This is the first release of DD Page Widget. This widget outputs single page with thumbnail (wordpress 2.9 feature) and page excerpt on any widgetized area. It has options to choose page which you would like to feature, to replace page title with custom one, to show or not page excerpt and page thumbnail and to set excerpt length and thumbnail dimensions.

The widget has been written out of need for that functionality in my upcoming wordpress theme. After looking for plugins to do what I wanted, I found a couple of plugins that had components of what I wanted, but nothing that had everything. So I decided to write my own. Anyway I must give credits to this fantastic widget Category Posts Widget 3.0.

It was also an opportunity for me to learn the new method now a part of WordPress 2.8, that involves extending the standard widget class and some of its functions. (See the wordpress widget api – developing widgets on 2.8+.)

Because if follows the new widget API, it is a multi-widget, meaning it can be used in multiple widgetized areas, or even multiple times in the same widgetized area.

I would like to hear any thoughts for future directions, improvements and any wisdom you may want to share.

Installation

1. Unzip the dd_page_widget.zip file.
2. Upload the dd_page_widget folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
4. In the ‘Widgets’ panel you should see DD Page Widget
5. Drag and Drop that widget into any widgetized area.
6. Configure the widget with the options available.

DD Page Widget can be downloaded from here Download