This plugin was developed to display excerpts from random posts in a category. jQuery is used for fading the plugin in and out. It's a great way for displaying testimonials of clients or just giving a snapshot of content from your site.

Shortcode added as of version 1.4

The most basic use is: [reFader] this will use the default options. Here is an example of all the options in use [reFader title="Random Excerpts" cat="23" type="post" amount="5" length="50" duration="5000" linked="no" url="http://www.jackreichert.com/"]

This will show 5 (amount) posts (type) from category #23 (cat). It will show 50 (length) words from each post and fade out/in every 5 seconds (duration). It will not link each title to the corresponding post, but it will link all the titles to this plugins page (url).

Are you planning on developing this further to include thumbnails?

~~Eventually.~~ Done!

Is it true that you coded the first version of this plugin live on stage at a WordCamp, with Matt in the audience?

Most definitely.

What about foo bar?

The foo bar is not a problem here. Don't worry about it.

2.4.1

• array_merge() error

2.4

• Post types added.

2.3

• Added fallback so it shows all for circumstances when jQuery.ready() won't work.

2.2

• Fixed php errors

2.1

• Implemented plugins_url

2.0

• Added featured images as an alternative to excerpts.
• Fixed JS issues with excerpt height in some browsers.

1.4

• Added Shortcode
• Cleaned up jQuery

1.3.1

• Opacity bug

1.3

• Fixed IE bugs
• Rewrote the js to make it more efficient
• Added fixed height option

1.2.7

• Tested on 3.2 RC1
• "all categories" had stopped working in this version - Fixed.

1.2.5

• Fixed title when not linked

1.2.4

• fixed linking bug (thanks to Martin).

1.2.3

• Switched loop to get_posts.

1.2.2

• Styles enqueued properly.

1.2

• Replaced deprecated the_content_rss() with custom function.

1.1

• Fix for includes.

1.0

• This is the first live version

1. Upload the RandomExcerptsFader folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Place widget in desired place and set options there.