Welcome to the very first in a series of script reviews, how-to’s, and troubleshooting series! Today’s topic is a Wordpress Plugin called Related Posts by Alexander Malov, Mike Lu & Jon Bourne. This plugin is also sometimes referred to as Related Entries or WASABI Related Entries.

 

Plugin Description

The plugin is simply written, powerful, and relevant. Just click on any post on this blog to see an example at the very bottom of the post. You will see a “Related Posts” heading and following it are several posts that are related to the current post based on keyword matching. Not only can this be helpful to the readers of your Blog, but it can help to keep readers on your Blog for longer periods of time.

 

Installation

To install this plugin:

• First download it from:
  http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries
  Make certain that you download the latest version!
• Next, unzip the archive and upload the related-posts.php file to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
• Now you are ready to activate the plugin!
  • To do this, login to your Dashboard and click on the Plugins option on the top right.
  • Scroll down until you see the Related Posts plugin and click on Activate.
• Once the plugin is activated, you now need to setup the SQL tables and plugin options.
• On the Plugins page you will now see a Related Posts Options heading on the second row of selection options at the top. Click on this option.
• At the bottom of this window it says:
  

  If this is your first time installing this plugin you will have to run this script (opens a new window) in order to create the index table required by the plugin. If this fails, please refer to the readme on how to create it manually.

  Click on the “this script” link to setup the SQL tables.

• If the script does not work, you will need to setup the tables manually. To do so in phpMyAdmin:
  • Choose your Wordpress Database.
  • Click the SQL tab at the top.
  • Enter the following bit of code, but PLEASE NOTE that if you are using a table prefix other than wp_, then you will need to change wp_posts to whatever the correct prefix is (example: wordpress_posts, if your prefix is wordpress_):
  ALTER TABLE `wp_posts` ADD FULLTEXT `post_related` (
  `post_name` , `post_content`
  )
  then click “Go”
  • Once your SQL table is setup, head back over to the Related Posts Options page and choose the options you would like to use (excerpts, # of posts to show, etc) and click Save.
  • Your Blog is now setup and ready to use Related Posts, but you still have to add the call to the Related Posts function in your Blog’s template.
  • Click on the Design option at the top, then the Theme Editor option.
  • If you want to add the call only on your Single Posts pages (as an example), first click Single Post (single.php) on the right.
  • Find where you would like to have the posts displayed in your HTML code. Once you have found the “perfect spot” plug in this code:
  <h3>Related Posts</h3>
  <ul><?php related_posts(); ?></ul>
  • While you do not have to use the h3 tags or the Related Posts heading, it might be a good idea to use some sort of heading to signify what the links pertain to. Note that the ul tags are assuming that you are encapsulating the posts in li tags via the Related Posts Options.

  It is worth noting that you can add the call in any of your template files. Just make certain that if the file uses “The Loop” that you add the call somewhere inside “The Loop“.

   

  Final Words

  While this isn’t the easiest plugin to install it is functional, powerful, and a highly recommended addon to any Wordpress install! If you have any questions, comments, or need further assistance with this plugin, please feel free to contact me and I’ll be glad to help.

  A big thank you to Tyna over at http://www.blogbytyna.com/ for bringing to my attention that there are several Related Posts plugins out there and that many of the instructions for them aren’t very clear. Thanks Tyna and I hope this guide helped!

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