Herself's Webtools

This plugin is for WordPress version 2.3+. Plugin and directions for WP before 2.3

== Description ==
This will create a list of all your posts in one specific category. They will be ordered alphabetically by category.
You can put this as a list in your side bar.

== Installation ==

1) Download, unzip, upload to your plugin directory and active the plugin.

2) In the Admin page find Options->Posts by Category and put in the number of the category you wish to list and click ‘Update Options’

3) Add the following code to your sidebar:

OR

3) Add the following code to a page or post

<!– categoryofposts –>

WP Plugin: Creates Link list of posts for a specific category

You can see this in action by visiting the archives link on this page or my TimesToCome, TimesToCome mobile, houseplants, or Houston Garden site.

** Note (Dec 12th)  I just widgetized this for those of you who prefer widgets. TimesToCome Category of Posts WordPress sidebar widget

4/2/10 See also How to lists posts by category in WordPress; for a newer, easier way to do this.

Over time all your posts get buried. If someone visits your blog can that person easily find a post she is looking for? Can someone find a post related to one he is viewing? WordPress archive pages give you a list of categories and a list of months but no direct links to your posts. You know what they say, 3 clicks and your visitor is gone.

So I wanted an archive that listed all my posts, by category, alphabetically by title. So I started with Frucomerci’s ‘List Posts by Category Plugin for WordPress and shamelessly hacked his plugin.

The new plugin ArchiveByCategory lists all your published blog posts by category alphabetically.

Download, unzip, upload to your plugin directory and active the plugin.

Oct 17th —————————————————————————–

Ok I’ve been told you’all don’t like hacking your templates. So you can just create a post or page; click the ‘code’ button an add the following line

<!– archivesbycategory –>

Braver folks can follow directions below to hack your template

* thank Rob at Backyard Chickens for letting me know you wanted this.

—————————————————————————————-

Now an archive page is needed. Next you need to hack your template. Open up ‘archives.php’ [ not archive.php ] and find the line

<?php wp_list_categories(‘title=0′); ?>

Yours might be slightly different. Remove that line and put in its place:

<?php echo archives_by_category(); ?>

Now all you have to do is create a page – call it ‘Archives’ and select ‘Archives’ as the page template. Nothing else needs to be done but to ‘publish’ the page.

I’ve built in anchor links to the page. It will get very long over time. You will want to create anchor links to each category. ( See How and why you should use anchor links ).

The archives page will update itself with all your news posts as you publish them. Nothing more need be done once this has been set up.

[ check sidebar for newest versions ]
*If you are using WordPress 2.3 download the ArchivesByCategory V 2.2 I totally cleaned up the MySQL and php and it is easier to read, for you to configure and should run a little faster.

*If you are using an earlier WordPress version you need ArchivesByCategory V 1.0

If you just want to list one category of posts see:
Plugin to list one category of posts ( WP < 2.3 )
Plugin to create a list of posts for one category ( WP>2.3 )

4/2/10 See also How to lists posts by category in WordPress for a newer way to do this.