After posting the Latest Posts by Category Archive tutorial, I’ve received requests to transform the code into a WordPress plugin.

Update: Version 1.2 has been released. Read about the changes below, in the “Version History” section.

Latest Posts by Category Archive WP Plugin

The Features of ‘Latest Posts by Category Archive’ WP Plugin

Here’s the list of features currently available:

  • Can be used via hard-coding inside page templates;
  • Can be used as a widget in your widget-ready areas;
  • Can be used via shortcodes inside pages’ or posts’ content;
  • Can be used either inside or outside the loop;
  • Can limit the archive to certain categories, or exclude certain categories;
  • Can display or hide post dates;
  • Can display or hide post excerpts and adjust their length in words;
  • Can set the number of listed post from 1 to ‘all’.

Version history

Version 1.2

  • The plugin is now available as a widget for your blog’s widget ready areas;
  • The widget’s output can be easily customized using a few newly added CSS classes. Information about the widget is available in the plugin documentation, which is also included in the download package;
  • Fixed the dashboard area that notifies WP 2.7+ users on the latest plugin version available.

Version 1.1

  • Added option to display post dates;
  • Added dashboard widget for plugin version tracking (Only available for WP 2.7+ users).

Documentation

The plugin documentation is available for download in PDF format: [download#5]

For further information and plugin updates, please refer to this page, as it will be edited with further improvements.

Live demo

The following list has been generated by the use of the next shortcode within this post’s content:

[lpbc posts="3" categories="1,3,23" more="Archive of %name%"]

[lpbc posts=”3″ categories=”1,3,23″ more=”Archive of %name%”]

Enjoy the plugin!