Description
CC Child Pages is a simple plugin to show links to child pages via a shortcode.
Child Pages are displayed in responsive boxes, and include the page title, an excerpt and a “Read more…” link.
You can choose between 1, 2, 3 & 4 column layouts.
3 & 4 column layouts will resize to a 2 column layout on small devices to ensure that they remain readable.
CC Child Pages editor button
CC Child Pages now adds a button to the WordPress text editor, allowing you to quickly insert the shortcode and select many common options
CC Child Pages widget
CC Child Pages also includes a widget for displaying child pages within your sidebars.
The widget can be set to show the children of the current page or a specific page, or to show all pages.
Pages can be sorted by their menu order, title or ID. You can also select the depth of pages to be displayed.
You can now also tick the checkbox to show all pages, in which case the widget will behave much like the standard Pages widget but with additional options.
Using the shortcode
The simplest usage would be to use the shortcode with no parameters:
[child_pages]
This would show the Child Pages for the current page in 2 columns.
You can add the cols
parameter to choose the number of columns:
[child_pages cols="1"]
[child_pages cols="2"]
[child_pages cols="3"]
[child_pages cols="4"]
… if cols
is set to anything other than 1, 2, 3 or 4 the value will be ignored.
You can also show the child pages of a specific page by adding the ID
of the page as follows:
[child_pages id="42"]
… or you can specify multiple IDs in a comma-separated list (does not work when using list="true"
)
[child_pages id="42,53,76"]
To exclude pages, use the exclude
parameter. This allows you to specify a comma separated list of Page IDs to be exclude from the output of the shortcode.
[child_pages exclude="5,33,45"]
To display only specific pages, you can use the page_ids
paremeter. This accepts a comma separated list of IDs. If this parameter is used, the id
and exclude
parameters are ignored.
[child_pages page_ids="3,7,10,35"]
The above code will display only the listed pages.
If you want to prefer to use text other than the standard “Read more …” to link to the pages, this can be specified with the more
parameter:
[child_pages more="More..."]
You may also hide the “Read more …” link altogether by setting the hide_more
parameter to "true"
:
[child_pages hide_more="true"]
Since there is no other way for the visitor to link to the child page, you can choose to make the page titles link to the child page by setting the link_titles
parameter to "true"
:
[child_pages link_titles="true"]
(This is mainly designed to be used with the hide_more
parameter, but can be used independently if you want to have both the titles and “Read more …” text link to the child page.)
When specifying link_titles="true"
, you may wish to apply your own styling to the links. To do so, you can specify a style using the title_link_class
parameter:
[child_pages link_titles="true" title_link_class="my_title_link_class"]
You may also hide the titles altogether by setting the hide_title
parameter to "true"
:
[child_pages hide_title="true"]
You can display a thumbnail of the featured image for each page (if set) by setting the thumbs
parameter to "true"
:
[child_pages thumbs="true"]
You can now also display thumbnails at different sizes to the default (‘medium’) size. Simply specify the thumbnail size in the thumbs
parameter. You can even specify custom image sizes.
[child_pages thumbs='large']
You can make thumbnails link to the related child page by setting the link_thumbs
to "true"
:
[child_pages thumbs='large' link_thumbs="true"]
… note that specifying the link_thumbs
parameter will have no effect unless the thumbs
parameter is set to either true
or a thumbnail size.
You can specify a target for the links added by the plugin by setting the link_target
parameter. This will work exactly the same as setting the target
parameter for the HTML <a>
tag:
[child_pages link_target="_blank"]
You can limit the length of the excerpt by specifying the words
parameter:
[child_pages words="10"]
You can hide the excerpt altogether by setting the hide_excerpt
parameter to "true"
:
[child_pages hide_excerpt="true"]
You can stop Custom Excerpts from being truncated by setting the truncate_excerpt
parameter to “false”:
[child_pages truncate_excerpt="false"]
… this will display custom excerpts exactly as entered without being shortened. (Especially useful if using the Rich Text Excerpts plugin, in which case all styling will be preserved.)
When truncate_excerpt
is set to true
, excerpts will be truncated only if they exceed the specified word count (default 55). When custom excerpts are truncated, any HTML will be removed.
If you have inserted more
tags into your posts/pages, you may find that the Continue reading
message is included in the excerpt. To hide this, set the hide_wp_more
parameter to true
:
[child_pages hide_wp_more="true"]
IF you wish to display the full contents of the listed pages, you can set the show_page_content
parameter to true
:
[child_pages show_page_content="true"]
To change the order in which the child pages are listed, you can use the orderby
and order
parameters:
[child_pages orderby="title" order="ASC"]
The orderby
parameter can have one of the following values:
menu_order (the default value) – shows the pages sorted by the order in which they appear within the WordPress admin
id sorts the pages according to the ID of the page
title sorts the pages alphabetically by the title
slug sorts the pages alphabetically according to the slug (page_name) of the page
author sorts the pages by author
date sorts the pages by the date they were created
modified sorts the pages by the date they were modified
rand shows the pages in a random order
The order
parameter can be set to:
ASC shows the pages in ascending order, sorted by the value of `orderby`
DESC shows the pages in descending order, sorted by the value of `orderby`
You can now also use the skin
parameter to choose a colour scheme for the Child Pages as follows:
[child_pages skin="simple"] (the default colour scheme)
[child_pages skin="red"]
[child_pages skin="green"]
[child_pages skin="blue"]
If you want to style the child page boxes yourself, you can also specify the class
parameter. If used, this overrides the span
parameter and adds the specified class name to the generated HTML:
[child_pages class="myclass"]
If you are not using the provided skins, you can prevent the CSS file for the skins from being loaded from the CC Child Pages options under the Settings menu.
Finally, you can also display just an unordered list (<ul>
) of child pages by adding the list
parameter. In this case, all other parameters are ignored except for class
, cols
, exclude
, orderby
, order
and id
.
[child_pages list="true"]
When using the list
parameter, you can also specify the depth
parameter to specify how many levels in the hierarchy of pages are to be included in the list.
The depth
parameter accepts the following values:
- 0 (default) Displays pages at any depth and arranges them hierarchically in nested lists
- -1 Displays pages at any depth and arranges them in a single, flat list
- 1 Displays top-level Pages only
-
2, 3 … Displays Pages to the given depth
[child_pages list=”true” depth=”4″]
Specifying the cols
parameter with list="true"
will show the child pages as an unordered list ordered into a number of columns (I would recommend avoiding the use of the depth
parameter when listing child pages within columns – the results are likely to be fairly unreadable!).
[child_pages list="true" cols="3"]
The columns are responsive, and should adjust according to the browser being re-sized or the size of the screen being used.
N.B. Because the shortcode uses the WordPress wp_list_pages
function to output the list, columns are acheived by applying CSS styling to the functions standard output. This CSS should work fine in modern browsers, but in older browsers (such as Internet Explorer 8) the list will not be split into columns
The depth
parameter can now also be used with the shortcode when list
is not set or is is set to "false"
.
If depth
is set, the sub-pages for each child page will be shown as an ordered list. You can specify a title for this element by setting the subpage_title
parameter:
[child_pages depth="3" subpage_title="Sub-pages"]
Private Pages
By default the shortcode (as of verion 1.36) will show pages that have their visibility set to publish
, with pages with a visibility of private
added for logged in users that have access to these pages.
You can specify which pages to show by using the post_status
parameter, which can take the following values:
publish
– published, publicly viewable pagespending
– pages which are pending reviewdraft
– pages which have not yet been published and have the draft statusauto-draft
– newly created pages with no contentfuture
– pages with the publish date set in the futureprivate
– pages which are not visible to users who are not logged ininherit
– revisionstrash
– pages which have been moved to the trash awaiting deletionany
– pages with any status except those from post statuses with ‘exclude_from_search’ set to true (i.e.trash
andauto-draft
)
Some of these values are unlikely to be helpful in everyday use.
For example:
[child_pages post_status="publish"]
To specify a number of statuses, provide a comma-separated list:
[child_pages post_status="publish,private"]
Post Meta
You can show the author, date created and/or date modified for a post by using show_author
, show_date_created
and show_date_modified
parameters. If set to true
, they will show the corresponding information:
[child_pages show_author="true" show_date_created="true"]
Sibling Pages
The shortcode also allows you to display sibling pages (those at the same level as the current page within the hierarchy).
To do this, set the siblings
parameter to true
.
This will override the id
parameter and will append the current page to the exclude
parameter.
[child_pages siblings="true"]
This can also be used with the list
parameter
[child_pages siblings="true" list="true"]
By default, the shortcode will not display the current page when siblings
is set to true
. If you wish to include the current page, set the show_current_page
parameter to true
:
[child_pages siblings="true" show_current_page="true"]
[child_pages siblings="true" list="true" show_current_page="true"]
Limits
You can limit the number of child pages displayed using the limit
parameter (unless the list
parameter has been set to "true"
).
For example:
[child_pages limit="5"] will display only the first 5 child pages.
Offset
When not using list="true"
, you can specify a value for offset
to skip a set number of results. For example:
[child_pages offset="2"]
… will skip the first 2 pages.
Custom Fields
You may wish to show a different title, excerpt, “Read more…” message or thumbnail on certain pages. To achieve this, you can set values in custom fields on specific pages – to tell the shortcode to use the custom value, set the use_custom_excerpt
, use_custom_title
, use_custom_more
or use_custom_thumbs
parameter to the name of the custom field to be used.
If the field used is set for a page, its value will be used instead of the default excerpt/title/”Read more…”. Pages on which the custom field is not populated will use the default value.
[child_pages use_custom_excerpt="custom_cc_excerpt"]
… will replace the standard excerpt with the value of the custom field custom_cc_excerpt
(if it is set)
[child_pages use_custom_title="custom_cc_title"]
… will replace the standard title with the value of the custom field custom_cc_title
(if it is set)
[child_pages use_custom_thumbs="custom_cc_thumnail"]
… will replace the standard thumbnail with one specified in the value of the custom field custom_cc_thumnail
(if it is set). The value of the custom_cc_thumnail
custom field can either be set to the ID of the image attachment (using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin can make this much easier to use) or to the full URL of the image.
[child_pages use_custom_more="custom_cc_more"]
… will replace the standard “Read more…” message with the value of the custom field custom_cc_more
(if it is set)
[child_pages use_custom_link="custom_cc_link"]
… will replace URL link for the page with the URL specified in the value of the custom field custom_cc_link
(if it is set). (The default value of use_custom_link
is "cc_child_pages_link"
, so that this field can be set without the need to specify the parameter. To disable this functionality, set use_custom_link=""
.)
[child_pages use_custom_link_target="custom_cc_link_target"]
… will replace the link target for titles, thumbnails and the “Read more…” text with the value specified in the custom field custom_cc_link_target
(if it is set). (The default value of use_custom_link_target
is "cc_child_pages_link_target"
, so that this field can be set without the need to specify the parameter. To disable this functionality, set use_custom_link_target=""
.)
N.B. use_custom_excerpt
, use_custom_title
, use_custom_more
, use_custom_link
use_custom_link_target
and use_custom_thumbs
will not work when list="true"
Pagination
CC Child Pages now includes basic support for pagination.
You can set the number of child pages to be displayed on each page by specifying the posts_per_page
parameter, e.g.:
[child_pages posts_per_page="6"]
The above code will display 6 child pages on each page, and if there are more than 6 child pages found navigation links will be displayed.
You can also specify the page
parameter to display a specific page. For example:
[child_pages posts_per_page="3" page="2"]
The above code will show the second page of results (item 4 onwards, up to 3 items). N.B. when the page
parameter is specified, no pagination links are displayed.
The page
parameter has no effect unless posts_per_page
is specified.
Pagination functionality is limited on a static front page
N.B. The pagination parameters are ignored when list="true"
Sticky Posts
By default, sticky posts are not shown … however, if you want them to be displayed you can set the ignore_sticky_posts
parameter to be false
:
[child_pages ignore_sticky_posts="false"]
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the plugin to the
/wp-content/plugins/
directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Reviews
Contributors & Developers
“CC Child Pages” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors“CC Child Pages” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate “CC Child Pages” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.45
- Maintenance release- minor bug fix to setting page.
1.44
- Maintenance release with security improvements to legacy widget.
1.43
- Maintenance release with security improvements.
1.42
-
Bug fix for
hide_titles
function to stop it breaking custom templates.1.41 =
- Added
hide_titles
option. Small bug fix for widget.
1.40
- Maintenance release. Added Exclude Tree option to widget
1.39
- Small fix to CC Child Pages Widget
1.38
- Small fix to CSS for page navigation links
1.37
- Small changes to try to prevent problems interacting with other plugins that may not return correct values in their filters
1.36
- Bug fix – by default private pages will be visible or hidden depending on whether the user is logged in
- Added
post_status
parameter to show child pages with specific statuses - Added button to the settings page to disable loading of Skins CSS file if not being used (for performance)
- Added additional classes to child page elements to allow styling of elements with parent pages (and even specific parent pages)
- Added
use_custom_thumbs
parameter – specify the name of a custom field that will specify the ID or URL of an image to use as a thumbnail
1.35
- Bug fix – implemented code to remove
[child_pages]
shortcode from pages before generating excerpts to avoid getting stuck in an infinite loop under some circumstances - Added
show_page_content
parameter to show complete page content - Added
link_target
anduse_custom_link_target
parameters to allow control of how links open depth
now works with the shortcode when not usinglist
mode. Addedsubpage_title
parameter to display a title for sub-pages whedepth
is greater than 1 andlist="true"
is NOT specified- Added
show_author
,show_date_created
andshow_date_modified
parameters to allow display of post information order
can now be set torand
to show items in a random order
1.34
- Added
ignore_sticky_posts
parameter - Added
limit
parameter to limit the number of pages displayed - Added
offset
parameter to allow skipping a number of pages
1.33
- Added
posts_per_page
andpage
parameters for basic pagination - Added
page_ids
parameter to allow display of specific pages - Added
use_custom_link
parameter to allow the over-riding of the link target on a per page basis - Added new CSS IDs to help make styling more flexible
1.32
- Bug fix – widget was displaying sibling pages instead of child pages under certain circumstances
1.31
- Added
siblings
option to the widget - Added
show_current_page
option for use with the shortcode whensiblings
is set totrue
- Added
hide_wp_more
to remove the standard “Continue reading…” message from excerpts - Added
use_custom_excerpt
,use_custom_title
anduse_custom_more
to the shortcode - Added more filters and actions to widget and shortcode to allow extension of plugin
1.30
- Bug fix – internationalization now works correctly (translations need work though – currently only French, which is known to be poor)
- Added more filters to widget, list and shortcode to allow extension of plugin
1.29
- Bug fix – widget will now show on all pages/posts if “All Pages” or a specific parent page is selected
- Bug fix – shortcode now closes query correctly (was causing issues with some themes)
- The shortcode will now work with custom post types
- You can now specify multiple parent page IDs (when using
list="true"
, only a single parent ID can be specified)
1.28
- Further improvements to integration when used with Video Thumbnails plugin
1.27
- Added the
siblings
parameter to show siblings of current page - Improved integration when used with Video Thumbnails plugin
- Minor bug fixes for CC Child Pages Widget
1.26
- The CSS for displaying child pages has been re-written to allow for custom CSS to be more easily written – for example, specifying a border should no longer cause problems in the responsive layout. Fallbacks have been put in place for older versions of Internet Explorer.
- The handling of Custom CSS from the settings page has been improved.
- The loading of the plugin CSS has been returned to the default manner. While this means that CSS is loaded on pages where the shortcode is not used, it means that the CSS can be correctly minified by other plugins and ensures that valid HTML is generated.
1.25
- New option added to widget to show all top-level pages and their children. This can now be used as a complete replacement for the standard Pages widget
- New option added to the plugins settings page allowing custom CSS code to be specified from within the plugin. This feature has been requested several times. This functionality will be expanded on in the future.
1.24
- Further enhancements to CSS when using both the
list
andcols
parameters
1.23
- Minor fix for CSS when using both the
list
andcols
parameters
1.22
- Changes to how excerpts are generated from content when no custom excerpt is specified.
- Changed how CSS is queued – the CSS file will now only be included in the page if the shortcode is specified, helping to keep page sizes to a minimum.
1.21
- Change to allow
cols
parameter to be used whenlist
parameter is set totrue
. - Changed
.ccpages_excerpt
container to<div>
(was<p>
) to avoid potentially invalid HTML when HTML excerpts are used.
1.20
- Change to improve efficiency when the plugin attempts to force thumbnail creation via Video Thumbnails plugin
- Minor change to avoid output of empty links when applying links to thumbnails and no thumbnail is present
- Minor change to escaping special characters in
more
parameter
1.19
- Small change to how the plugin works with thumbnails. It will now use thumbnails generated by the Video Thumbnails plugin if it is installed.
- Added
link_thumbs
parameter. If set to"true"
, thumbnails will link to the child page. - CSS is no longer minified, in order to make it easier to view existing CSS when defining your own custom styles. The CSS can be minified by other plugins if required.
1.18
- Added settings page to allow disabing of button in Visual Editor (TinyMCE)
- Added the
truncate_excerpt
parameter to the shortcode, defaults totrue
but setting tofalse
stops custom excerpts from being shortened (where no custom excerpt exists, page content will still be truncated)
1.17
- Small change to how custom excerpts are handled for interoperability with Rich Text Excerpts plugin.
1.16
- Added the
hide_excerpt
parameter
1.15
- Added
hide_more
parameter to hide “Read more …” links. - Added
link_titles
parameter to make titles link to pages. - Added
title_link_class
parameter for styling links in page titles.
1.14
- Bug fix: Corrected missing
<ul>
tags in widget - Minor CSS changes to improve compatibility with certain themes
1.13
- Bug fix: Corrected problem with titles including special characters
- Added orderby and order parameters to control the display order of child pages
1.12
- Bug fix: Corrected problem when automatic excerpt returns value including a shortcode
1.11
- Bug fix: Corrected small bug introduced in version 1.10 when using
list="true"
1.10
- Added
exclude
parameter - Added
depth
parameter (only used iflist
is set to"true"
)
1.9
- Added editor button
- Added custom excerpt capability to pages by default
- Refined generation of page excerpt where no custom excerpt exists
- Enhanced functionality of the
thumbs
option – you can now set this to the desired thumbnail size e.g.thumbs="large"
,thumbs="full"
,thumbs="my-custom-size"
, etc.
1.8
- CC Child Pages widget enhanced to allow display of children of current page or a specific page
- CC Child Pages widget enhanced to allow depth to be specified
1.7
- Changed plugin author to show business name (Caterham Computing)
- Added CC Child Pages widget
- Added various new classes to help with custom CSS styling
1.6
- Added the
words
parameter. When set to a value greater than 0, the number of words in the excerpt will be trimmed if greater than the specified value.
1.5
- Added the
thumbs
parameter. If set to"true"
, the featured image (if set) of a page will be shown.
1.4
- Added
more
parameter to override standard “Read more …” text - Internationalisation …
1.3
- Corrected small error when using
list
parameter
1.2
- Added the
list
parameter
1.1
- Added the
skin
parameter - Added the
class
parameter
1.0
- Initial Release