WordPress Recent Posts - Loop

Question

I would greatly appreciate some help, I have written a loop inside a list item however I'm looking to set a width and height on the thumbnail and display some expert "text" but limit the length of it...

<ul>
    <!-- Define our WP Query Parameters -->
    <?php $the_query = new WP_Query( 'posts_per_page=3' ); ?>

    <!-- Start our WP Query -->
    <?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?>

    <li>
        <?php 

            if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { // check if the post has a Post Thumbnail assigned to it.
               the_post_thumbnail('large');
            }
        ?>

        <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
    </li>

    <!-- Repeat the process and reset once it hits the limit -->
    <?php

    endwhile;
    wp_reset_postdata();
    ?>
</ul>

Answer 1

Add this function in your functions.php for specific size of thumbnail

add_image_size( 'custom-size', 220, 180 );

and fetch custom-size image. For excerpt length use this function.

function wp_example_excerpt_length( $length ) {
   return 30; 
} 
add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'wp_example_excerpt_length');