Question

I want to show the three latest posts with the 50 first characters. And a “read more” link at the end. Like this:

My first post

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Aenean vulputate. Read more…

My second post

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Aenean vulputate. Read more…

My third post

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Aenean vulputate. Read more…

Do I use get_posts? How do I do it?

Answer 1

This became my solution:

In the template:

<?php
$args = array( 'numberposts' => 3 );
$lastposts = get_posts( $args );
foreach($lastposts as $post) : setup_postdata($post); 
?> 

<h2 class="news"><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

In functions.php:

function new_excerpt_more($more) {
       global $post;
    return '... <a href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">Read more</a>';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');


function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) {
    return 20;
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 999 );