List recent posts with link to first category

Question

I'm looking to get a list of the recent 4 posts and with it a link the the first (and only) category that the post is in.

$args = array(
        'numberposts' => '4',
        'offset' => '0'
    );

$recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts($args);

foreach ($recent_posts as $recent) {
    echo '<li>'
     '<a href="' . get_permalink($recent["ID"]) . '" class="previous-post-thum">'
     get_the_post_thumbnail($recent["ID"], 'previous-posts-image')
     '</a>';

    echo '<p class="previous-cat-date">'
     get_the_time('F d,Y', $recent["ID"])
     '</p>';

    echo '<a class="previous-post-cat" href="'
     get_category_link($recent["ID"]) . '">'
     the_category($recent["ID"]) . '</a>';

    echo '<p class="previous-post-title"><a href="'
     get_permalink($recent["ID"]) . '" class="previous-title">'
     $recent["post_title"] . '</a></p>';

    $excerpt_text = apply_filters('the_excerpt', $recent['post_excerpt']);
    $number_of_characters = 350;

    echo '<div class="previous-post-excerpt">'
     substr($excerpt_text, 0, strrpos(substr($excerpt_text, 0, $number_of_characters), " "))
     '...' . '</div>';

    echo '<p class="previous-post-more">'
     '<a href="' . get_permalink($recent["ID"]) . '">Read More</a>'
     '</p>'
     '</li>';
}

This code works except for the category link.

Answer 1

• get_category_link() accept the category ID or object and you are passing the post ID.
• the_category() accept Separator as a first parameter to separate multiple categories and again you are passing post ID.
• You can use get_the_category to get all the categories and then display one of category information.

Example:-

$all_post_categories = get_the_category($recent["ID"]);
$category_obj = isset($all_post_categories[0]) && is_object($all_post_categories[0]) ? $all_post_categories[0] : false;
if ($category_obj) { ?>
    <a class="previous-post-cat" href="<?php echo get_category_link($category_obj); ?>"><?php
        echo $category_obj->name; ?>
    </a><?php
}