I was disappointed to find that there wasn’t a “Posts on Page” widget plugin for WordPress. I wanted something that would:

1. Display a list of all the posts on a page
2. The title is optional
3. Also, add “Recent Posts”
4. Again the recent posts title could be optional
5. The number of recent posts could be fixed or variable based on the number of posts on the page (I use 5 fixed)
6. The recent posts could be selected by category, by tag, or by both – so you can effectively add “featured” posts
7. Display all as a <ul> list (or not)

So I learned how to create a WordPress plugin that creates a widget, there’s a tutorial here: https://horkan.com/2023/08/08/creating-a-wordpress-widget-plugin-tutorial

And then built my own. It should be over there on the right, doing its job.

You can download the widget from here: https://horkan.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/posts-on-page-widget.zip

The code is below. I’ll add it to GitHub later.

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Posts on Page Widget
 * Plugin URI: https://horkan.com/posts-on-page-wordpress-widget-plugin 
 * Description: A widget that displays a list of all posts displayed on the current page.
 * Version: 1.0
 * Author: Wayne Horkan
 * Author URI: https://horkan.com
 * License: MIT
 */

 // Register and load the widget
function posts_on_page_widget_load() {
    register_widget( 'Posts_On_Page_Widget' );
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'posts_on_page_widget_load' );

class Posts_On_Page_Widget extends WP_Widget {
    public function __construct() {
        $widget_options = array( 
            'classname' => 'posts_on_page_widget',
            'description' => 'This is a plugin developed by Wayne Horkan that displays a list of all posts displayed on the current page.',
        );
        parent::__construct( 'posts_on_page_widget', 'Posts on Page Widget', $widget_options );
    }

    public function widget( $args, $instance ) {

        if(isset($instance['title'])) {
            
            $title = apply_filters( 'widget_title', $instance[ 'title' ] );
            echo $args['before_widget'] . $args['before_title'] . $title . $args['after_title'];
        }

        global $posts;

        if (empty($posts)) {
            $posts = get_posts();
        }

        $total_posts_to_show = count($posts);
        $displayed_posts     = 0;

        if ($instance['use_list']) {
            echo '<ul>';
            foreach ($posts as $post) {
                if($displayed_posts < $total_posts_to_show) {
                    echo '<li><a href="' . get_permalink($post) . '">' . $post->post_title . '</a></li>';
                    $displayed_posts++;
                }
            }
            echo '</ul>';
        } else {
            foreach ($posts as $post) {
                if($displayed_posts < $total_posts_to_show) {
                    echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($post) . '">' . $post->post_title . '</a><br/>';
                    $displayed_posts++;
                }
            }
        }

        if ($instance['fixed_variable_recent']) {

            $total_posts_to_show = isset($instance['total_posts']) ? $instance['total_posts'] : 0; # count($posts);

            if ($total_posts_to_show != 0) {

                $total_posts_to_show = $total_posts_to_show + $displayed_posts; 

            }


        } else {

            $total_posts_to_show = isset($instance['total_posts']) ? $instance['total_posts'] : 0; # count($posts);

            if($displayed_posts < $total_posts_to_show) {

                $total_posts_to_show = $total_posts_to_show - $displayed_posts;

            } else {

                $total_posts_to_show = 0; 
            }

        }

        if($instance['show_recent'] && $displayed_posts < $total_posts_to_show) {
            $recent_posts_args = array(
                'numberposts' => $total_posts_to_show - $displayed_posts,
                'offset' => 0,
                'category' => 0,
                'orderby' => 'post_date',
                'order' => 'DESC',
                'include' => '',
                'exclude' => '',
                'post_status' => 'publish',
                'suppress_filters' => true,
            );

            if(isset($instance['recent_category']) && isset($instance['recent_tag'])) {
                $recent_posts_args['category_name'] = $instance['recent_category'];
                $recent_posts_args['tag'] = $instance['recent_tag'];
            } elseif(isset($instance['recent_category'])) {
                $recent_posts_args['category_name'] = $instance['recent_category'];
            } elseif(isset($instance['recent_tag'])) {
                $recent_posts_args['tag'] = $instance['recent_tag'];
            }

            $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( $recent_posts_args, ARRAY_A );

            echo '<br/>';
            echo '<br/>';
            echo '<br/>';

            if(isset($instance['recent_title'])) {
                $recent_title = $instance['recent_title'];
                echo $args['before_title'] . $recent_title . $args['after_title'];
            } 

            if($instance['use_list']) {
                echo '<ul>';
                foreach ($recent_posts as $post) {
                    echo '<li><a href="' . get_permalink($post['ID']) . '">' . $post['post_title'] . '</a></li>';
                }
                echo '</ul>';
            } else {
                foreach ($recent_posts as $post) {
                    echo '<a href="' . get_permalink($post['ID']) . '">' . $post['post_title'] . '</a><br/>';
                }
            }
        }

        echo $args['after_widget'];
    }

    // Form method
    public function form( $instance ) {
        $title = ! empty( $instance['title'] ) ? $instance['title'] : 'Posts on Page';
        $use_list = ! empty( $instance['use_list'] ) ? $instance['use_list'] : true;
        $recent_title = ! empty( $instance['recent_title'] ) ? $instance['recent_title'] : 'Recent Posts';
        $show_recent = ! empty( $instance['show_recent'] ) ? $instance['show_recent'] : true;
        $recent_category = ! empty( $instance['recent_category'] ) ? $instance['recent_category'] : '';
        $recent_tag = ! empty( $instance['recent_tag'] ) ? $instance['recent_tag'] : '';
        $total_posts = ! empty( $instance['total_posts'] ) ? $instance['total_posts'] : '5';
        $fixed_variable_recent = ! empty( $instance['fixed_variable_recent'] ) ? $instance['fixed_variable_recent'] : true;

        ?>
    
        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>">Title (Optional):</label>
            <input type="text" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $title ); ?>" placeholder="Enter title (optional)" />
        </p>
        <p>
            <input type="checkbox" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'use_list' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'use_list' ); ?>" <?php checked($use_list, true); ?> />
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'use_list' ); ?>">Use List Format</label>
        </p>
        <p>
            <input type="checkbox" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'show_recent' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'show_recent' ); ?>" <?php checked($show_recent, true); ?> />
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'show_recent' ); ?>">Show Recent Posts</label>
        </p>
        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_title' ); ?>">Recent Title (Optional):</label>
            <input type="text" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'recent_title' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $recent_title ); ?>" placeholder="Enter recent title (optional)" />
        </p>
        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'total_posts' ); ?>">Total Posts to Show:</label>
            <input type="number" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'total_posts' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'total_posts' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $total_posts ); ?>" />
        </p>
        <p>
            <input type="checkbox" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'fixed_variable_recent' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'fixed_variable_recent' ); ?>" <?php checked($fixed_variable_recent, true); ?> />
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'fixed_variable_recent' ); ?>">Fixed or Variable</label>            
        </p>        
        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_category' ); ?>">Recent Posts Category:</label>
            <input type="text" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_category' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'recent_category' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $recent_category ); ?>" />
        </p>
        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_tag' ); ?>">Recent Posts Tag:</label>
            <input type="text" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'recent_tag' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'recent_tag' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $recent_tag ); ?>" />
        </p>
        <?php
    }

    public function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance['title'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['title'] );
        $instance['use_list'] = filter_var($new_instance['use_list'], FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN);
        $instance['show_recent'] = filter_var($new_instance['show_recent'], FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN);
        $instance['recent_title'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['recent_title'] );
        $instance['recent_category'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['recent_category'] );
        $instance['recent_tag'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['recent_tag'] );
        $instance['total_posts'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['total_posts'] );
        $instance['fixed_variable_recent'] = filter_var($new_instance['fixed_variable_recent'], FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN);
        return $instance;
    }
}

?>