Dani Llewellyn

Hi,

you have good eyes. Yes, the newly released version 2.2.0 includes the ability to show the post-count for taxonomy terms. To use this new functionality you need to customise the template that the plugin uses. First, copy the file at wp-content/plugins/a-z-listing/templates/a-z-listing.php into your theme’s directory alongside functions.php. It should be named a-z-listing.php.

Once you have your own template in your theme you can customise it. To add the post-count on a taxonomy term you can edit the file and find on line 58 the code <?php $a_z_query->the_title(); ?>. Add to that the the_item_post_count() call so that the line now looks like:

<?php $a_z_query->the_title(); ?> (<?php $a_z_query->the_item_post_count(); ?>)

Note that this will affect all listings whether or not they show taxonomy-terms. i.e. if they show posts the listing will have (0) after every post title. I’ll make a note to add an extra method to allow the template to know what type of item it is displaying (term or post) because at the moment it is not easy to figure that out.

Hi,

The CSS that determines the columns can be overridden. I use a pre-processor to generate them but the final output is as follows:

.letter-section ul.columns {
    column-gap: 0.6em;
    column-width: 15em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-0-columns,
.letter-section ul.columns.max-1-columns {
      column-count: 1;
      max-width: 15.6em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-2-columns {
      column-count: 2;
      max-width: 30.6em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-3-columns {
      column-count: 3;
      max-width: 46.2em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-4-columns {
      column-count: 4;
      max-width: 61.8em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-5-columns {
      column-count: 5;
      max-width: 77.4em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-6-columns {
      column-count: 6;
      max-width: 93em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-7-columns {
      column-count: 7;
      max-width: 108.6em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-8-columns {
      column-count: 8;
      max-width: 124.2em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-9-columns {
      column-count: 9;
      max-width: 139.8em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-10-columns {
      column-count: 10;
      max-width: 155.4em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-11-columns {
      column-count: 11;
      max-width: 171em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-12-columns {
      column-count: 12;
      max-width: 186.6em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-13-columns {
      column-count: 13;
      max-width: 202.2em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-14-columns {
      column-count: 14;
      max-width: 217.8em;
}
.letter-section ul.columns.max-15-columns {
      column-count: 15;
      max-width: 233.4em;
}

Hopefully, it should be clear that the column width is determined by column-width in the first selector. The rest of the rules are about limiting the number of columns so that there are always several items in each column before adding another column. This prevents situations where you have 5 columns each with a single item within. Instead, you’ll get a single column with 5 items rather than 5 columns with 1 item.

The max-width in the max-x-columns selectors is the number of columns multiplied by the column width and then 0.6em added to account for the column-gap.

If you use SCSS as a preprocessor you can generate the rules with:

.letter-section ul.columns {
    column-gap: 0.6em;
    column-width: 15em;

    &.max-0-columns,
    &.max-1-columns {
        column-count: 1;
        max-width: 15.6em;
    }
    @for $column from 2 to 16 {
        &.max-#{$column}-columns {
            column-count: $column;
            max-width: ($column * 15em) + (($column - 1) * 0.6em);
        }
    }
}

It looks like you’re hacking the plugin code directly. I’m sorry, but I can’t support you if you are. It will break whenever you update the plugin because your changes will be overwritten.

To display the category names in your listing you can use a shortcode like:

[a-z-listing display="terms" taxonomy="category"]

The display="terms" parameter switches the plugin into showing “taxonomy terms” (categories are terms in the category taxonomy), and taxonomy="category" tells the plugin which taxonomy to show, in this case, it is “categories”.

Sorry, my code above was incorrect. To show the term names you need to run the array through a map first:

echo '[' . esc_html(
    implode(
        ', ',
        array_map(
            $terms,
            function( $term ) {
                return $term->name;
            }
        )
    )
) . ']';

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Dani Llewellyn. Reason: fix new code

You’re nearly there. The missing ingredient is that you don’t have the Post loaded when you call the_content() because I am keenly aware of the slowness and breakage it can cause on large listings. You can load the Post by adjusting the loop’s first few lines:

Change:

while ( $a_z_query->have_items() ) :
	$a_z_query->the_item();

To:

while ( $a_z_query->have_items() ) :
	$a_z_query->the_item();
	$a_z_query->get_the_item_object( 'I understand the issues!' );

Note that the argument passed to get_the_item_object must read exactly I understand the issues! to indicate to the plugin that you have understood that it might be slow, use a lot of resources, or break due to resource constraints (memory and time).

Once you have called get_the_item_object you can use all the usual WordPress post-related functionality such as the_content().

Yes, this can be achieved, but it might break because of resource limits on your server. It is a heavy operation and the larger the listing the more resource intensive the process.

With that caveat aside, the way to do it is to copy the template from the plugin folder at templates/a-z-listing.php into your theme and adjust it slightly.

On line 37 (in version 2.1.0) you will need to insert a new line after the opening <?php tag with:

$post = $a_z_query->get_the_item_object( 'I understand the issues!' );

The text I understand the issues! must be exactly that for the plugin to accept that you really have read my warning about it potentially being slow or breaking due to resource constraints, or both.

Once you have the $post you can edit line 58 (again in version 2.1.0) to append the following on a new line:

<?php
$terms = get_the_terms( $post, 'category' );
if ( $terms ) :
    echo '[' . esc_html( implode( ', ', $terms ) ) . ']';
endif;
?>

Can you tell me the version numbers which do and do not exhibit the behaviour, please? “The new version” could mean different things to different people, so only using the specific version numbers can we all be on the same page. Also, could you please restate the issue you’re having because we have covered multiple issues in this thread so I’m not sure what the current state is. If you could also paste your current shortcode that would help, too.