Refactor wp_get_recent_posts to use get_posts function

[blepoxp]

The wp_get_recent_posts function currently only allows 1 argument for number of posts, queries the database directly with $wpdb->get_results( $sql ) and returns the result set as an assc array.

This refactor would retain the above functionality by default as well as make the result set much more flexible, allowing access to all the args available within the get_posts() function.

[blepoxp]

wp_get_recent_posts refactored

[nacin]

Instead of deprecating the argument, I think we can just do an is_numeric check on $args, and then turn it into $args = array( 'numberposts' => absint( $args ) ).

Also, I think there's probably a cleaner way to handle the array conversion?

[blepoxp]

Good idea. Yeah, I wasn't happy with the foreach loop. I'll look into other options.

[blepoxp]

This is the best solution I found for converting an Object to an array outside of the foreach loop I used but it would include introducing another function. Thoughts? (I couldn't find a wp function that already did this).

function wp_object_to_array( $object ) {
        if ( !is_object( $object ) && !is_array( $object ) )
            return $object;
        
        if ( is_object( $object ) )
            $object = get_object_vars( $object );

        return array_map( 'wp_object_to_array', $object );
}

[nacin]

We don't currently have a helper for that; we leverage get_object_vars() in a few places... I would do the same.

[blepoxp]

Adjusts arguments and replaces foreach cast with get_object_vars

[blepoxp]

Added updated patch.

[ryan]

(In [15973]) Refactor wp_get_recent_posts to use get_posts(). Props blepoxp. fixes #14389