Orderby Post Views

by

I want to make a filter list for my posts (in homepage, search page and archive page) Here is an example of what i’m looking for

Sort by:
– Date (/?orderby=date)
– Random (/?orderby=rand)
– Views (here i need an orderby=views or something like that)

I’m counting and viewing post views by using this code:

// Count views
function setPostViews($postID) {
  $count_key = 'post_views_count';
  $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
  if($count=='') {
    $count = 0;
    delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
    add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
  } else {
    $count++;
    update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, $count);
  }
}

// Show views
function getPostViews($postID) {
  $count_key = 'post_views_count';
  $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
  if($count=='') {
    delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
    add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
    return "0 View";
  }
  return $count.' Views';
}

// Show views in WP-Admin
add_filter('manage_posts_columns', 'posts_column_views');
add_action('manage_posts_custom_column', 'posts_custom_column_views', 5, 2);
function posts_column_views($defaults) {
  $defaults['post_views'] = __('Views');
  return $defaults;
}
function posts_custom_column_views($column_name, $id){
  if($column_name === 'post_views') {
    echo getPostViews(get_the_ID());
  }
}

Is this possible?

1 Answer
1

You can sort your query by view number, using the meta key :

$query = new WP_Query( 
            array( 
                'meta_key' => 'post_views_count',
                'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
                'order' => 'DESC',
            ) 
        );

This will query your posts based on the views. You can change DESC to ASC or RAND to achieve what you asked.

To make it work in action, you can use pre_get_posts() to filter your query. Use this piece code in your theme’s functions.php file:

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_view_filter' );
function my_view_filter($query){
    if ( 
        !is_admin() && 
        $query->is_main_query() && 
        ( $query->is_home() || $query->is_archive() || $query->is_search() )
    ) {
        if (isset($_REQUEST['orderby'])) {
            $order = $_REQUEST['orderby'];
        }
        if ( $order === 'views') {
            $query->set('meta_key', 'post_views_count');
            $query->set('orderby', 'meta_value_num');
            $query->set('order', 'DESC');
        }
    }
}

Now, whenever you visit http://example.com/?orderby=views, your posts will be filtered by the number of views ( descending, you can change it to anything you want )

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