Widget Recomendation for selecting multi categories?

[fairlyliquid]

Hi,

Im looking for a wordpress plugin/widget that will allow a user to select multiple categories and display the filtered posts.

Ive found 2 free ones neither of which i can get to work for some reason...

Magic WordPress Filter Categories
....ess.org/extend/plugins/magic-wordpress-filter-categories

Multiple Category Selection Widget
....ess.org/extend/plugins/multiple-category-selection-widget/

their both pretty ugly looking but i was hoping if they worked i could edit them slightly.

any other sugesstions? Preferably free

 

[judson]

try special-recent-posts
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/special-recent-posts/

and widgets-reloaded
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widgets-reloaded/

What's not working about the widgets you have tried? What functionality exactly are you looking for?

Do a search for "recent posts" since those widgets tend to give more control over categories. You get bonus points if you look at the ones that allow you to specify both the content types and the categories.

 

[fairlyliquid]

What functionality exactly are you looking for?

just to be clear im looking for a widget that will let a user select, preferably by means of a tick box a few different categories.
Then hit a 'filter' button or something to just display the posts in those categories.

Ive installed those two plugins you recommended but i dont think they do that

 

[judson]

Is this functionality you want to expose to a site user or just to the administrator.

The special recent posts plugin certainly allows you to just show posts from a specific category.

 

[judson]

Oh yeah. Are you sure you tried out widgets-reloaded?

Once you install it, it will 'replace' your standard widgets.

So, install widgets reloaded, then use the "Categories" widget. You will see that it is now more advanced than the standard "Categories" widget, allowing you to select categories to include/exclude in the output.

That said, all these widgets are for configuration by the site admin, and not by any visitor to your site. Let me know how you get on ....

 

[fairlyliquid]

That said, all these widgets are for configuration by the site admin, and not by any visitor to your site. Let me know how you get on ....

This.

I need the site visitors to be able to select multiple categories and show the filtered results.

thanks for widgetsreloaded though thats deffinatly usefull for other things.

 

[judson]

I need the site visitors to be able to select multiple categories and show the filtered results.

Mmm... Why would you want that. It opens up a whole lot of pain. Your server performance will degrade horribly if you have a lot of posts+categories+site visitors. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

If you must show them specific category, they can always click on the categories page, no?

If you do find a plugin that allows site visitors to do as you want, be sure to benchmark it before you put it out on the production server ....

 

[fairlyliquid]

thats a good point i guess i hadnt thought about server load. Ill have a re think.

 

[judson]

Trust me, that additional funtionality that you are sweating over, will not lead to single additional sale or conversion or extra click.

Spend the time on something else.