ACF - Automated Recent Post Picker

automatic-post-picker.php

<section class="row widget-area post-picker auto <?php the_sub_field( 'css_class' ); the_sub_field( 'background_selector' ); ?>" id="<?php the_sub_field ('block_id'); ?>" <?php if( get_sub_field( 'background_image' ) ) { ?> style="background-image: url(<?php the_sub_field( 'background_image' ); ?>);"<?php } ?> >
  
  <div class="wrap">
  
  <?php if( get_sub_field( 'headline' ) ) { ?>
		<h3><?php the_sub_field( 'headline' ); ?></h3>
	<?php } ?>  
    
  <section class="section news-post"><div class="box wrap">

    <?php
      
      $cat_ids = get_sub_field ( 'choose_category' );
       //var_dump($cat_ids);
    
      $args = array(
          'post_type'      => 'post',
          'category__in'   => (array) $cat_ids,
          'posts_per_page' => 3,
      );
      $query = new WP_Query( $args );
      
    ?>

  	<?php if( $query->have_posts( ) ) : while( $query->have_posts( ) ) : $query->the_post( ); ?>
  
  	<article class="entry text-holder featuredpost one-third" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" itemscope="itemscope">
  		<a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>" class="entry-image">
  			<?php if( has_post_thumbnail( ) ) {
  					echo get_the_post_thumbnail( );
  				}
        ?></a>
        <header class="entry-header">
            <p class="entry-meta">
  						<?php echo do_shortcode("[post_date]"); ?>
  					</p>
  					<h2 class="entry-title"><a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>"><?php echo get_the_title(); ?></a></h2>
        </header>
        <div class="entry-content">
  					<?php the_excerpt(  ); ?>
            <a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>" class="button small more-link">Continue Reading</a>
  
  				</div>
  		
  	</article>

	  <?php endwhile; endif; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

  </div><section>

</div></section>