Title: [Plugin: Summarize Posts] available arguments & display Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # [Plugin: Summarize Posts] available arguments & display * [magicmiles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/magicmiles/) * (@magicmiles) * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/) * I went through your examples page looking for assistance as to how to format the results and the thought that the short codes would be the simplest way to achieve what I was looking for. * However, as I’ve discovered this is not so simple because your documentation is lacking a bit. * How would I achieve the following on the display page: * {post title] – [date, time published] [short excerpt of the post, about 10 lines] * {post title] – [date, time published] [short excerpt of the post, about 10 lines] * {post title] – [date, time published] [short excerpt of the post, about 10 lines] * Note: The order in which this list is shown is by order in which it was entered into the database in reverse chronological order. So that the most recent is at the top! * Also how would I control the output’s look and feel ? If that’s in the example somewhere…I’m not seeing it. * Thanks. * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/summarize-posts/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/summarize-posts/) Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) * Plugin Contributor [fireproofsocks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fireproofsocks/) * (@fireproofsocks) * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451343) * The “short excerpt” is the only part of that which may be difficult. It’s MUCH easier if you force yourself to always use the “excerpt” field instead of relying on WP’s poorly implemented support of the `` separator and the wonky event that parses it. * If you want total control over the output, you should do this in PHP in your theme somewhere. It’s much more configurable over the shortcode options. * The shortcode option can get you some usable results (see the examples here: [http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/Examples_get_posts](http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/Examples_get_posts)). * E.g. try this on: * `[summarize_posts][+post_title+] [+post_modified+]
[+post_excerpt+][/summarize_posts]` * I really think WP has done a disservice here conditioning users to think that things like menus are “one-size-fits-all”. They aren’t. If you want custom results, you have to do some custom coding. Things like changing the date format on your posts is only possible via dynamic scripting. * Hope that helps. * Thread Starter [magicmiles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/magicmiles/) * (@magicmiles) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451371) * Thanks for the help. * [summarize_posts post_type=”musicalnotes”][[+post_title+]](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/[+guid+]?output_format=md)[ +date_format+] [/summarize_posts] * This isn’t delivering the desired results. * I was hoping for * {post title] – [date, time published] at the very least. * It’s just posting the “{post title]” part. * Any suggestions ? * Miles. * Plugin Contributor [fireproofsocks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fireproofsocks/) * (@fireproofsocks) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451372) * The “date_format” bit there is not a valid placeholder, so of course it’s not getting populated with anything. Using the [+help+] placeholder should output all available placeholders for you (at least in current versions… can’t remember if that’s present in the old versions). `[+post_modified+]` or `[+post_date+]` are valid placeholders: they will contain the datestamp of when your post was modified or created, respectively. If you want to change the date format, you can use the date_format as an _argument_, NOT as a placeholder. From [http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/get_posts](http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/get_posts): * ``` [summarize_posts post_type="musicalnotes" date_format="1"] [+post_title+] [+post_date+]
[/summarize_posts] ``` * You can also try adding in “help” as a parameter to trigger the printing of debugging info, e.g.: * ``` [summarize_posts post_type="musicalnotes" date_format="1" help="1"] [+post_title+] [+post_date+]
[/summarize_posts] ``` * I would download the latest version of the Custom Content Type Manager first — I’m not sure how the now dated Summarize Posts code is behaving (Summarize Posts is now bundled with CCTM). Again, you get infinitely more options if you do this in the PHP — including debugging info. * E.g. * ``` get_posts($args); print $Q->debug(); ``` * If you can do that for me and paste the results in Pastebin, I can comment on what’s going on with the code. Otherwise, the only thing I could do for you would be if you emailed me a login to your site including FTP info. * Thread Starter [magicmiles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/magicmiles/) * (@magicmiles) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451392) * I am running this version of CCTM: 0.9.4.5-pl. According to the wordpress site, that’s the most up to date version. * [http://pastebin.com/v7pJaUWN](http://pastebin.com/v7pJaUWN) * Go look. * My page is currently doing this: * * [summarize_posts post_type=’musicalnotes’ date_format=’1′] [/summarize_posts]
Musical Note Date Posted
[[+post_title+]](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/[+guid+]?output_format=md) [+post_date+]
* And that seems to be working, aside from the border…I am ok with how things are working. With one exception, how would I limit the number of responses this way to say just the last 3 or last 5 ? * Im not comfortable enough with PHP to actually use the coded version of what you’re employing… * Miles. * Plugin Contributor [fireproofsocks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fireproofsocks/) * (@fireproofsocks) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451393) * First argument listed in the docs is the “limit” argument (see [http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/get_posts](http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-summarize-posts/wiki/get_posts)), so you’d just add that to your shortcode to specify the maximum number of results you want to see, e.g. * ``` [summarize_posts post_type='musicalnotes' date_format='1' limit='5'] [+post_title+][+post_date+] [/summarize_posts] ``` * Do you see in that debugging output that all the available arguments are listed for you? E.g. you can add arguments for “limit”, “append”, or “taxonomy”. * The border on the table is entirely in your control: your CSS in your theme has probably defined a CSS rule that puts a border around the table, so you’ll have to customize your CSS rules. * Better double check the WP site: the most current version (as of today) is 0.9.5.3: [https://img.skitch.com/20120104-baq3dqgt12c4rbpurutxmb32qy.jpg](https://img.skitch.com/20120104-baq3dqgt12c4rbpurutxmb32qy.jpg) * Thread Starter [magicmiles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/magicmiles/) * (@magicmiles) * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451394) * Well that explains it. Im running 3.2.1 and you coded for 3.3, so I won’t see this new update until I upgrade to 3.3 of WP. * That said, the limit thing did the trick. Thanks. * So let me ask a question, when I update everything and that’s a lot of everything… will I have to make any changes to the shortcodes (regarding your plugins) I’ve got now ? I have a feeling the answer to this question is a qualified ‘yes’. * Miles. Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) The topic ‘[Plugin: Summarize Posts] available arguments & display’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/summarize-posts.svg) * [Summarize Posts](https://wordpress.org/plugins/summarize-posts/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/summarize-posts/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/summarize-posts/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/summarize-posts/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/summarize-posts/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/summarize-posts/reviews/) * 6 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [magicmiles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/magicmiles/) * Last activity: [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-summarize-posts-available-arguments-display/#post-2451394) * Status: not resolved