List posts from other WP sites by category

[Rob 547]

Thank you in advance for your help with this daunting task. I have multiple WP installations with PlatformPro base on all of them. My goal is to create a new one that pulls 5 posts from each of the leading categories in the other WP installations. I know that I can place the links within boxes, but I'm unsure how to pull content from other installations and put it in the proper formatting. To be very specific, I have the following directories on my site each with WP/PlatformPro: .com/food; .com/food/recipes; .com/beverages; .com/blog. The latest in the various categories of each of the installations will be listed on .com/magazine which doesn't actually have any real content. This will be similar in nature to the category boxes found on www.cnn.com (lower half of the index page). I'd also like to pull into the loop the very latest post from each of the installations to appear as they do on the original, complete with thumbnail, title, date, author, excerpt and link. Does anyone have any idea how to do this? Keep in mind, I'm not a programmer, so the coding will be a challenge.

[cmunns 16]

Are these individual setups? and not on multi-site correct? You would have had an easier time doing this on a WordPres multi-site network where plugins exist to do that...possible to switch?

[Rob 547]

Adam, Yes, these are individual installations/setups.. each in a directory as linked above. I have no issues about going to multi-site on a philosophical basis, but on a technical one, I simply don't know how to make that drastic change. WP provides some information, but leaves more questions than answers. For example, do I leave each WP install in place? How do I merge the databases as they'll have conflicting ID numbers for posts, etc.? How do I deal with existing plugins that may in some cases have different settings in one setup than they do in another? How do I deal with security levels? Most of my setups don't require S2Member, but my beverages section does, based on the need to ensure that the individual viewing the liquor recipes is 21 or over. Silly, I know, but some jurisdictions require that anyone viewing a cocktail recipe be over 21. If you could give me some guidance about how to pull these together, perhaps by email rather than by forum posting, I'd be greatly appreciative and perhaps could achieve this. Best address is bob @ [the domain linked above] Thanks for your help.

[cmunns 16]

well there is no reason why you can't keep them separate I just thought that in the long run managing them from one UI would be easier and you could control everything from one place. If you don't want to hassle with the technical side of the switch then I recommend grabbing the RSS feed from each blog and use that to parse content onto the main site. What do you think?

[Rob 547]

Sounds okay, but the question remains... How? I've no problem doing the multi-site conversion if I know what I'm doing. Can you point me to some resource better than wp/codex for instruction? Thanks.