Sudar Muthu

<p>Posts By Tag WordPress Plugin, provides sidebar widgets which can be used to display posts from a specific set of tags in the sidebar.</p>
<p>These tags can be specified in the widget or the Plugin can automatically retrieve them from the current post tags, post slug or form custom field. The custom fields can be specified in the edit post or page screen.</p>
<p>You can also use shortcode or template function to display the posts.</p>
<p>The Plugin caches the posts of each widget separately, and issues database queries only when needed. This will reduce the amount of database queries involved for each page load and will therefore be light on your server. If this clashes with other Plugins, you also have an option to disable it.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<h4>Sidebar Widget</h4>
<p>Posts By Tag Plugin provides a sidebar widget which can be configured to display posts from a set of tags in the sidebar. You can have multiple widgets with different set of tags configured for each one of them.</p>
<p>Each widget allows you to choose</p>
<ul>
<li>The set of tags from where posts should be selected (or excluded)</li>
<li>The number of posts to be displayed.</li>
<li>Whether to pick the tags from current post</li>
<li>Whether to pick the tags from current post slug</li>
<li>Whether to pick the tags from current post’s custom field</li>
<li>Option to enable post excerpts to be displayed with post titles.</li>
<li>Option to display post thumbnail if present.</li>
<li>Option to display post author.</li>
<li>Option to display post date.</li>
<li>Option to display post content.</li>
<li>Choose the order in which the posts should be displayed.</li>
<li>Option to exclude current post/page.</li>
<li>Option to specify the target attribute for links</li>
<li>Option to display links to tag archive pages.</li>
<li>Option to disable the cache if needed.</li>
<li>Option to enable Google Analytics tracking on the links</li>
</ul>
<p>To add the widget, log into your WordPress admin console and go to Appearances -> Widgets. You will find the widget with the title “Posts By Tag”. Drag and drop it in the sidebar where you want the widget to be displayed.</p>
<h4>Template function</h4>
<p>In addition to using the widget, you can also use the following template function to display posts from a set of tags, anywhere in the theme.</p>
<pre><code>posts_by_tag($tags, $options);
</code></pre>
<p>The following options can be passed in the $options array</p>
<ul>
<li><code>$tags</code> (string) – set of comma separated tags. If you leave this empty, then the tags from the current post will be used.</li>
<li><code>$options</code> (array) – set of options. The following are the fields that are allowed
<ul>
<li><code>number</code> (number) – default 5 – number of posts to display</li>
<li><code>tag_from_post</code> (bool) – default FALSE – whether to pick up tags from current post’s tag</li>
<li><code>tag_from_post_slug</code> (bool) – default FALSE – whether to pick up tags from current post’s slug</li>
<li><code>tag_from_post_custom_field</code> (bool) – default FALSE – whether to pick up tags from current post’s custom field</li>
<li><code>exclude</code> (bool) – default FALSE – Where to include the tags or exclude the tags</li>
<li><code>excerpt</code> (bool)  – default FALSE – To display post excerpts or not</li>
<li><code>excerpt_filter</code> (bool) – default TRUE Whether to enable or disable excerpt filter</li>
<li><code>thumbnail</code> (bool) – default FALSE  – To display post thumbnails or not</li>
<li><code>thumbnail_size</code> (string/array) – default thumbnail  – Size of the thumbnail image. Refer to https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_post_thumbnail#Thumbnail_Sizes</li>
<li><code>order_by</code> (date,title, random) – default date – Whether to order by date or by title or show them randomly</li>
<li><code>order</code> (asc,desc) – default desc – To change the order in which the posts are displayed.</li>
<li><code>author</code> (bool) – default FALSE – To display author name or not.</li>
<li><code>date</code> (bool) – default FALSE – To display post date or not.</li>
<li><code>content</code> (bool) – default FALSE – To display post content or not.</li>
<li><code>content_filter</code> (bool) – default TRUE Whether to enable or disable content filter</li>
<li><code>exclude_current_post</code> (bool) – default TRUE – To exclude current post/page.</li>
<li><code>tag_links</code> (bool) – default FALSE – To display link to tag archive page or not.</li>
<li><code>link_target</code> (string) – default empty – target attribute for the permalink links.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to the above options the following options are available in the <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag/pro-addons" rel="nofollow ugc">Pro addon</a></p>
<ul>
<li><code>campaign</code> (string) – The Google Analytics campaign code that needs to be appended to every link</li>
<li><code>event</code> (string) – The Google Analytics events code that needs to be appended to every link</li>
</ul>
<p>You can checkout <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag#example-template" rel="nofollow ugc">some example PHP code</a> that shows how you can call the template function with different options.</p>
<h4>Shortcode</h4>
<p>You can also include the following shortcode in your blog posts or WordPress page, to display the posts from the set of tags.</p>
<pre><code>posts-by-tag tags = "tag1, tag2"]
</code></pre>
<p>All the parameters that are accepted by the template tag can also be used in the shortcode.</p>
<p>You can checkout <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag#example-shortcode" rel="nofollow ugc">some example shortcodes</a> that shows how you can use the shortcode with different options.</p>
<h4>Custom field</h4>
<p>You can also specify the tags for each post or page and a custom title using custom field. The UI for the custom field is available on the right side of the add/edit post/page screen in WordPress admin console.</p>
<h4>Styling using CSS</h4>
<p>The Plugin adds the following CSS classes. If you want to customize the look of the widget then can change it by adding custom styles to these CSS classes and ids.</p>
<ul>
<li>The <code>UL</code> tag has the class <code>posts-by-tag-list</code></li>
<li>Every <code>LI</code> tag has the class <code>posts-by-tag-item</code></li>
<li>Every <code>LI</code> tag also has all tags names to which the post belongs as part of the class attribute</li>
<li>Each <code>LI</code> tag also has the id <code>posts-by-tag-item-{id}</code>, where id is the post id.</li>
<li>Each <code><a></code> tag inside <code>LI</code> that contains title has the class <code>posts-by-tag-item-title</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you want to output categories of the post as class names(so that you can style them differently), then you can get the code from this <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-posts-by-tag-display-post-category-classes-in-outputted-code" rel="ugc">forum thread</a>.</p>
<h4>Caching</h4>
<p>If you are using the widget, then the Plugin automatically caches the db queries. This will greatly improve the performance of you page. If this clashes with other Plugins or if you want to manage the cache yourself, then you disable the cache if needed.</p>
<p>However if you are going to use the shortcode or the template directly, then you might have to cache the output yourself.</p>
<h3>Development and Support</h3>
<p>The development of the Plugin happens over at <a href="http://github.com/sudar/posts-by-tag" rel="nofollow ugc">github</a>. If you want to contribute to the Plugin, fork the <a href="http://github.com/sudar/posts-by-tag" rel="nofollow ugc">project at github</a> and send me a pull request.</p>
<p>If you are not familiar with either git or Github then refer to this <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/blog/contributing-to-project-hosted-in-github" rel="nofollow ugc">guide to see how fork and send pull request</a>.</p>
<p>If you are looking for ideas, then you can start with one of the following TODO items 🙂</p>
<h3>TODO</h3>
<p>The following are the features that I am thinking of adding to the Plugin, when I get some free time. If you have any feature request or want to increase the priority of a particular feature, then let me know by adding them to <a href="http://github.com/sudar/posts-by-tag/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">github issues</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Provide template tags for widget title, that will be dynamically expanded.</li>
<li>Add support for custom post types</li>
<li>Ability to sort posts alphabetically</li>
<li>Ability to <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag#comment-783250" rel="nofollow ugc">exclude posts by id</a></li>
<li>Ability to <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag#comment-783248" rel="nofollow ugc">show comment count</a></li>
<li>Ability to <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag#comment-780935" rel="nofollow ugc">retrieve posts by date range</a></li>
<li>Ability to pull posts randomly. – Added in v3.0</li>
</ul>
<h3>Support</h3>
<ul>
<li>If you have found a bug/issue or have a feature request, then post them in <a href="http://github.com/sudar/posts-by-tag/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">github issues</a></li>
<li>If you have a question about usage or need help to troubleshoot, then post in WordPress forums or leave a comment in <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/posts-by-tag" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugins’s home page</a></li>
<li>If you like the Plugin, then kindly leave a review/feedback at <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/posts-by-tag/" rel="ugc">WordPress repo page</a>.</li>
<li>If you find this Plugin useful or and wanted to say thank you, then there are ways to <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/if-you-wanna-thank-me" rel="nofollow ugc">make me happy</a> 🙂 and I would really appreciate if you can do one of those.</li>
<li>Checkout other <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Plugins</a> that I have written</li>
<li>If anything else, then contact me in <a href="http://twitter.com/sudarmuthu" rel="nofollow ugc">twitter</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Translation</h3>
<ul>
<li>Swedish (Thanks Gunnar Lindberg Årneby)</li>
<li>Turkish (Thanks Yakup Gövler)</li>
<li>Belorussian (Thanks FatCow)</li>
<li>German (Thanks Renate)</li>
<li>Dutch (Thanks Rene)</li>
<li>Hebrew (Thanks Sagive SEO)</li>
<li>Spanish (Thanks Brian Flores of InMotion Hosting)</li>
<li>Bulgarian (Thanks Nikolay Nikolov of [IQ Test)</li>
<li>Lithuanian (Thanks  Vincent G)</li>
<li>Hindi (Thanks Love Chandel)</li>
<li>Gujarati (Thanks Punnet of Resolutions Mart)</li>
</ul>
<p>The pot file is available with the Plugin. If you are willing to do translation for the Plugin, use the pot file to create the .po files for your language and let me know. I will add it to the Plugin after giving credit to you.</p>
<h3>Readme Generator</h3>
<p>This Readme file was generated using <a href='http://sudarmuthu.com/wordpress/wp-readme' rel="nofollow ugc">wp-readme</a>, which generates readme files for WordPress Plugins.</p>


Posts By Tag

Very nice plugin, man. I was going to build something myself, but then I found yours. Thanks for saving me a lot of time!

I use the shortcode and it works perfect!

Provide sidebar widget, shortcode and template functions that can be used to display posts from a set of tags using various options in the sidebar or  …

Ben Huson

Michael Fields

Jamie McHale

<h4>Displaying Your Images in Your Theme</h4>
<p>There are a few filters that you can use in your theme to display the image associations created by this plugin. Please read below for detailed information.</p>
<h4>Display a single image representing the term archive</h4>
<p>The following filter will display the image associated with the term asked for in the query string of the URL. This filter only works in views that naturally use templates like category.php, tag.php, taxonomy.php and all of their derivatives. Please read about <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy" rel="nofollow ugc">template hierarchy</a> for more information about these templates. The simplest use of this filter looks like:</p>
<pre><code>print apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>This code will generate and print an image tag. It’s output can be modifed by passing an optional third parameter to apply_filters(). This parameter is an array and the following keys may be set:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>after</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to append to the image’s HTML.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>attr</strong> <em>(array)</em> – Key / value pairs representing the attributes of the <code>img</code> tag. Available options include: <code>alt</code>, <code>class</code>, <code>src</code> and <code>title</code>. This array will be passed as the fourth parameter to WordPress core function <code>wp_get_attachment_image()</code> without modification.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>before</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to prepend to the image’s HTML.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>image_size</strong> <em>(string)</em> – May be any image size registered with WordPress. If no image size is specified, ‘thumbnail’ will be used as a default value. In the event that an unregistered size is specified, this filter will return an empty string.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s an example of what a fully customized version of this filter might look like:</p>
<pre><code>print apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image', '', array(
    'attr'       => array(
        'alt'   => 'Custom alternative text',
        'class' => 'my-class-list bunnies turtles',
        'src'   => 'this-is-where-the-image-lives.png',
        'title' => 'Custom Title',
        ),
    'before'     => '<div id="my-custom-div">',
    'after'      => '</div>',
    'image_size' => 'medium'
) );
</code></pre>
<h4>Similar functionality</h4>
<p>If you just need to get the database ID for the image, you may want to use:</p>
<pre><code>$image_id = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-id', 0 );
</code></pre>
<p>If you need to get the full object of the image, you may want to use:</p>
<pre><code>$image = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-object', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>If you need to get the URL to the image, you may want to use the following:</p>
<pre><code>$image_url = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-url', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>You can specify the size of the image in an option third parameter:</p>
<pre><code>$image_url = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-url', '', array(
    'image_size' => 'medium'
) );
</code></pre>
<p>If you need data about the image, you may want to use:</p>
<pre><code>$image_data = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-data', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>You can specify the size of the image in an option third parameter:</p>
<pre><code>$image_data = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-queried-term-image-data', '', array(
    'image_size' => 'medium'
    ) );
</code></pre>
<h4>List term images associated with a post object</h4>
<p>When a post is being displayed you may want to display the images associated with all of the terms associated with the post. The <code>taxonomy-images-list-the-terms</code> filter does this. Here’s what it looks like in its simplest form:</p>
<pre><code>print apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-list-the-terms', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>This filter accepts an optional third parameter that you can use to customize its output. It is an array which recognizes the following keys:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>after</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to append to the output. Default value is a closing unordered list tag.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>after_image</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to append to each image. Default value is a closing list-item tag.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>before</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to prepend to the output. Default value is an open unordered list tag with an class attribute of “taxonomy-images-the-terms”.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>before_image</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Text to prepend to each image. Default value is an open list-item tag.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>image_size</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Any registered image size. Values will vary from installation to installation. Image sizes defined in core include: “thumbnail”, “medium” and “large”. “full” may also be used to get the unmodified image that was uploaded. Defaults to “thumbnail”.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>post_id</strong> <em>(int)</em> – The post to retrieve terms from. Defaults to the ID property of the global <code>$post</code> object.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>taxonomy</strong> <em>(string)</em> – Name of a registered taxonomy to return terms from. Defaults to <code>category</code>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s an example of what a fully customized version of this filter might look like:</p>
<pre><code>print apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-list-the-terms', '', array(
    'before'       => '<div class="my-custom-class-name">',
    'after'        => '</div>',
    'before_image' => '<span>',
    'after_image'  => '</span>',
    'image_size'   => 'detail',
    'post_id'      => 1234,
    'taxonomy'     => 'post_tag',
) );
</code></pre>
<h4>Working with all terms of a given taxonomy</h4>
<p>You will want to use the <code>taxonomy-images-get-terms</code> filter. This filter is basically a wrapper for WordPress core function <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_terms" rel="nofollow ugc">get_terms()</a>. It will return an array of enhanced term objects: each term object will have a custom property named <code>image_id</code> which is an integer representing the database ID of the image associated with the term. This filter can be used to create custom lists of terms. Here’s what it’s default useage looks like:</p>
<pre><code>$terms = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-get-terms', '' );
</code></pre>
<p>Here is what php’s <code>print_r()</code> function may return:</p>
<pre><code>Array
(
    [0] => stdClass Object
        (
            [term_id]          => 8
            [name]             => Pirate
            [slug]             => pirate
            [term_group]       => 0
            [term_taxonomy_id] => 8
            [taxonomy]         => category
            [description]      => Pirates live in the ocean and ride around on boats.
            [parent]           => 0
            [count]            => 1
            [image_id]         => 44
        )
)
</code></pre>
<p>As you can see, all of the goodness of <code>get_terms()</code> is there with an added bonus: the <code>image_id</code> parameter!</p>
<p>This filter recognizes an optional third parameter which is an array of arguments that can be used to modify its output:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>cache_images</strong> <em>(bool)</em> If this value is <code>true</code> all associated images will be queried and cached for later use in various template tags. If it is set to <code>false</code>, this query will be suppressed. Do not set this value to false unless you have a really good reason for doing so 🙂 Default value is <code>true</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>having_images</strong> <em>(bool)</em> If this value is <code>true</code> then only terms that have associated images will be returned. Setting it to <code>false</code> will return all terms. Default value is <code>true</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>taxonomy</strong> <em>(string)</em> Name of a registered taxonomy to return terms from. Multiple taxonomies may be specified by separating each name by a comma. Defaults to <code>category</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>term_args</strong> <em>(array)</em> Arguments to pass to <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_terms" rel="nofollow ugc"><code>get_terms()</code></a> as the second parameter. Default value is an empty array.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s an example of a simple custom loop that you can use to display all term images:</p>
<pre><code>$terms = apply_filters( 'taxonomy-images-get-terms', '' );
if ( ! empty( $terms ) ) {
    print '<ul>';
    foreach ( (array) $terms as $term ) {
        print '<li><a href="' . esc_url( get_term_link( $term, $term->taxonomy ) ) . '">' . wp_get_attachment_image( $term->image_id, 'detail' ) . '</a></li>';
    }
    print '</ul>';
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Support</h4>
<p>If you have questions about integrating this plugin into your site, please <a href="https://wordpress.org/tags/taxonomy-images?forum_id=10#postform" rel="ugc">add a new thread to the WordPress Support Forum</a>. I try to answer these, but I may not always be able to. In the event that I cannot there may be someone else who can help.</p>
<h4>Bugs, Suggestions</h4>
<p>Development of this plugin is hosted in a public repository on <a href="https://github.com/benhuson/Taxonomy-Images" rel="nofollow ugc">Github</a>. If you find a bug in this plugin or have a suggestion to make it better, please <a href="https://github.com/benhuson/Taxonomy-Images/issues/new" rel="nofollow ugc">create a new issue</a></p>
<h4>Hook it up yo!</h4>
<p>If you have fallen in love with this plugin and would not be able to sleep without helping out in some way, please see the following list of ways that you can <em>hook it up!</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Rate it!</strong> – Use the star tool on the right-hand sidebar of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/taxonomy-images/" rel="ugc">plugin homepage</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Let me know if it works</strong> – Use the <em>Compatibility</em> widget on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/taxonomy-images/" rel="ugc">plugin homepage</a> to let everyone know that the current version works with your version of WordPress.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Do you Twitter?</strong> Help promote by using this shortlink: <a href="http://bit.ly/taxonomy-images" rel="nofollow ugc">http://bit.ly/taxonomy-images</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Are you a writer?</strong> Help promote by writing an article on your website about this plugin.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Need More Taxonomy Plugins?</h4>
<p>The original author of this plugin, Michael Fields, released a handful of plugins dealing with taxonomies. Please see his <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mfields/" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress.org profile</a> for more information.</p>


Taxonomy Images

Associate images from your media library to categories, tags and custom taxonomies.

Posts By Tag vs Taxonomy Images