zooney

Hello me,

I think you figured it out thanks to a kind person on WordPress’s bug tracker.

You can extend the Recent Posts widget (its class name is WP_Widget_Recent_Posts) like so:

class RecentPostsWithByline_Widget extends WP_Widget_Recent_Posts {

function RecentPostsWithByline_Widget () {
    $widget_ops = array('classname' => 'widget_recent_entries_with_byline', 'description' => __( "The most recent posts on your site with a byline added") );
    $this->WP_Widget('recent-posts-with-byline', __('Recent Posts with Byline'), $widget_ops);
    $this->alt_option_name = 'widget_recent_entries';

    add_action( 'save_post', array(&$this, 'flush_widget_cache') );
    add_action( 'deleted_post', array(&$this, 'flush_widget_cache') );
    add_action( 'switch_theme', array(&$this, 'flush_widget_cache') );
  }

  function widget( $args, $instance ) {
    $cache = wp_cache_get('widget_recent_posts', 'widget');

    if ( !is_array($cache) )
      $cache = array();

    if ( isset($cache[$args['widget_id']]) ) {
      echo $cache[$args['widget_id']];
      return;
    }

    ob_start();
    extract($args);

    $title = apply_filters('widget_title', empty($instance['title']) ? __('Recent Posts') : $instance['title'], $instance, $this->id_base);
    if ( !$number = (int) $instance['number'] )
      $number = 10;
    else if ( $number < 1 )
      $number = 1;
    else if ( $number > 15 )
      $number = 15;

    $r = new WP_Query(array('showposts' => $number, 'nopaging' => 0, 'post_status' => 'publish', 'caller_get_posts' => 1));
    if ($r->have_posts()) :
?>
    <?php echo $before_widget; ?>
    <?php if ( $title ) echo $before_title . $title . $after_title; ?>
    <ul>
    <?php  while ($r->have_posts()) : $r->the_post(); ?>
    <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php echo esc_attr(get_the_title() ? get_the_title() : get_the_ID()); ?>"><?php if ( get_the_title() ) the_title(); else the_ID(); ?></a><span class="recent-posts-widget-byline"> by <?php the_author(); ?></span></li>
    <?php endwhile; ?>
    </ul>
    <?php echo $after_widget; ?>
<?php
    // Reset the global $the_post as this query will have stomped on it
    wp_reset_postdata();

    endif;

    $cache[$args['widget_id']] = ob_get_flush();
    wp_cache_set('widget_recent_posts', $cache, 'widget');
  }
}

…if you’re doing so in a plugin, you’ll have to include the default-widgets.php file. For instance, if your plugin is located in a directory in the plugins folder, you’ll need something like this:

include_once ( dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../wp-includes/default-widgets.php' );

…in your plugin file before you attempt to extend the class (so that the WP_Widget_Recent_Posts class will be available and you don’t get a Fatal error: Class ‘WP_Widget_Recent_Posts’ not found in…).

I hope this helps someone out, me. If anything it keeps you from having to rewrite or copy the entire widget.

…that’s… sort of useful, I guess.

…if anyone has been following my general schizophrenic self-dialogues, if you want to fix this problem, you’ll have to go into options-admin.php and change things like :

checked( $shib_headers['first_name']['managed'])

to

checked( $shib_headers['first_name']['managed'], 'on' )

…and things should be fine.

…more accurately, the settings are being saved into the database, but WordPress’s “checked()” function doesn’t seem to be working properly or something…

Doink, I’ve answered my own question by studying xen_carousel.

The linchpin in doing something like this is to realize that everything in the media gallery is simply stored in $wbdb->posts with the post_type column set as “attachment”. I’d never realized that’s where everything in the media gallery is stored!

So, to access items in the media gallery in plugin code you simply need to do a query for attachments in the posts table.

To make a clever interface to search and select images and store them as post meta, I’ve found I just need to do some AJAX magic and perform such a query.

Woooo!