uses the Free version to display posts on the Front page and in the Sidebars. Of course with a little Flint Skin CSS treatment.

Head off to Dashboard > WP Show Posts > All Lists. Within are six lists:

  • Align
  • Standard
  • Sidebar
  • Header
  • Simple
  • Simple Sidebar

Each of them has very particular settings required to match the demo content you see here. Changing those settings may affect the way the post is displayed, and not necessarily for the better. So please work on a duplicate or make a note before changing.

Note: the name of the List has no relevance to the different styles displayed.

General ( and important ) information

Before we go into detail let’s cover some basic and very important information.

Advanced Settings

For the demo content, a couple of the Lists are using Advanced Settings. First off the Standard List is using Ascending Order (Default: Descending).  Secondly, the Simple List is using Offset, so it omits the first 4 posts. You may want to put these back to default if you’re not intending to replace them.

Duplicating WP Show Posts List

So we have four lists, and we want to make a new Standard list with a different category. The easiest way is to use one of the Duplicate Post plugins in the WordPress repository. Simple hey. And it works for all post types including GP Elements. Awesome. Note: When making a duplicate you are generally given two options. Clone and New Draft. I advise using the New Draft as some people have reported issues when using Clone.

List: Standard

This is the standard WP Show Post list that has the same custom styling applied to the GP Blog:

This is how the list is displayed within the Content area just by adding the WP Show Post Shortcode. Here are the basic styling changes that have been made.

Content Wrap (WPSP Only)

Using a custom Hook Element the Post article content is now wrapped within a DIV container. This container carries a class of wpsp-content-wrap styling. This wrap is present on all WP Show Posts that are output inside Dispatch.

The featured image has a fixed height to match the layout. This is achieved using this CSS:


.generate-columns-container article .inside-article img,  .wp-show-posts-image img {
    height: 180px;
    width: 100%;
    -o-object-fit: cover !important;
    object-fit: cover !important;
}

You can edit the height property to suit, or remove the CSS it entirely if you want to use your sizes.

Meta above title

This is achieved using a flex box on the Entry Header. Again this applied to the GP Blog:


.generate-columns-container article .entry-header, .wp-show-posts-entry-header {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
    -webkit-box-direction: reverse;
    -ms-flex-direction: column-reverse;
    flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

Entry Title forced to 2 lines

The entry title always displays a minimum and maximum of 2 lines. This maintains the across-row alignment. Again this is applied to GP Blog. The ex unit is used to define the number of lines visible. The lines are set by defining line-height and setting the height to as many multiples as you require lines. e.g. up the height to 7.5ex will create three lines.


.generate-columns-container article .entry-header .entry-title, .wp-show-posts article .wp-show-posts-entry-title {
    line-height: 2.5ex;
    height: 5ex;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

List: Align

Designed for a single-column list this displays the content of the image to the left and the content to the right. This is subtly different from just resizing the image in the WP Show Posts list settings and aligning it left. Thanks to the Content Wrap we added (above) the content will never wrap around the image. On mobile it just stacks.

To add one of these your posts require a little markup. And is done like so:

<div class="wpsp-align">shortcode_goes_here</div>
Reefer Post Introduction Cover

Introduction to Reefer Post

What is Reefer Post? Welcome to Reefer Post! This website includes just about everything you need to know about marijuana. We strive to bring you a wide range of information and news regarding this popular plant. And with legalization becoming a reality, more and more people are opening up to it! Whether you are here…

READ MORE
Marijuana Slang Cover

Types of Marijuana Slang

What is marijuana slang? Well, slang is usually an informal word that replaces a dictionary word (like street talk). Some people use slang as a way to sound cool or trendy. Others use it to hide what they are really trying to talk about. When it comes to drugs, every single one out there has…

READ MORE

Lists: Sidebar

In the right-hand sidebar you can see the Sidebar list. This List is set to 1 column and only displays the Featured Image, Title, and Category. This is designed for Widgets, a narrow column, or as part of a grid (like in our next List).

To add this style the Widget requires a CSS Class of:

wpsp-card

Dispatch comes with the Widget Classes Plugin installed. This provides this function.

List: Header

The Header list as seen on the Front Page requires a list containing only 5 posts. And can accommodate most of the content elements. Which are only displayed on the large leader post.

To add this style the Header Element requires the following element classes:

wpsp-grid wpsp-card

List: Simple

This is output using the wpsp-card inserted into a containing DIV like so:

<div class="wpsp-card">shortcode goes here</dib>

List: Simple Sidebar

Nothing fancy here,  just a list being output using the Widget in the sidebar.

Photo of author

dexter@brightlinesocial.com