This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

M Similar Posts

Description

This plugin provides a list of similar / related entries to an article or a custom post type entry.

This list could be added in the form of a:

  1. Gutenberg Block
  2. Shortcode
  3. Widget

If you add a widget to the sidebar it will only appear when on the details view of an entry, as similarity cannot be calculated when on a list page of multiple entries.

The syntax for the shortcode is [magadanski-similar-posts id="" post_type="" taxonomy="" limit=""]

You can use the attributes as follows:

  1. ID — (integer) the ID of the post you’d like to get similar posts for. Default value: the current post ID.
  2. post_type — (string) the post type you’d like to query. Default value: “post”.
  3. taxonomy — (string) the taxonomy based on which you’d like to get similar items. Default value: “category”.
  4. limit — (integer) a maximum number of results you’d like to receive. Default value: 5.

The similarity is considered based on the number of common categories (or other taxonomy terms) for this post and the rest of the posts in your blog.

Screenshots

  • The options for the plugin's widget.

  • The block in the Gutenberg editor.

  • The Gutenberg Block settings.

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

  • Similar Posts

Installation

Download and activate the plugin. Go to Widgets and add the Similar Posts widget to a sidebar of your choosing.

FAQ

How does the plugin determine whether two posts are similar?

It checks the categories assigned to this and other posts. The most similar post is considered the one with the most common categories.

Does this work for tags too?

Yes, when inserting the widget you are allowed to chose between categories, tags or any custom taxonomy you have.

Does this work for custom post types?

Yes, this works for pages, posts or any custom post type you have.

Does this check the post’s content too?

No, currently similarity is calculated only by shared taxonomy terms (categories, tags, etc).

Is the plugin offered in my language?

The plugin is originally distributed in English and is also translated in Spanish and Bulgarian. In case you need it in some other language you can help with this on https://translate.wordpress.org/

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“M Similar Posts” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“M Similar Posts” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “M Similar Posts” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.3.4

Add compatibility with WordPress 6.0.

1.3.3

Remove some meaningless options in the “Post Type” dropdown field for the “Similar Posts” widget.

Dev: you can use the new msp_allowed_post_types filter to add back any post types that may now be gone, but you consider them needed (for example some private post types for any reason).

1.3.2

i18n enhancements for the Gutenberg block.

1.3.1

Fix the issue where after updating the plugin to 1.3.0 the newly developed features and Gutenberg block were not available.

Plase update to 1.3.1 to get all these benefits.

1.3.0

Add Gutenberg support. The included options allow you to chose a taxonomy and set a limit (upper boundary set to 10).

The block will appear as a plain unordered list. Future roadmaps can include the option to show is as a grid, also listing a featured thumbnail for the matching entries and/or an excerpt.

1.2.4

VisualComposer icon update to match latest branding of http://magadanski.com/

Tested against WordPress version 4.6.1.

1.2.3

Updates to allow translation via https://translate.wordpress.org/

1.2.2

Tested compatibility with WordPress 4.5 — no issues registered.

1.2.1

Bugfix: added missing return statement for public functions.

This is an absolutely safe to install update — it won’t break any of the existing functionality and you are encouraged to do so.

1.2

Dev: The following filters have been added for some control over the generated list markup:

msp_similar_posts_list_tag -- by default this is `ul` but you can set it to `ol`.

There are two more similar filters for this: msp_similar_posts_shortcode_tag and msp_similar_posts_widget_tag. As you may guess by the name, those allow to set the tag for only either the shortcode markup or the widget markup.

These secondary filters are executed after the main msp_similar_posts_list_tag, so they can overwrite the value.

msp_similar_posts_list_classes -- this allows you to add/edit/remove classes for the list tag. By default only one class is present: "msp-list".

There are two secondary filters for this as well: msp_similar_posts_shortcode_classes and msp_similar_posts_widget_classes.

1.1.6

Dev: fix for notice — missing “global” keyword for variable.

1.1.5

Fix for widget bug to allow support for custom post types.

1.1.4

Fix for improper regular expression for request SQL query modification.

1.1.3

Dev: added msp_get_similar_posts() shortcut function.

1.1.2

Bugfix for showing the plugin widget on pages if necessary.

Fix for other potential issues.

1.1.1

Internationalization updates.

Feel free to submit patches for updating Spanish translation or adding a new one.

1.1

Added WPBakery Visual Composer integration.

Fix: set_similar_id uses current post’s ID only if $id argument is 0 AND similar_id property is 0 too.

Dev: externalized get_post_types and get_taxonomies methods for Magadanski_Similar_Posts_Widget widget as global helper functions prefixed msp_:

  • msp_get_post_types
  • msp_get_taxonomies

1.0.7

Tested compatibility with WordPress 3.8 — no issues registered.

Added Spanish localization for the plugin thanks to Andrew Kurtis from WebHostingHub

1.0.6

Fix for cause preventing widget from rendering.

1.0.5

  • Added inline documentation and some code comments.
  • Plugin name rebranded from “Magadanski Similar Posts” to “M Similar Posts”
  • i18n, filters and function prefixes updated to match rebranding — “msp” is used instead of “simposts”

The folder for the plugin files has been kept to “magadanski-similar-posts” to prevent plugin deactivation upon update.

Hopefully the available custom filters have not been widely spread, so this change will not affect any custom code.

1.0.4

Updated readme.

1.0.3

Added [magadanski-similar-posts] shortcode.

1.0.2

Added proper screenshots

1.0.1

Updated readme.

1.0

Plugin was released.