Easy Popular Posts

This easy to use WordPress plugin is designed to add a new feature for theme developers. Used on many of my own websites as well as those of my clients, the plugin allows me to quickly add a collection of popular posts to any theme element.

The plugin can easily be used by website owners as a WordPress Widget, adding lists of posts to the Sidebar of a WordPress website.

About the plugin

More advanced users can also call the functionality of the plugin from a WordPress shortcode by adding the code [thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts] to any Post or Page within WordPress.

Finally, theme authors may also take advantage of the plugin by calling the functionality directly from theme files with the code thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts();.

This plugin was originally authored by Christopher Ross.

Questions about this plugin can be posted to the WordPress.org forums at https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-popular-posts/, or to the Issues tab at the GitHub https://github.com/thisismyurl/easy-popular-posts repository for the plugin.

This plugin is currently available in:

• English
• French
• German

Updates

Updates to this plugin will be posted to the GitHub repository for testing prior to updates on WordPress.org, if you’d like to help make this plugin better please consider taking part in regular code reviews of releases at the GitHub repository.

Donations

Open source software such as this free WordPress plugin only work through the hard work of community members, volunteering their time or resources to make the software freely available. If you would like to show your support for this software, please consider donating towards the development effort.

If you can’t contribute to the plugin in any other way, please consider translating it to your local language.

To install the plugin, please upload the plugin folder to your plugins folder and active the plugin.

Can I display the Widget?

Access your Widget control panel at Appearance > Widgets to add it to your theme.

Can I display the contents as a shortcode?

Yes, the shortcode can be viewed within a post as: [thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts]

How do I display the results in a theme file?

thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts(); will display the results as a PHP function in WordPress theme files.

1. 

   The Widget Control Panel

15.01.12

• Fixed an error displaying the plugin as a PHP call
• Cleaned up inline documentation

15.01

• Rewrote plugin core
• Added better error checking
• Moved to 15.01 plugin structure
• Made plugin OOP
• added support for RAND, ASC, DESC sorting
• Tested for WordPress 4.1

2.1.4

• Fixed popular setting

2.1.2

• Added thumbnail option
• Added excerpt option
• Added optional credit link

2.0

• Tested up to WordPress 3.2
• Added controls to Widget
• Renamed functions for compatibility
• Reduced font size on credit link

1.7

• Added shortcode
• Replaced widget code with WP_Widget class
• Added comments option to filter

1.6.6

• Cleaned up code for 3.0.3
• Fixed credit line to work reliably
• Removed RSS feed

1.6.5

• Added new widget controls

1.5.5

• Updated RSS links
• Code optimizations

1.5.2

• Fixed documentation
• Updated Links

1.5.1

• Added widget

1.5.0

• Rewrote common functions
• Removed options page (no options)
• Added credit option to plugin

1.1.5

• WP2.8.6 Compatibility Review, documentation fixes

1.1.0

• WP2.8 Compatibility Fixes

1.0.0

• Official Release

0.1.0

• Added admin menus