Can WPP plugin replace YARPP?

Hi @giorgos93,

Well, the two plugins fulfill different roles. YARPP is a plugin that -as you already know- displays a list of posts that are somehow connected to the current one (eg. from the same category) whereas WordPress Popular Posts lists popular posts. So I wouldn’t say WPP can replace YARPP. At least not completely.

What you could do though is have WPP display popular posts that are on the same category as the current post, like this for example (although it could be better done.) That would kind of be similar to what YARPP does, I guess.

Yes, it can be implemented with the shortcode as well but I’m not near my computer right now. I’ll leave another comment with the solution once I get back.

Ok, I believe that something like this should work. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file and the [wpp] shortcode should automatically filter popular posts by the same category ID as the current post:

/**
 * Modifies the [wpp] shortcode so it automatically filters
 * popular posts by the category assigned to the current post.
 *
 * @param   array  $out  The output array of shortcode attributes.
 * @returns array  $out  The (modified) output array of shortcode attributes.
 */
function wpp_shortcode_filter_by_current_category( $out ) {
    if ( is_single() ) {
        $post_id = get_queried_object_id();
        $post_category_IDs = wp_get_post_categories( $post_id, array( 'fields' => 'ids' ) );
        $out['cat'] = $post_category_IDs[0];
    }

    return $out;
}
add_filter( 'shortcode_atts_wpp', 'wpp_shortcode_filter_by_current_category', 1, 1 );

I didn’t test it though so if you have any comments / questions please let me know.

I did see your comments, I was just busy with work & life in general and only replied to other questions that I immediately knew the answer to without having to think too much 😛

About your questions:

Is it possible to filter popular posts only by used subcategories of the post?

and:

And also, is it possible to exclude viewed post from the list? So it won’t show the same page, that you are on.

Yes to both. The code below has been updated so 1) we filter by child categories whenever possible, and 2) current post gets excluded from the list.

/**
 * Modifies the [wpp] shortcode so it automatically filters
 * popular posts by the category assigned to the current post.
 *
 * @param   array  $out  The output array of shortcode attributes.
 * @returns array  $out  The (modified) output array of shortcode attributes.
 */
function wpp_shortcode_filter_by_current_category( $out ) {
    if ( is_single() && in_the_loop() ) {
        $post_id = get_queried_object_id();
        $post_category_IDs = wp_get_post_categories( $post_id, array( 'fields' => 'id=>parent' ) );

		/* Find the first child category ID so we can use it to filter posts */
		$child_category_ID = array_find_key(
			$post_category_IDs,
			function($parent_ID) {
				return $parent_ID > 0;
			}
		);

		/* This post isn't linked to a child category, fallback to the first ID */
		if ( ! $child_category_ID ) {
			$child_category_ID = array_key_first($post_category_IDs);
		}

		/* Get popular posts from this category */
        $out['cat'] = $child_category_ID;
		
		/* Exclude current post */
		$out['pid'] = $post_id;
    }

    return $out;
}
add_filter( 'shortcode_atts_wpp', 'wpp_shortcode_filter_by_current_category', 1, 1 );

And about this question:

And can I use [wpp] shortcode on the same page twice (in sidebar and at the end of each post)? If yes, then can I use different styles for them? Because I already set needed styles for sidebar, and I’ll need different styles at the end of each post.

Yes, you can. You’re already using some custom HTML with your popular posts list, just make sure that both lists are using different CSS classes and style them accordingly.

For example, let’s say that this is your after-post-content shortcode (shortened for brevity):

[wpp ... wpp_start='<div class="wpp-custom-cards">' post_html='<div class="wpp-custom-card"><div class="wpp-custom-thumb">{thumb}</div><div class="wpp-custom-title"><a class="wpp-custom-title-link" href="{url}">{text_title}</a></div></div>' wpp_end='</div>']

And this could be your sidebar one (shortened for brevity):

[wpp ... wpp_start='<div class="wpp-sidebar-list">' post_html='<div class="wpp-sidebar-item"><div class="wpp-sidebar-thumb">{thumb}</div><div class="wpp-sidebar-title"><a class="wpp-sidebar-title-link" href="{url}">{text_title}</a></div></div>' wpp_end='</div>']

However, it created 6 posts, and each of them has the same link inside (URL of the same page that is opened at that moment). But in thumbnails all the links are included correctly. And the posts titles are shown correctly as well – only URLs inside them are incorrect. How can I fix it?

Sounds like you have some broken code on your end.

I replicated your setup on my test site, one shortcode on the sidebar and one shortcode at the end of a post. The same shortcode as yours, not a single change. Everything worked as expected, no weird broken links as you reported.

How are you adding the shortcode at the end of your posts exactly?

And also: is there any way, how to filter posts not only by categories, but also by posts title? In other words, to show relevant posts by category and by similar title at the same time.

No, there is not. As I said, WPP is not really a replacement for YARPP 😛

Maybe it has mistakes?

No, I don’t think that’s the case. I actually tested this code and it worked as expected on my dev site. Might want to double check your code.

I did exactly that, but it didn’t help, unfortunately…

You’re probably missing something then. Cannot help without seeing your code in action.

The second (problematic) shortcode was put in “Ad Inserter” plugin

Might be an issue with the Ad Inserter plugin then. Try adding your second shortcode to the end of your posts without that plugin and check again.