how to display an excerpt of the latest post on the homepage?

Question

I've got a CMS-style wordpress setup where the homepage is not the main blog posts page.

However, I would like to display the first paragraph of the latest blog post on the homepage, with a link to the post. How would I do that?

I'd also like to display, above this excerpt, the first image within the post, but I'm guessing that might be harder... or I'll have to use the 'featured image' or a custom field...?

Answer 1

To show the excerpt from the latest post you can use query_posts.

Example Query Posts Showing the Latest Post with the Featured Image:

<?php query_posts('showposts=1'); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
      <h3 class="home link"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>

       <?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>

        <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

        <?php endwhile; ?>

You will need to reset the query if you want to show content entered into your home page's post editor.

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

Answer 2

Here's how you'd do that:

$post = get_posts( 'posts_per_page=1' );
if( !empty( $post ) ){
  setup_postdata( $post );
  the_post_thumbnail();
  ?><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
  <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
}
$post = $wp_query->post;
setup_postdata( $post );

I highly suggest using the featured image for that.