Description
The Hits List keeps post view tracking on your own WordPress site and gives you block, widget, and template-tag tools for displaying popular content.
Key features:
- Local view tracking stored in WordPress database tables
- Overall and daily popular-post counts
- Popular Posts block and widget support
- WordPress dashboard cards for daily top posts, all-time top posts, and views over time
- Top 10 migration compatibility with rerun-safe imports
- REST-based tracking with AJAX fallback
- Privacy-policy integration for site owners
Privacy
The Hits List stores post view counts locally in the hits_list and hits_list_daily database tables (table prefix may vary).
It does not send tracking data to a third-party analytics service.
Daily tracking buckets are retained for 180 days by default and older rows are removed automatically.
You are responsible for describing your use of visitor analytics on your own site as needed.
Source Code and Build Tools
The compiled block assets in blocks/popular-posts/build/ are generated from the human-readable source files included in blocks/popular-posts/src/.
To rebuild the block assets:
- Go to
blocks/popular-posts/. - Run
npm install. - Run
npm run build.
The block build uses @wordpress/scripts. Runtime PHP, vanilla JavaScript, and CSS assets outside the block build are maintained directly in the plugin source.
Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
- The Hits List – Popular Posts Display the most popular posts as a list or grid based on view counts
Installation
- Upload the
the-hits-listfolder to/wp-content/plugins/. - Activate The Hits List through the Plugins screen in WordPress.
- Go to Settings > The Hits List to configure tracking and display options.
- If Top 10 data is detected, use the import button on the settings screen to migrate existing counts.
FAQ
-
Does this send data to a third-party service?
-
No. The Hits List stores tracking data locally in your WordPress database and does not call a third-party analytics endpoint.
-
Can I migrate from Top 10?
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Yes. The plugin can import compatible overall and daily counts from Top 10 tables. Imports are rerun-safe, so repeating the import does not double-count unchanged source data.
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How long is daily data kept?
-
Daily buckets are retained for 180 days by default. Older daily rows are pruned automatically by a scheduled cleanup task.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“The Hits List” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
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Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.3.0
- Added WordPress dashboard cards for daily top posts, all-time top posts, and views over time.
- Added post list table columns for total, daily, and condensed view counts.
- Hardened public REST tracking and counter endpoints.
- Removed the legacy query-string tracking endpoint.
1.2.0
- Normalized tracking to use server-derived blog IDs and validated post targets.
- Reworked daily tracking into true site-local day buckets with upgrade migration support.
- Added rerun-safe Top 10 import state handling.