Recent posts per category loop?

Question

I need a loop/plugin/widget to display latest posts from the category the user is browsing and at the same time if he visits the home page, it should show posts from all categories (not a specific one)

Any Ideas ???

Answer 1

here is a quick one: (edit: I updated some forgotten punctuation).

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Recent posts per category loop 
Plugin URI: http://en.bainternet.info
Description: answer to http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/16616/recent-posts-per-category-loop
Author: Bainternet
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://en.bainternet.info
*/

  // Initialization function
  function WP_Widget_display_widget_init() 
  {
    new WP_Widget_display_widget();
  }

  // Your Class
  class WP_Widget_display_widget extends WP_Widget 
  {
    // Constructor
    function WP_Widget_display_widget() 
    {
      $widget_ops = array('description' => __('recent-posts-per-category-loop', 'display_widget'));
      $this->WP_Widget('display_widget', __('Display_widget'), $widget_ops);
    }

    // Display Widget
    function widget($args, $instance) {
        extract($args);
        $title = attribute_escape($instance['title']);
        echo $before_widget.$before_title.$title.$after_title;
        display_widget();
        echo $after_widget;
    }

    // When Widget Control Form Is Posted
    function update($new_instance, $old_instance) 
    {
        if (!isset($new_instance['submit'])) 
        {
            return false;
        }
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance['title'] = strip_tags($new_instance['title']);
        return $instance;
    }

    /* Your custom code starts here */
    /* ---------------------------- */

    /* Your Function */
    function display_widget()
    {

      /* Your Code ----------------- */ 

      function display_widget(){
    //only run on home or category
    $args['post_status'] = 'published';
    $args['posts_per_page'] = 5;
    if (is_front_page()||is_home()|| is_category())
        return '';
    if (is_category()){
        $args['cat'] = (int)get_query_var('cat');
    }
    $po = new WP_Query( $args );
    $out = '<ul>';
    while ($po->have_posts()){
        $po->the_post();
        $out .= '<li><a href="'. get_permalink($post->ID).'" title="'.get_the_title($post->ID).'">'.get_the_title($post->ID).'</a></li>';


    }
    $out .= '</ul>';
    echo $out;
}



    }
  }


  add_action('widgets_init', 'WP_Widget_display_widget_init');

Answer 2

you may try this plugin if you are not knowing about code.. Latest Post from Each Category Plugin.it'll help you:)