Question

Hey guys I am making a Widget to display a posts title, and excerpt from that post, and its date. The code I have is here:

public function widget( $args, $instance ) {


        extract( $args );

        $headline = $instance['headline'];
        $category = $instance['category'];
        $numberposts = $instance['numberposts'];
        $readmore = $instance['readmore'];


        echo $before_widget;

        echo $before_title;

        echo "<p class=\"headline\">$headline</p>";

        echo $after_title;

        $args = array( 'numberposts' => $numberposts, 'category_name' => $category );
        $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( $args );
        foreach( $recent_posts as $recent ){
        echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($recent["ID"]) . '" title=" '.esc_attr($recent["post_title"]).'" >' .   $recent["post_title"].'</a> ';
        echo the_time('F j, Y');
        echo the_excerpt();

        }

As you can see I am trying to call the time and the excerpt from the post. It is working but it is only displaying the date and and excerpt from the very first post that is called welcome. I want it to display the Date and excerpt from each individual post. I will post a link to the site with the widget in the side bar. Sorry if I am not being clear enough or if more info is needed I am very new to this.

http://www.modmacro.us/wpsandbox/

Answer 1

First thing: the_excerpt(), is already an echo statement. Not a return statement. It’s the same with the_date(). Prefix them with “get_”, and they will return the information you need, or you can get rid of the echo command preceding it.

Second thing: In order for those functions to work, they need to be used in a WordPress loop.

Since we’re already in a loop, we just have to make sure it changes the WordPress Globals appropriately to reflect the information you need..

foreach( $recent_posts as $recent ){
    setup_postdata(get_post($recent['ID']));
    echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '" title=" '.esc_attr(get_the_title()).'" >' .   get_the_title().'</a> ';
    echo get_the_time('F j, Y', $recent['ID']);
    the_excerpt();
}
wp_reset_postdata();