Latest News Widget Setup

.htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(.*\.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

redirect 301 /admin /wp-admin

latest-news.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Latest News
Plugin URI: #
Description: Adds the Latest News and Widget to display the number of Latest News items
Author: #
Version: 1.1
Author URI: #
*/

class LatestNews extends WP_Widget
{   
    // Constructor //
    function LatestNews()
    {
        // Widget Settings
        $widget_ops = array(
            'classname'     => 'latest-news',
            'description'   => 'Displays the number of Latest News items from the Latest News Custom Post'
        );

        // Create the widget
        $this->WP_Widget( 'LatestNews', 'Latest News', $widget_ops ); 
    }   

    function widget( $args, $instance )
    {
        // outputs the content of the widget
        global $wpdb;
        
        extract( $args );
        
        $title = apply_filters( 'widget_title', empty( $instance[ 'title' ] ) ? __( '' ) : $instance[ 'title' ], $instance, $this->id_base );
        $include_date = $instance[ 'includedate' ] ? '1' : '0';
        $news_item_title = $instance[ 'newsitemtitle' ] ? '1' : '0';

        if ( !$number = absint( $instance[ 'number' ] ) ) {
            $number = 3;
        }

        echo $before_widget;
            
        if ( $title ) : ?>
            <h3 class="latest-news-heading"><?php echo $title; ?></h3>
        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php
        $args = array(
            'post_type'         => 'latest-news',
            'post_status'       => 'publish',
            'paged'             => $paged,
            'posts_per_page'    => $number,
            'order'             => 'DESC',
            'orderby'           => 'date'
        );

        $loops = new WP_Query( $args );
        
        if ( $loops->have_posts() ) : ?>

            <ul id="latest-news">

                <?php while ( $loops->have_posts() ) :

                    $loops->the_post();
                    $news_content = get_the_content();
                    $news_content = strip_tags( $news_content );
                    $news_content = ShortenText( $news_content, 80, '&hellip;' );
                    ?>

                    <li class="lastest-news-item">
                        <?php if( $news_item_title ) : ?>
                        <h3 class="latest-news-title"><?php the_title() ?></h3>
                        <?php endif; ?>
                        <?php if ( $include_date ) : ?>
                        <p class="latest-news-date"><span><?php the_time( 'j M Y' ) ?></span></p>
                        <?php endif; ?>
                        <div class="latest-news-content">
                            <p><?php echo $news_content; ?></p>
                            <p class="read-more"><a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>"title="<?php echo htmlentities( get_the_title() ); ?>">Read more</a></p>
                        </div>
                    </li>

                <?php endwhile; ?>

            </ul>
            <?php if( function_exists( 'wp_paginate' ) ) {
                wp_paginate();
            } ?>
        <?php endif; ?>
        <?php
        wp_reset_postdata();
        
        echo $after_widget;

    }
    
    function update( $new_instance, $old_instance )
    {
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance[ 'title' ] = strip_tags( $new_instance[ 'title' ] );
        $instance[ 'number' ] = absint( $new_instance[ 'number' ] );
        $instance[ 'includedate' ] = !empty ( $new_instance[ 'includedate' ] ) ? 1 : 0;
        $instance[ 'newsitemtitle' ] = !empty ( $new_instance[ 'newsitemtitle' ] ) ? 1 : 0;
        
        return $instance;
    }

    function form( $instance )
    {
        $defaults = array(
            'title'         => '',
            'number'        => 3,
            'includedate'   => true,
            'newsitemtitle' => true
        );
        $instance = wp_parse_args( ( array ) $instance, $defaults );
        
        $title = isset( $instance[ 'title' ] ) ? esc_attr( $instance[ 'title' ] ) : '';
        $number = isset( $instance[ 'number' ] ) ? absint( $instance[ 'number' ] ) : 3;
        $include_date = isset( $instance[ 'includedate' ] ) ? ( bool ) $instance[ 'includedate' ] : true;
        $news_item_title = isset( $instance[ 'newsitemtitle' ] ) ? ( bool ) $instance[ 'newsitemtitle' ] : true;
        ?>
        
        <p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Title:' ); ?></label>
        <input class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo $title; ?>" /></p>

        <p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'number' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Number of news items to show:' ); ?></label>
        <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'number' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'number' ); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo $number; ?>" size="3" /></p>
        
    <p><input type="checkbox" class="checkbox" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'newstitle' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'newsitemtitle' ); ?>"<?php checked( $news_item_title ); ?> />
        <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'newsitemtitle' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Show News Item Title' ); ?></label></p>
                
        <p><input type="checkbox" class="checkbox" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'includedate' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'includedate' ); ?>"<?php checked( $include_date ); ?> />
        <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'includedate' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Show Date' ); ?></label></p>

        <?php
    }
}

function create_latest_news()
{
    $labels = array( 
        'name'                  => _x( 'Latest News', 'post type general name' ),
        'singular_name'         => _x( 'News List', 'post type singular name' ),
        'add_new'               => _x( 'Add New', 'News' ),
        'add_new_item'          => __( 'Add New News' ),
        'edit_item'             => __( 'Edit News' ),
        'new_item'              => __( 'New News' ),
        'view_item'             => __( 'View News' ),
        'search_items'          => __( 'Search News' ),
        'not_found'             =>  __( 'Nothing found' ),
        'not_found_in_trash'    => __( 'Nothing found in Trash' )
    );

    $args = array(
        'labels'                => $labels,
        'public'                => true,
        'has_archive'           => 'true', // Activate the archive
        'supports'              => array( 'title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'page-attributes' ),
        'taxonomies'            => array( 'category' ) // this is IMPORTANT
    );
    register_post_type( 'latest-news', $args );
}

// End class soup_widget
add_action( 'init', 'create_latest_news' );
add_action( 'widgets_init', create_function( '', 'return register_widget( "LatestNews" );' ) );

?>

page-news.php

<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="sub-page" class="news main-sub-page">
    <?php if( have_posts() ) : while( have_posts() ) : ?>
    <?php the_post(); ?>
    <h1 class="page-title"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
    <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
    <?php dynamic_sidebar( 'first-widget-area' ); ?>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>