List all Posts under heading in wp_list_pages menu

Question

I am currently using the default Page Navigation (wp_list_pages) with wordpress and I have set my homepage to a page called "Home" and my blog to a page called "Events" but I would like to list the 10 most recent posts under the child of "Events".

I attempted to hack it in using the following code but it threw up content all over the place and removed tags:

add_filter('wp_list_pages', 'add_forum_link');
function add_forum_link($output) {
        $output .= '<li><a href="#">Blog</a><ul>';

        query_posts('showposts=10');
        while ( have_posts() ){ the_post();

        $output .= '<li><a href="'.the_permalink().'">'.the_title().'</a></li>';
        }

        $output .= '</ul></li>';
        echo $output;
}

Plus it involved me creating a new link called "Events" and so it doesn't work very well.

Is there an option to just make Wordpress find which page I've set as my Posts and show the last 10 blog posts under that heading?

Any help would be great!!

Answer 1

You've got the right idea, however;

1. Don't use query_posts, use get_posts instead
2. Using the wp_list_pages filter will just add the list at the end
3. Using template tags like the_permalink() will echo the output, so you can't use it in string concatenation

You'll need to use a custom walker (the family of classes for generating hierarchical content), which will allow you to inject your list right after the posts page:

/**
 * Add 10 most recent posts as a child list of the posts page.
 * 
 * @link https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/141929/1685
 */
class WPSE_141929_Walker extends Walker_Page {
    function start_el( &$output, $page, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $current_page = 0 ) {
        parent::start_el( $output, $page, $depth, $args, $current_page );
        if ( $page->ID == get_option( 'page_for_posts' ) ) {
            $posts = get_posts(
                array(
                    'posts_per_page' => 10,
                )
            );

            if ( $posts ) {
                $output .= '<ul class="children">';     
                foreach ( $posts as $post ) {
                    $output .= '<li><a href="' . get_permalink( $post->ID ) . '">' .get_the_title( $post->ID ) . '</a></li>';
                }
                $output .= '</ul>';
            }
        }
    }
}

And in use:

wp_list_pages(
    array(
        'walker' => new WPSE_141929_Walker,
    )
);