It’s not the most elegant solution, but this will enable use of the excerpt in the template. Just replace the file (user-view-show-staff-list.php) in your plugin with the code from this gist:
https://gist.github.com/nciske/6023538
Then use these tags:
[staff-excerpt]
[staff-excerpt-formatted]
Hopefully the author can enable this is the next update.
Thanks Nick and yeah, it seems like a feature that could/should be built in by default.
I too would really like this feature! I’ve looked at the code on github but I think it must be out of sync with the current version of the plugin. I’m currently trying to work out if I can add a shortened version of the bio (or use the excerpt) to the shortcodes so that I can add it to the template instead of the [staff-bio-formatted] but I’m new to WP and a bit stuck right now!
This is what would be ideal for me:
[staff_loop]
<img class="staff-member-photo" src="[staff-photo-url]" alt="[staff-name] : [staff-position]">
<div class="staff-member-info-wrap">
[staff-name-formatted]
[staff-position-formatted]
[staff-bio-intro]
[staff-email-link]
</div>
<div><a href="/people/[staff-name-slug]/">Read more</a></div>
Or if there was some easy way of reducing the number of chars that are displayed in that loop, e.g.
[staff_loop]
<img class="staff-member-photo" src="[staff-photo-url]" alt="[staff-name] : [staff-position]">
<div class="staff-member-info-wrap">
[staff-name-formatted]
[staff-position-formatted]
word_limiter_function([staff-bio])
[staff-email-link]
</div>
<div><a href="/people/[staff-name-slug]/">Read more</a></div>
Would really love to hear anyone’s suggestions as this plugin is almost perfect for my needs!
dbp
(@optimus203)
I woudl like this feature too.
Nick Ciske or anyone else, is there a way to include a link to the full bio after the excerpt is displayed?
I gave up with the Simple Staff List and used custom post type instead then made a corresponding template. You can see it in action here:
http://www.ponteland-tc.gov.uk/councillors/
If anyone would like a more detailed explanation of what I did I’d be happy to provide it.
dbp
(@optimus203)
@farnott – I would love to have that information. Thanks!
OK I’ve just been retracing my steps and it’s quite in-depth. I can give you a quick overview which will hopefully get you in the right direction.
I was quite new to WP when I tackled this so I used a plugin called Types which makes it easy to create custom post types and custom fields.
Then after a lot of searching around and reading, I figured out that I needed 2 new files: a loop-staff.php and a single-staff.php in my theme folder. These are copies of the original loop.php and single.php files but with modified queries to get the correct data in a different order, paginated etc.
Sorry that’s not much of a tutorial but this probably isn’t the right place for that anyway!
@farnott thanks for the tips.