Adding post lists and grids to your Site couldn’t be easier than with the WP Show Posts plugin. Dispatch uses the Free version to display posts on the Front page and in the Sidebars. Of course with a little Flint Skin CSS treatment.
Head off to Dashboard > WP Show Posts > All Lists. Within are six lists:
- Align
- Standard
- Sidebar
- Header
- Simple
- Simple Sidebar
Each of them have very particular settings required to match the demo content you see here. Changing those settings may affect the way the post is displayed, and not necessarily for the better. So please work on a duplicate or make a note before changing.
Note: the name of the List has no relevance to the different styles displayed.
General ( and important ) information
Before we go into the detail let’s cover some basic and very important information.
Advanced Settings
For the purpose of the demo content a couple of the Lists are using Advanced Settings. First off the Standard List is using Ascending Order (Default: Descending). Secondly the Simple List is using Offset, so it omits the first 4 posts. You may want to put these back to default if you’re not intending to replace them.
Duplicating WP Show Posts List
So we have four lists, and we want to make a new Standard list with a different category. The easiest way is to use one of the Duplicate Post plugins in the WordPress repository. Simple hey. And it works for all post types including GP Elements. Awesome. Note: When making a duplicate you are generally given two options. Clone and New Draft. I advise using the New Draft as some people have reported issues when using Clone.
List: Standard
This is the standard WP Show Post list that has the same custom styling applied to the GP Blog:
Washington, DC Hilton property’s $30M renovation refreshes design, layout of Mount Vernon Triangle hotel
Embassy Suites by Hilton unveiled its Convention Center, Washington location after a $30M renovation. The transformation is beautifully evident in the new fresh, modern design. The expansive renovation is complete, overhauling the 388 two-room suites, fitness center and pool, lobby and public spaces, along with an upgrade to its 12,000 sq. ft meeting and event space
Upside-Down, Demogorgon among special treats available in October; Astro returns mini doughnuts box
Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken will go strange in October—Stranger Things, that is—inspired by the widely-viewed TV Show. The show’s four seasons of popularity have inspired Chris Kujala, pastry chef, to create these new flavors.
Clarendon restaurant will offer a variety of dishes, cocktails to jazz up the weekend
Bar Ivy will debut its brunch service this weekend. The Coastal-themed eatery, featuring seasonal dishes with a West Coast bent, will begin Sunday, October 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Next weekend, Saturday brunch will debut Saturday, October 8 and run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Fall is here and Calico is readying its 2nd Annual Late Harvest Festival. The Blagen Alley destination will host this special event, which is coming off a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.The free gathering on Sunday, October 16 offers season-appropriate activities, including pumpkin picking & painting, caramel apples, hot cocktails, and autumnal fare.
New, returning dishes make their way on the menu; soul-warming brunch treats, too
La Famosa in Navy Yard updated its menu ahead of the fall season. The Puerto Rican cafe’s culinary team, led by Chef Joancarlo Parkhurst, are introducing new creations and returning some popular dishes.
Thursday’s slumber party beckons with possible complimentary jello shots, $7 Milagro shots
Washington is a town of parties. Many would agree that dressed-down events can be the most fun. Enter Gina Chersevan’s Pajama Party at Last Call Bar on Thursday, September 22. No need to bare it all if that’s your typical pajama at home. A nice, night gown or comfortable pair of pajamas will fit right in with the attire and earn customers one, complimentary jello shot.
New dishes include Sai Krok Isaan, Dan Dan Noodles
Thirsty Crow in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, launched a new menu geared toward more socializing and sports watching as fall sports and football season set in. The menu revamp is specifically moving food options from Malaysian inspiration to neighborhood sports theme with Pan Asian leanings, plus complimentary East Asian bites.
District Winery is celebrating its fifth anniversary, including cheese board and wine pairing classes, 2017 vintage tastings, rosé-infused birthday cupcakes, and a flower installation from local flower shop She Loves Me.
Three-day celebration starts October 13
Events DC announced the International City Food Festival, which will bring three days of celebration of global food, culture and drink to Washington, DC. After all, Washington, with its Embassy Row and significant worldly gatherings, including the United Nations General Assembly and annual International Monetary Fund meetings, is a cross-cultural milieu. International City will take place October 13 to 15.
City State Brewery released its Oktoberfest ale. Gina Chersevani will reveal the Oktoberfest Beer locally at Last Call Bar and Suburbia with City State’s tap takeover.
This is how the list is displayed within the Content area just by adding the WP Show Post Shortcode. Here follows the basic styling changes that have been made.
Content Wrap (WPSP Only)
Using a custom Hook Element the Post article content is now wrapped within a DIV container. This container carries a class of wpsp-content-wrap for styling. This wrap is present on all WP Show Posts that are output inside Dispatch.
Featured Image
The featured image has a fixed height to match the layout. This is achieved using this CSS:
.generate-columns-container article .inside-article img, .wp-show-posts-image img {
height: 180px;
width: 100%;
-o-object-fit: cover !important;
object-fit: cover !important;
}
You can edit the height property to suit, or remove the CSS it entirely if you want to use your own sizes.
Meta above title
This is achieved using a flex box on the Entry Header. Again this applied to the GP Blog:
.generate-columns-container article .entry-header, .wp-show-posts-entry-header {
display: -webkit-box;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: flex;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-box-direction: reverse;
-ms-flex-direction: column-reverse;
flex-direction: column-reverse;
}
Entry Title forced to 2 lines
The entry title always displays a minimum and maximum of 2 lines. This mantains the across row alignment. Again this is applied to GP Blog. The ex unit is used to define the number of lines visible. The lines are set by defining the line-height and setting the height to as many mutiples as you require lines. e.g up the height to 7.5ex will create three lines.
.generate-columns-container article .entry-header .entry-title, .wp-show-posts article .wp-show-posts-entry-title {
line-height: 2.5ex;
height: 5ex;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
List: Align
Designed for a single column list this displays the content the image to the left and content to the right. This is subtly different to just resizing the image in the WP Show Posts list settings and aligning it left. Thanks to the Content Wrap we added (above) the content will never wrap around the image. On mobile it just stacks.
To add one of these your posts requires a little markup. And is done like so:
<div class="wpsp-align">shortcode_goes_here</div>
Embassy Suites Convention Center remodel unveiled in DC
Washington, DC Hilton property’s $30M renovation refreshes design, layout of Mount Vernon Triangle hotel
Embassy Suites by Hilton unveiled its Convention Center, Washington location after a $30M renovation. The transformation is beautifully evident in the new fresh, modern design. The expansive renovation is complete, overhauling the 388 two-room suites, fitness center and pool, lobby and public spaces, along with an upgrade to its 12,000 sq. ft meeting and event space
Astro offers doughnuts inspired by ‘Stranger Things’
Upside-Down, Demogorgon among special treats available in October; Astro returns mini doughnuts box
Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken will go strange in October—Stranger Things, that is—inspired by the widely-viewed TV Show. The show’s four seasons of popularity have inspired Chris Kujala, pastry chef, to create these new flavors.
Bar Ivy debuts weekend brunch in Arlington, VA
Clarendon restaurant will offer a variety of dishes, cocktails to jazz up the weekend
Bar Ivy will debut its brunch service this weekend. The Coastal-themed eatery, featuring seasonal dishes with a West Coast bent, will begin Sunday, October 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Next weekend, Saturday brunch will debut Saturday, October 8 and run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Calico to host 2nd Annual Late Harvest Festival
Fall is here and Calico is readying its 2nd Annual Late Harvest Festival. The Blagen Alley destination will host this special event, which is coming off a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.The free gathering on Sunday, October 16 offers season-appropriate activities, including pumpkin picking & painting, caramel apples, hot cocktails, and autumnal fare.
Lists: Sidebar
In the right had sidebar you can see the Sidebar list. This List is set to 1 column and only displays the Featured Image, Title and Category. This is designed for Widgets, a narrow column or as part of a grid (like in our next List).
To add this style the Widget requires a CSS Class of:
wpsp-cardDispatch comes with Widget Classes Plugin installed. This provides this function.
List: Header
The Header list as seen on the Front Page requires a list containing only 5 posts. And can accomodate most of the content elements. Which are only displayed on the large leader post.
To add this style the Header Element requires the following element classes:
wpsp-grid wpsp-cardList: Simple
This is output using the wpsp-card inserted into a containing DIV like so:
<div class="wpsp-card">shortcode goes here</dib>
List: Simple Sidebar
Nothing fancy here, just a list being output using the a Widget in the sidebar.