PHP: Displaying recent posts from multiple WP blogs on non-WP static pg

I am kind of looking to do something like the original poster, but I would just like to display recent posts in a given category. What php include would I use?

I am very interested in this as well. I house a WP-blog on a custom-built static website and would like to display the latest blog postings on my main page. Can I simply paste some PHP on the static main page and have it read and display the blog feed?

If so, please post it in a response. It would be greatly appreciated.

***Note: I tried pasting the code at the top of this string, but it did not work. The area on the main page was simply blank.

I second the RSS feed suggestion. Here’s one example using the SimplePie parser :

<?php
$feed_url = 'http://w-shadow.com/feed/';
$max_items = 5;

//Load SimplePie
include 'includes/simplepie.inc';

//Fetch the RSS feed
$feed = new SimplePie($feed_url);

//Check for errors
if ($feed->error())
	echo 'Error : ',$feed->error();

//Output up to $max_items posts
foreach ($feed->get_items(0, $max_items) as $item): ?>

	<div class="item">
		<h3 class="title"><a href="<?php echo $item->get_permalink(); ?>"><?php echo $item->get_title(); ?></a></h3>
		<?php echo $item->get_description(); ?>
		<p><small>
		Posted  <?php if ($author = $item->get_author()){ echo ' by '.$author->get_name(); }?>
		on <?php echo $item->get_date('j F Y | g:i a'); ?>
		</small></p>
	</div>

<?php
endforeach;
?>

I’ve posted a more detailed tutorial on my blog.

I have feeds from several blogs on the site’s home page. If the blogs are all your own, or under your management, here’s what I did.

In each blog directory, create a php file:

<?php require_once('wp-blog-header.php');
$posts = get_posts('numberposts=9&order=DESC&orderby=post_date');
foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>

<?php endforeach;  ?>

(Specify whatever other number of posts you want [‘9’ here] and add whatever loop material and styling you want along with the linked title shown here.)

Then include the file for each blog in the home page script.

I actually run them via AJAX after the page is loaded, but that’s another story.

See it at work.

I actually also do something similar using the DS-rating plugin to mark some posts as “select”, which are displayed on the the home page by including the following code residing in a php file in the blog directory:

<?php
require_once('wp-blog-header.php');
$selposts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT wposts.*
FROM $wpdb->posts wposts, $wpdb->postmeta wpostmeta
WHERE wposts.ID = wpostmeta.post_id
AND wpostmeta.meta_key = '_ds_rating'
AND wpostmeta.meta_value > '0'
AND wposts.post_status = 'publish'
ORDER BY wposts.post_date DESC
LIMIT 12", OBJECT);

foreach ($selposts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);

echo '<a href="';
the_permalink();
echo '">';
the_title();

endforeach;
?>

This collects posts given any rating with DS-rating, including 0, if I recall correctly, because the value is a text variable, not an integer.

If you changed the LIMIT to 1, this might work for you, to get just the latest “rated” post.

Create a new file in the blog root directory, containing the above code. Name it something.php, and include it where desired on your home page (<?php include_once(‘/blog/something.php’); ?>.

By running WP code in the blog directory, you save a lot of effort that would otherwise be required to access its database.

Then you will have to edit the section

echo '<a href="';
the_permalink();
echo '">';
the_title();
echo '</a>';

to present what you want. It is like “the loop”.

(Note that I had accidentally left off the closing code earlier.)