Related posts is a very popular feature. My default wordpress installation often includes a plugin that has this functionality. There are quite a few plugins that lets you have this feature…
- Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
- Similar Posts
- Aizattos Related Posts
- WordPress Related Posts
- Wasabi Related entries
The Code
WordPress has been supporting tags in its new released – so the related posts feature can be implemented without the help of any plugins. All we have to do is find the other posts with some same tags as the current post. Just open the single.php file in your theme and add this bit of code where you want the related posts to show up…
<?php
$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);
if ($tags) {
$tag_ids = array();
foreach($tags as $individual_tag) $tag_ids[] = $individual_tag->term_id;
$args=array(
'tag__in' => $tag_ids,
'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
'showposts'=>5, // Number of related posts that will be shown.
'caller_get_posts'=>1
);
$my_query = new wp_query($args);
if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
echo '<h3>Related Posts</h3><ul>';
while ($my_query->have_posts()) {
$my_query->the_post();
?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php
}
echo '</ul>';
}
}
?>This code finds the other post with any one of the tag that the current post has. If you want to show the posts with any one of the categories that the current post has, use this code instead…
<?php
$categories = get_the_category($post->ID);
if ($categories) {
$category_ids = array();
foreach($categories as $individual_category) $category_ids[] = $individual_category->term_id;
$args=array(
'category__in' => $category_ids,
'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
'showposts'=>5, // Number of related posts that will be shown.
'caller_get_posts'=>1
);
// Rest is the same as the previous code
WordPress Plugin Killer Series
For those who came in late, this post is part of the WordPress Plugin Killer Series. This series will show you how to duplicate the functionality of the a few wordpress plugins without having to install it using custom code in the wordpress theme. The previous posts in this series are…
- Avoid Duplicate Content – Use Canonical URL in WordPress
- Show Popular Posts in WordPress – without a plugin
- Adding Social Bookmarking Button in WordPress – Without Plugins
Great piece of code, test it and really works. Amazing work from you man, now I can show related post without plugins…
After following this tutorial, I couldn’t get a couple of things to work. The permalinks will not work with the register_post_type() and arrays outlined in a function; I simply removed this and permalinks worked fine
How can we use these codes to show the posts with similar titles instead of tags and categories? Is there any solution?
Thanks, guy! Now I can easily show random post in all my posts. And most of all, without a plugin. This is a great suff for wordpress. No plugin, no more loading codes.
Thanks a lot, Binny! That solves a major problem for me.
Works !! Thanks for the script ! 😀
and how to make page list without plug in ?
Great piece of code – I incorporated the feature thumb in to add a little visual candy. Was wondering if there is a way to randomize the posts that are “related.”
Thanks,
Dave
Looks like it didn’t like the php code – meant the_post_thumbnail();
Figured it out – add the line
‘orderby’=> rand,
into the $args=array section and it generates a random set of links each time the page is refreshed – very cool!
Dave
I found small bug .
After i used this code on my website, comments was all messed up. When i write comment it take me to another post and comment is written randomly for some other post. If anyone else experience this i try this method
ID);
if ($tags) {
$tag_ids = array();
foreach($tags as $individual_tag) $tag_ids[] = $individual_tag->term_id;
$args=array(
‘tag__in’ => $tag_ids,
‘post__not_in’ => array($post->ID),
‘showposts’=>5, // Number of related posts that will be shown.
‘caller_get_posts’=>1
);
$my_query = new wp_query($args);
if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
echo ‘Related Posts’;
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
?>
<a href="” rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link to “>
<?php
echo '’;
endwhile;
}
wp_reset_query();
}
?>
Hey Aleksandar did u get that solution,
same here i am also getting same problem, conflicting of comments,
if u know the solution plz help me out there
put this in the end of code
before:
echo ”;
}
}
?>
after:
echo ”;
}
wp_reset_query();
}
?>
put your comments code “”
just before “related post” code.
this simple solution worked for me.
Great code. I think that this is one of the best way to show related post wirthout a plugin.
Very helpful. Thanx for
wp_reset_query();🙂 Great!i’m using using best related post plugin…it more easier no need custom field as thumbnail.
Just upload,active it..viola..its automatically add thumbnail and also you can match it with your theme setting. You can download it from
http://ifile.it/wl26j8xI used this code and improved with thumbnail images. Thank you for this usefull tutorial
Work perfect in my sites.
Thanks mate
Great – works perfect – thanks!
Thanks for the idea. I also wanted to sort my posts by the number of tags matched. Here’s a solution:
// ...skipped code
function related_order($input) {
return 'COUNT(wp_term_relationships.object_id) DESC, wp_posts.post_date DESC';
}
add_filter('posts_orderby', 'related_order');
$query = new WP_Query($args);
remove_filter('posts_orderby', 'related_order');
// ...skipped code
Of course one may want to add an additional WHERE filter to show posts from the last month only. Or something like that 🙂
Thanks Bin, I just implemented the code at thisismyurl.com and it works great! I had to add global $post to make it work as a widget, but otherwise it’s perfect.
thank you
There is a slight error with this code…
It makes the post show the wrong comments :O
Max
Nice!!!! It works perfect on my website.
Thanks a lot!!
How can we use these codes to show the posts with similar titles instead of tags and categories? Is there any solution?
Thanks for this code. It works just fine, i prefer using codes instead of plugins, much more easier to manage.
Thanks a lot Binny, your code saved me a lot of time 🙂
wohaa! i found what i’m looking for! i’m just remove related tags query and placed related category.. thats cool!
Great work, thanks for this code.
Hi, I always used YARPP, but actually when writing about many topics, no related posts will appear – so this code is simple and useful! Just copy-pasted – and it works perfect. Thanks!
Dude, you forgot about wp-reset-query, you have to use it in your wp loops.
Thanks for this. I did struggle with getting it to work with custom post types for a minute. All you have to do is add ‘post_type’ => ‘your_post_type’ to the args and it worked.
This is great. I don’t like using plugins unless it’s really necessary.
this could be the best if it can also show related posts according to tags and categories.
Thanks you very much. The script works well in my website. Thanks again. 🙂
Hi,
Thanks for sharing..I add the code to my single.php and the it worked, however i find that my post with comments does’t show the comment on post page. Can you help me with this please?
You need to have a code like
in there. If not, open an index.php or single.php from a default-theme and look for this line. It’ll output the comments.
For those who are having problems with the comments, after installing the code, here’s the solution:
Right after the following piece of code:
<?php}
echo '';
}
}
?>
Add a “wp_reset_query ();”. It will be something like:
<?php}
echo '';
}
}
wp_reset_query ();
?>
This will solve the problem, at least it worked for me!
Thanks for the help bro!! It works like a charm..I would like to have a title that say related posts at the top how do i achieve that? Thanks for your help in advance.
Is there a way to assign a current-item class to the li element containing the link of the current post? I know that your code does not shows the current post title in the list but it is very easy to change it to do so.
Thank you so much for the code. One of the problems with many existing plugins for this feature is that they use extensive server resources.
‘caller_get_posts’=>1 must be ‘ignore_sticky_posts’=>1. WordPress gives this error otherwise:
Notice: WP_Query was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 3.1! “caller_get_posts” is deprecated. Use “ignore_sticky_posts” instead.
Great piece of code – I incorporated the feature thumb in to add a little visual candy. Was wondering if there is a way to randomize the posts that are “related.”
Thank You!
hello , use this tested wp 3.6.1
in previous post it does not look good
https://www.wuala.com/scriptux/s/related.php/?key=scriptux2