WordPress shortcode to display related posts

WordPress shortcode to display related posts

Last week, I shown you how to display your related posts without using a plugin. But what about using a WordPress shortcode, which will allow you to define where the related posts might be displayed?

To create the shortcode, simply open your functions.php file and paste the shortcode function:

function related_posts_shortcode( $atts ) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
	    'limit' => '5',
	), $atts));

	global $wpdb, $post, $table_prefix;

	if ($post->ID) {
		$retval = '<ul>';
 		// Get tags
		$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);
		$tagsarray = array();
		foreach ($tags as $tag) {
			$tagsarray[] = $tag->term_id;
		}
		$tagslist = implode(',', $tagsarray);

		// Do the query
		$q = "SELECT p.*, count(tr.object_id) as count
			FROM $wpdb->term_taxonomy AS tt, $wpdb->term_relationships AS tr, $wpdb->posts AS p WHERE tt.taxonomy ='post_tag' AND tt.term_taxonomy_id = tr.term_taxonomy_id AND tr.object_id  = p.ID AND tt.term_id IN ($tagslist) AND p.ID != $post->ID
				AND p.post_status = 'publish'
				AND p.post_date_gmt < NOW()
 			GROUP BY tr.object_id
			ORDER BY count DESC, p.post_date_gmt DESC
			LIMIT $limit;";

		$related = $wpdb->get_results($q);
 		if ( $related ) {
			foreach($related as $r) {
				$retval .= '
	<li><a title="'.wptexturize($r->post_title).'" href="'.get_permalink($r->ID).'">'.wptexturize($r->post_title).'</a></li>
';
			}
		} else {
			$retval .= '
	<li>No related posts found</li>
';
		}
		$retval .= '</ul>
';
		return $retval;
	}
	return;
}
add_shortcode('related_posts', 'related_posts_shortcode');

Once done, you can use the following shortcode in your posts to display the related content:

[related_posts]

Thanks to Blue Anvil for this awesome shortcode!

23 Responses

Jauhari

Mar 30 2009 15:05

How to display SHORTCODE on SINGLE POST only? and when on Home page the shortcode will not displayed anything

Elliot

Mar 30 2009 21:18

Great shortcode, I’m using it at http://www.ilovecolors.com.ar/ilc-thickbox-wordpress-plugin-to-display-images/
I’ve added a bit of markup and text to the $retval variable.
I like the fact that it is a shortcode so I’m free to apply it whenever I want. However, when I get sometime off I will create a meta checkbox for the sidebar in order to enable/disable related posts for a particular post instead of writing the shortcode.
Jauhari, maybe you could use is_single, to check if you’re in a single post page.

Selinap

Mar 31 2009 04:49

Jauhari, I think you can use if (is_single) {//shortcode here}.

Jean-Baptiste Jung

Mar 31 2009 06:39

The shortcode have to be pasted in single posts, in the editor in source mode. Not in templates!

Web Design Beach

Apr 01 2009 21:21

Thanks for sharing. There are always situations when we want to share related posts to our visitors, and the way to do it automatically and with shortcode is very useful.

Wordpress Themes

Apr 02 2009 00:04

I’ve been using a plugin to do this, but I might have to implement this in my next theme now that I know how to. THanks.

Jauhari

Apr 02 2009 17:05

Hi Selinap..
Is that you mean, put this code
if (is_single) {//shortcode here}.

On the post? Did it work?

Jauhari

Apr 02 2009 17:09

@Jean-Baptiste Jung
Is it possible to display this shortcode on single post only? and when on the main page the code will be gone?

Thanks

WPDONE

Apr 03 2009 15:55

If you build your theme it can be used, otherwise I would use the plugin

Jacob

Apr 15 2009 19:30

Didnt work for me

Corey Freeman | Coding Cow

Jul 09 2009 03:32

Just added this snippet to coding cow along with your automatic insert content into editor snippet. Both work really well together and make the entire thing completely painless.