Here is the code I use in a WordPress site’s index.php file to exclude a specific category from the home page withOUT breaking the pagination:
<?php if ( is_home() ) { query_posts( $query_string.'&cat=-21' ); } ?>
Of course, to include a specific category, you would use this:
<?php if ( is_home() ) { query_posts( $query_string.'&cat=4' ); } ?>
Here is the code I use to show a certain number of the most recent posts including their thumbnails from specific categories in a WordPress website.
To show the 3 most recent posts from Category 1, you would add this code to the appropriate template file of your site:
<?php
//for category 1, show 3 posts
$cat_args=array(
'include' => '1',
'orderby' => 'name',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
$categories=get_categories($cat_args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
$args=array(
'showposts' =>3,
'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
'caller_get_posts'=>1
);
$posts=get_posts($args);
if ($posts) {
echo '<p><h4>Latest <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.' Posts</a>: </h4></p> ';
foreach($posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post); ?>
<p class="recent-posts"><span class="thumb"><?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { the_post_thumbnail(); } ?></span>
<span class="recent-post"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></span></p>
<?php
} // foreach($posts
} // if ($posts
} // foreach($categories
?>
You will want to edit the category ID(s) in this code of course so that you call the posts from the correct categories of your site, and you may also want to edit the number of posts shown from the categories as well.
To show the 3 most recent posts from Categories 1, 2, AND 3, you would use this code:
<?php
//for categories 1, 2, and 3, show 3 posts
$cat_args=array(
'include' => '1,2,3',
'orderby' => 'name',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
$categories=get_categories($cat_args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
$args=array(
'showposts' =>3,
'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
'caller_get_posts'=>1
);
$posts=get_posts($args);
if ($posts) {
echo '<p><h4>Latest <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.' Posts</a>: </h4></p> ';
foreach($posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post); ?>
<p class="recent-posts"><span class="thumb"><?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { the_post_thumbnail(); } ?></span>
<span class="recent-post"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></span></p>
<?php
} // foreach($posts
} // if ($posts
} // foreach($categories
?>
If you want to include the excerpt of each post, you would use this code:
<?php
//for category 1, show 3 posts
$cat_args=array(
'include' => '1',
'orderby' => 'name',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
$categories=get_categories($cat_args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
$args=array(
'showposts' =>3,
'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
'caller_get_posts'=>1
);
$posts=get_posts($args);
if ($posts) {
echo '<p><h4>Latest <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.' Posts</a>: </h4></p> ';
foreach($posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post); ?>
<p class="recent-posts"><span class="thumb"><?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { the_post_thumbnail(); } ?></span>
<span class="recent-post"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></span>
<br/><span class="excerpt"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></span></p>
<?php
} // foreach($posts
} // if ($posts
} // foreach($categories
?>
Let me know if you have any questions or need any further modifications to this code 
Here is the code I use to add an individual ID to each page in a Joomla website. In index.php of your site’s template folder, add this code in place of the < body> tag:
<?php $menu = &JSite::getMenu(); $active = $menu->getActive(); ?> <body id="<?php print $active->alias; ?>">
Now, each page will have it’s own ID. For example, www.yourwebsite.com/about-us will have the ID “about-us.”
Here is the line of code you can use to add a class or ID to an element in your webpage when a user hovers over it (for example: if you want to add a class called “active” to an li element with a class called “top-nav” in the div called “menu” when a user hovers over it):
<script>
$('#menu li').hover (
function(){ $('.top-nav').addClass('active')},
function() {$('.top-nav').removeClass('active')}
)
</script>
Here is the simple line of code you can use to send a PHP email contact form to multiple email addresses:
$to = $this->fields['EmailAddress'].','; $to .='info@yourwebsite.com';
This comes in handy when you have to send the email to one specific email address in addition to an email address which is being pulled in via a variable – for example, if you want to send a copy of the email to users themselves, as in the example above.