Recent Posts from Category

Hello guys,

I’m using a shortcode that helps me get posts from my blog. So for example on my home page, I would type [mpc_recent_posts number=”10″] and it would make 10 recent posts from blog appear on my home page.
What I want to do is to get posts from some category, f.e. announcements.

How can I do that?

Here’s the original shortcode:

/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/*	X. Recent Posts
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

function mpc_recent_posts($atts, $content = null) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
    'number' => '4',
    'post' => ''
    ), $atts));

	global $page_id;

	$mp_option = gentle_get_global_options();

	$sidebar_position = '';

	if(isset($mp_option['gentle_sidebar']) && isset($mp_option['gentle_sidebar']['radio_sb_' .$page_id])) {
		$sidebar_position = $mp_option['gentle_sidebar']['radio_sb_' .$page_id];
	} 

	if($sidebar_position == '')
		$sidebar_position = 'right';

	$scroll = 1;
	if($sidebar_position == 'none')
		$scroll = 2;

    ?>

    <?php
	$return = '';

	$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post);

    if($tags != '') {
    	$tag_ids = array();
		foreach($tags as $individual_tag) {
			$tag_ids[] = $individual_tag->term_id;
		}

    $query = new WP_Query(array(
    		'post_type' => 'post',
    		'showposts' => $number,
     		'tag__in' => $tag_ids,
			'post__not_in' => array($post)
    		));
	} else {
		$query = new WP_Query(array(
    		'post_type' => 'post',
    		'showposts' => $number
    		));
	}

	if($query->have_posts()){

		$return = '<ul id="gentle_latest_posts_jcarousel" class="jcarousel-skin-gentle-posts">';
		$index = 0;
		while($query->have_posts()) {
			$query->the_post(); 

			if($index % 2 == 0 || $index == 0)
				$return .= '<li><ul class="gentle_latest_posts"><li class="gentle-recent-post">';
			else
				$return .= '<li class="gentle-recent-post">';

			$return .= '<div class="gentle-post-content">';
			$return .= '<span class="recent-post-thumb"><a href="'.get_permalink().'" rel="bookmark">';

			if(has_post_thumbnail())
				$return .= get_the_post_thumbnail(get_the_ID(), 'recent_post'); 

			$return .= '</a></span>';
			$return .= '<div class="recent-post-title"><h5><a href="'.get_permalink().'">'.get_the_title().'</a></h5></div>';

			$return .= '<span class="gentle-post-meta">';
			$return .= get_the_time('M d Y');
			$return .= ' &middot; ';

			$categories = get_the_category(get_the_ID());
			$length = count($categories);
			$i = 0;
// 			print_r('<pre>');
// print_r($category);
// print_r('</pre>');
			foreach($categories as $category) {
				$return .= '<a href="'.get_category_link($category->cat_ID).'">';
				$return .= $category->name;
				$return .= '</a>';
				if($i != $length - 1)
					$return .=', ';	

				$i++;
			}

			$return .= ' &middot; ';
			$comments = get_comments_number('0 comments','1 comment','% comments');
			$return .= '<a href="'.get_comments_link().'">';

			if($comments == 0) {
				$return .= '0 comments';
			} elseif($comments > 1) {
				$return .= $comments.' comments';
			} elseif($comments == 1) {
				$return .= '1 comment';
			}

			$return .='</a>';

			$return .= '</span>';
			if($sidebar_position == 'none')
				$return .= '<p class="gentle-post-excerpt">'.gentle_my_excerpt(get_the_excerpt(), 14).'</p>';
			else
				$return .= '<p class="gentle-post-excerpt">'.gentle_my_excerpt(get_the_excerpt(), 20).'</p>';

			$return .= '<span class="gentle-deco-line"></span></div>';

			if($index % 2 == 0 || $index == 0)
				$return .= '</li>';
			else
				$return .= '</li></ul></li>';

			$index++; 

		}  // end while
	}?>

	 <script type="text/javascript">

		jQuery(document).ready(function() {
		    jQuery('#gentle_latest_posts_jcarousel').jcarousel({
		    	wrap: 'circular',
		    	scroll: <?php echo $scroll; ?>,
		    	easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		    	animation: 'slow',
		    	buttonNextHTML: (parseInt('<?php echo $scroll + 1 ?>') >= parseInt('<?php echo $index ?>')) ? null : '<div></div>',
			    buttonPrevHTML: (parseInt('<?php echo $scroll + 1 ?>') >= parseInt('<?php echo $index ?>')) ? null : '<div></div>'
		    });
		});

	</script>

	<?php
	wp_reset_query();
	$return .= '</ul>';

    $return = parse_shortcode_content($return);
    return $return;
}

add_shortcode('mpc_recent_posts', 'mpc_recent_posts');