Title: Widget works but shortcode doesn't
Last modified: August 21, 2016
---
# Widget works but shortcode doesn't
* [iamali](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iamali/)
* (@iamali)
* [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/)
* Hey,
* Got everything set up nicely – popped a widget in the sidebar & it works fine
getting the 5 latest posts. Tried to do a shortcode however & it doesn’t work–
all it brings back is one link for the front page even though it’s set to just
bring back posts only, not pages.
* My code is this:
* ``
* Any ideas?
* Thanks!
* [http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-top-posts-widget/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-top-posts-widget/)
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)
1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/page/2/?output_format=md)
* Plugin Author [Justin Sternberg](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtsternberg/)
* (@jtsternberg)
* [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500255)
* Are you still having issues with this? Are the settings you’re using in the shortcode
the same settings you have in the widget?
* [alesub](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alesub/)
* (@alesub)
* [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500320)
* Same thing over here. I’m pasting the shortcode provided in the description of
the plugin’s page but it doesn’t render anything.
* The widget however works great.
* I’m starting to dig into the code, I’ll post if I find anything else.
* Thanks!
* [alesub](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alesub/)
* (@alesub)
* [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500321)
* The only useful data I can provide right now is that the shortcode outputs
* despite if it’s using transtient or not. I couldn’t spot exactly where the code
is exiting without getting the data correctly like the widget.
* Note on the side: Adding “update” as a parameter in the shortcode as suggested
in google-analytics-top-posts-widget.php at line 132 didn’t forced the transtient
to be skipped, seems like the parameter is getting lost after applying the filters.
* Plugin Author [Justin Sternberg](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtsternberg/)
* (@jtsternberg)
* [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500322)
* What is the site you have this installed on? Specifically the page with the shortcode/
widget.
* [JureCuhalev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jurecuhalev/)
* (@jurecuhalev)
* [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500326)
* Having same problem here. Just using:
* ``
* returns
* ```
```
* but the widget works (and is also not using transient). I’ll continue looking
through code if I can figure out what’s going on.
* I’m trying to build custom rss feed, so it’s not in a context of page/post.
* [griffi1r](https://wordpress.org/support/users/griffi1r/)
* (@griffi1r)
* [12 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500347)
* I am just using the shortcode on the page, but get the same issue as you guys.
When I check the source code, I also see
*
* Any ideas Justin Sternberg?
* [Mr Press](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tahrirsquare/)
* (@tahrirsquare)
* [12 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500348)
* Hi, Thanks for the great plugin. The widget works fine but I can confirm the
shortcode doesn’t work for me either. I am getting “using transient” however:
* ```
```
* [Mr Press](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tahrirsquare/)
* (@tahrirsquare)
* [12 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500353)
* My shortcode works fine now. I probably had a caching issue. I installed and
ran the plugin [Artiss transient cleaner](http://wordpress.org/plugins/artiss-transient-cleaner/)
and after that the posts showed up with the shortcode.
* [hki429](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hki429/)
* (@hki429)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500357)
* I have the same problem as Mr Press, with no list generated with the shortcode(
though the widget works okay) and the following HTML source code:
* ```
```
* However, the transient cleaner plugin did not solve it for me. Anyone got another
idea what might cause this?
* [Mr Press](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tahrirsquare/)
* (@tahrirsquare)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500358)
* [@hki429](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hki429/)
* There are a few things you may try. Make sure the GA Top content widget is deleted.
Clear out all transients, not only those that have expired. Check that Google
Analytics Dashboard is showing stats for your posts in the posts list in wp-admin.
If you are using the plugin Bulletproof security [make changes](http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/google-analytics-dashboard-google-analytics-data-will-not-load/)
to the wp-admin .htaccess-file or remove the wp-admin .htaccess-file, which I
had to do. Open your database sql-file in an editor like Notepad++ and search
for “google_top_content”. You should find `_transient_timeout_dw-gtc-list-google_top_content`
and `_transient_dw-gtc-list-google_top_content` where the most viewed posts should
be listed. Make sure your shortcode has the correct format, like:
* ``
* If you for example put a pageviews number which is higher than the highest number
of visits to your posts, nothing will show.
* Hope this helps.
* [prometheangroup](https://wordpress.org/support/users/prometheangroup/)
* (@prometheangroup)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500359)
* We are seeing exactly the same bug as above. we have cleared out transients.
Still getting the “using transient” bug with no top content data. We have uninstalled
the plugin and we have even reverted back to the 1.4.8 version of the plugin.
Still the same bug exists, providing no data, just the “using transient” bug.
* We have tried numerous different fixes, including the exact example shortcode
on the plugin page with the same results and yes, all of our posts have more
far more than 5 views. Also, please note that this plugin was working great before
the 3.8.1 upgrade.
* Also strange is that the daskboard top-content widget is working fine, so that
leads us to believe it is just a simple bug in the shortcode that is not compatible
with WordPress 3.8.1.
* What is the status of getting this shortcodes bug fixed?
* Appreciate your help and will gladly contribute a donation, if you can get this
fixed in a timely fashion… Yes, that is a bribe.
* [Mr Press](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tahrirsquare/)
* (@tahrirsquare)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500361)
* [@prometheangroup](https://wordpress.org/support/users/prometheangroup/)
* I would not be so quick to label this as a bug. I had some difficulties getting
the shortcode to work, but once I found out how the plugin functions I got the
shortcode working the way to be expected. As a number of people here have reported
difficulties perhaps the plugin isn’t running smoothly in all circumstances,
but I wouldn’t label the shortcode problem as a bug nevertheless.
* Have you tried to disable all your other plugins one by one to see if another
plugin causes the problem with the shortcode? Do you have a .htaccess security
plugin installed which may interefe with the Google Analytics Dashboard plugin?
It’s very common for faulty plugins to interfere with other plugins.
* [prometheangroup](https://wordpress.org/support/users/prometheangroup/)
* (@prometheangroup)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500362)
* Yes, we tried all of the standard tricks both in dev and test, (test is an exact
hw/sw replica of production), as is SOP for any CMS issue logged.
* We certainly can sympathize with your desire to rename this (whatever you are
wanting to call it) something more politically correct, other than a “bug.” It
appears your definition of a bug is more narrow than ours, and we should probably
adopt your “softer” stance on “name-calling” of these topics (avoiding the dreaded“
B” word) as these gracious plug-in developers are largely unpaid and exceedingly
under-appreciated.
* Suffice it to say, we greatly appreciate both the plug-in developers and anyone
who positively contributes to any of the related forums. And of course, we are
a consistent monetary donator to many of the contributors to this as well as
various other open-source communities.
* So to get any future forum-good-samaritans more up to speed on where we are,
and avoid suggesting already tried stuff, we believe we’ve narrowed it down to
a database residuals issue from legacy plugins that have somehow created “stealth-
conflicts” in migrating to 3.8.1. This is due to the fact that this site has
a fairly lengthy history and countless plugins were installed and then uninstalled,
but as you know, can unfortunately leave residual data in mySQL.
* We’re probably going to stop debugging (oops! I mean de-investigating) this topic
because we were able to just reverse-engineer the working plugin code in the
CMS console that does essentially the same thing and write our own [shortcode].
* Nonetheless, if we do happen to find the issue and related patch / fix on another
one of our WP instances, we’ll post the solution here for posterity.
* Thanks!
* [hki429](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hki429/)
* (@hki429)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500364)
* [@mr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mr/) Press
* Thank you! If I remove the `_transient_timeout_dw-gtc-list-google_top_content`
and `_transient_dw-gtc-list-google_top_content` transients every time I make
a change to the shortcode, the shortcode works and changes are visible.
* Thanks again.
* [hki429](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hki429/)
* (@hki429)
* [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/#post-4500390)
* > If I remove the _transient_timeout_dw-gtc-list-google_top_content and _transient_dw-
> gtc-list-google_top_content transients every time I make a change to the shortcode,
> the shortcode works and changes are visible.
* Since version 1.5.2 I cannot find these transients anymore in the wp_options
table. Anyone knows how I can remove the transients so that the plugin can be
configured correctly, instead of keeping the layout it showed the first time
upon activation?
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)
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The topic ‘Widget works but shortcode doesn't’ is closed to new replies.
* 
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## Tags
* [shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/shortcode/)
* 23 replies
* 8 participants
* Last reply from: [hki429](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hki429/)
* Last activity: [11 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-works-but-shortcode-doesnt/page/2/#post-4500405)
* Status: not resolved