Similar Posts Ontology

Description

Does your website utilize categories and tags? Does it use custom taxonomies? If so, this plugin will find similar content
based on all your taxonomies. There are two ways to show related posts within your page.

  • The first way to show related content on your post is to use the widget provided. This only works when is_single() is true
  • The second way to show similar content on your site is to use the pk_related_return($post->ID); function which can be
    called programmatically anywhere you wish!

The Widget included with this plugin gives you the option to limit the amount of posts; it allows you to determine which
fields to show: Featured Image, Author, Date, and Excerpt (Title is required); it allows you to determine which
variant of the featured image to show: thumbnail, medium, large, or full. As of version 2.0, you can now decide whether the
‘similar posts’ sorting prefers posts that are newer or posts that were created closer to the date of the post you’re
viewing.

If you find the Widget doesn’t meet your needs or is too limiting, you can call the functionality programmatically using
this function:

pk_related_return($post->ID, $args);

Where $post->ID is the ID of the post for which you are wanting to show related articles.

The $args parameter is an array with the following values available to you (more coming soon):

  • posts_per_page (int defaults to 5)
  • thumbnail_size (string consisting of one of these values: “thumbnail”, “medium”, “large”, “full”. Defaults to thumbnail).
  • sort_prefer (string consisting of one of these values: “newest”, “closest”. Defaults to newest).

An example might be:

<?php
$args = array (
    'posts_per_page' => 6,
    'thumbnail_size' => 'medium',
    'sort_prefer' => 'closest'
);

The return value of pk_related_return is an array of objects that includes most of the fields within WordPress’s posts
table plus permalink and featured image.

Future Additions:

Allow the user to specify only certain content types (posts, pages, custom) in a request. This would allow you to specify
only products get returned, or only blog posts. This would only be an issue if content types share taxonomies.

Screenshots

  • You can define how your widget looks from the widget admin/edit screen.
  • You can have it output as a simple list like other, typical side-bar widgets.
  • Or you can add fields and your own styles to really make it stand out (this example is found at www.bluecrayon.net)

Installation

  1. Upload similar-posts-ontology to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. If you want the widget, go to ‘Appearance’ -> ‘Widgets’ and look for Similar Posts Ontology widget. If you prefer to call programmatically, use the pk_related_return function in your theme.

FAQ

How does this plugin work?

There are two aspects to it. First, it finds all similarly tagged, categorized, and otherwise taxonomically created content
on your site, then sorts it by what has the most similarities. Second, if there is a tie between two posts it will give
the edge to the newest content, or content posted closer to the time your current post was posted, depending how you configure it.

Why Ontology? What’s an Ontology?

Ontology is the study of the nature of ‘being’. This plugin uses the ontological philosophy of determining an entities
placement within its own ‘type’ by studying the entities relationships.

Why am I not seeing any content when I install this?

You can use this in two ways. Either by calling pk_related_return() in your theme or by placing the widget on your site.
If you are using the widget, remember that it only works on any “single” page (where is_single() would return true). The
pk_related_return() can theoretically work anywhere as long as you provide a proper post ID. Try var_dump() with
pk_related_return() and look at the description for proper usage of this function.

Why are my results coming back with weird content that I wouldn’t expect?

This issue may be your taxonomies. The content for which you’re trying to find related content needs to have tags,
categories, and/or custom taxonomies. Also, to properly find your content, tags/categories/taxonomies must be used on
the related content as well. The more you intentionally use your tags and categories, the better your results set will be.

Reviews

May 4, 2018
Most of the highly installed Related Post Plugins are forgive me: “A TRAIN-WRECK” So nice to have found this little well coded beauty … THANKS!!! 100 STARS!!!
October 31, 2016
This is perfect and seems to have a strong algorithm that correctly picks which items should appear first. It even made me realize something was wrong with my own tags when I thought ‘hey, why isn’t this post showing up in related posts?’ and I realized I’d forgotten to put my tags on that post! The widget is powerful and gives you lots of options, although I found it only works on is_single() pages, but you can use its handy pk_related_return function to put it right into any part of your theme if you know your post ID. Highly recommended!
Read all 2 reviews

Contributors & Developers

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

Contributors

Changelog

2.1

Release Date – July 31st, 2016
* Include some base styles to look better with common theme conventions
* Fixed bug where author URL was broken
* Tested up to 4.6

2.0

Release Date – August 15th, 2015
* Optimized query to allow for the option of specifying sorting preferences.

1.0.1

Release Date – January 11th, 2015
* Made the widget include HTML and classes that are best practice.

1.0

Release Date – January 10th, 2015
* First Version