Create a list of recent Custom Post Types posts

Question

I've been using this snippet to generate a list of recent posts from particular categories in a widget.

I'm currently restructuring the site using custom post types and taxonomies and want to generate a list of recent posts from 3 custom post types, taxonomies and categories don't have to be part of the query at this stage but would be nice to know how to include them.

Bit of a PHP novice, can't seem to find a solution to this.

<ul>
<?php
$recentPosts = new WP_Query();
$recentPosts->query('showposts=10&cat=-4,-30,-19,112,137,125,128');
?>
<?php while ($recentPosts->have_posts()) : $recentPosts->the_post(); ?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</ul>

Ok, seem to have solved it with this

$recentPosts = new WP_Query();
$recentPosts->query(array('showposts' => 9, 'post_type' =>
array('mycustomposttype1', 
'mycustomposttype2','mycustomposttype3')));

but still not sure if this is the best method so any feedback appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use custom variables ($recentPosts) like this:

$recentPosts = new WP_Query(array('showposts' => 9, 'post_type' => array('mycustomposttype1',  'mycustomposttype2','mycustomposttype3')));
while( $recentPosts->have_posts() ) : 
    $recentPosts->the_post();

    the_title();

endwhile;

But if you want to use the loop like normal loop, you need to use $wp_query as the variable. Also, everyone uses the parameters directly to the class as a constructor.

$wp_query = new WP_Query(array('showposts' => 9, 'post_type' => array('mycustomposttype1',  'mycustomposttype2','mycustomposttype3')));
while( have_posts() ) : 
    the_post();

    the_title();

endwhile;