Today is exactly a year since I started working on the code for the first alpha version of this plugin. And here we are, year later with another major release. This version includes several new features, along with changes and few bugs fixed.
I was reviewing logs on my local SVN repository, and found out that exactly a year ago today I committed first piece of code for this plugin. Few weeks after that I managed to release with alpha 0.1.0 version. The archive for that one was 28KB, and the 1.5.0 a year after is almost a full megabyte. So, let’s see what new features 1.5.0 brings.
There were few bugs reported, and all fixed now, including 2 regression bugs I caused with 1.4.8. I also made few changes in displaying some of the errors caused by invalid stars set. Also, few more things now can be logged into debug file, include full WP Query used to get posts for rendering. And the reason for this last change is actually for the brand new feature this version has.
I have finally completed work on expanding the WP Query so that you can now sort posts on any page using rating results. Right now sorting can be done by rating, number of votes and review rating. You can use standard rating or multi rating results. Info files now have a list of variables and supported values that can be used to expand the query. New variables work as a part of the URL and with direct modification of WP Query objects. You can also disable this if you want, there is new option on the integration settings tab. I will publish new post on using this for users who are not that experienced with using such WP Query modifications.
I made also many changes in speed and size optimizations, so now CSS and JavaScript files used by the plugin can be transported GZIP-ed, making these files up to 90% smaller. GZIP will be used if your browser support it, if not, regular file will be send. Since almost every major browser nowadays support this, it should work just fine saving on bandwidth.
Also, categories based rules and restrictions are completed. But be careful how you use it, because if you make inheritance rules too complicated the number of executed queries will increase. So, best is to play with all that and see how it works. I promised an article about it, and it will completed in the next few days.
User guide is updated, I removed some old chapters from it and added few more links to website tutorials.
And I want once again to point to repeated comments with same questions over and over again. Read the posts, tutorials, announcements before asking for help, I simply don’t have free time to waste.
Any suggestions are welcome, as well the bug reports if you find any.
loading...
Share this:
Comment Link
Congratulations! I can’t wait to dig in and get my site converted to GDSR. I’ve been waiting for the WP Query stuff, and I’m so glad to see it!
Have a great weekend,
Erika
loading...
Comment Link
This is coming up above the comment box:
Rating:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/mysite/public_html/wp-content/plugins/gd-star-rating/code/t2/render.php on line 396
I’m using the starscape theme and GD star 1.5
loading...
Comment Link
You enabled multi rating integration for the theme, but you don’t have multi rating set.
loading...
Comment Link
I’ve been trying to figure this out for more than a week. I’ve read and tried everything I can find but can’t figure it out.
I’m doing 1 multireview in the posts and I’m trying to get the sidebar widget to show the top 5 posts ranked by my reviews. It doesn’t count my review and shows blank stars. It only counts the reviews of commenters.
How can I get this to work? If I can’t do it by the widget is there some php I can add?
Thanks for your help. This is one awesome plugin you’ve made! (If I could only get this to work)
loading...
Comment Link
Default widget templates show rating stars, not review stars. You need to make new template, that will use review and then use this template in the widget.
loading...
Comment Link
Hi MillaN,
You’ve done such a great job with this plugin, and the updates and support are amazing considering this is a free plugin. You could have charged for it (and maybe you should have).
From what I could tell the upgrade was effective in most things but the one area most important to me right now still seems to not work properly. The export function did not work..and I’ve just noticed that the pie chart showing vote distribution isn’t working either.
I will make you an admin account to see for yourself if you send me an email requesting such.
here’s what I see in the export:
user_id user_name user_email post_id vote vote_date
There are 5 votes that should be registering.
The pie chart shows solid red but one small slice
loading...
Comment Link
I thought about charging it, but it will remain free.
As for the export, I have fixed that from 1.4.8 and I tested it. If it’s not working, tell me what export settings you used. Chart works fine, If all your votes are 10, chart will be solid red.
loading...
Comment Link
Hi MillaN,
I use the following settings on the export:
Normal: user id, name and email are exported
Post / Page votes
IP
User Agent
Post/Page title
Post/Page date
I found an error message in “Settings / Advanced” as follows:
For cache to work, plugin must be able to access cache folder. Plugin has tried to create folders needed and failed. Until you resolved this issue cache feature can’t be used.
Either make wp-content folder writeable or create gd-star-rating folder in wp-content and make it writeable. Use 0755 chmod setting.
And so I’ve followed the directions to create the folder in the appropriate location and with the settings suggested.
Apparently that still didn’t help because new votes didn’t show up in the export.
loading...
Comment Link
Cache has nothing to do with export. And this is not exactly the error message. You server settings doesn’t allow direct use of cache (used for rating stars right now), so you need to do manually some things before cache can be enabled.
As for export, I will check.
loading...
Comment Link
I’m using 1.4.5 and I use Multi Reviews. The problem is that when I edit a review, it always shows the last template I used rather than the correct one for the post. Then when I change the template, I have to exit and re-edit. Its very time consuming to have to load the edit post twice every time.
Has this been changed/fixed in the current version?
loading...
Comment Link
I don’t know to be honest. No one had such problem before. If you use more then one multi set, last one used on a post edit page, will be used when the post is edited. So if you use different sets for different posts you need to change and save to select proper set. Right now there is no way around that. At one point this rendering may be done using ajax to avoid saving page to select different set, but that is very complicated to be done, and it’s very, very low on list of tasks/features.
Also, you should ALWAYS update to the latest plugin version. There are many bugs fixed in 1.4.8 and 1.5.0 connected to multi reviews.
loading...
Comment Link
Thank you so much for this free plugin. I have used the WP Post Rating plugin before but the GD Star Rating Plugin is so much better. Thank you once again.
loading...
Comment Link
Small announcement: Tomorrow I am releasing 1.5.1 that features finally completed optimizations with only one goal, to reduce number of SQL queries executed by the plugin. And with 1.5.1 number of queries is reduced by over 70% (using cache and prefetch) making this plugin much faster.
loading...
Comment Link
I have been used gd rating from the beginning on one of my blogs and I am very impressed about. Good job done! thank you!
loading...
Comment Link
Thanx. Wait to see 1.5.1 with great speedup due to reduced number of SQL queries.
loading...
Comment Link
It would be good if you didnt save the multi review if there is no review. Currently, the database is littered with empty reviews. Plus when you have to change the Set, the wrong one also gets saved. I don’t see a reason to save the multi review if there is no review.
loading...
Comment Link
It’s much faster to have data in the database, even if they are empty. It doesn’t take almost any space. I plan to add tool to remove empty records.
loading...
Comment Link
Hi Milan..
A small doubt on comment integration. am a bit confused:
To show the comment on the blog if I use starscape 1.5.9 it takes only one of the multi set. So, how can comment integration work by just assigning a multi-set to a category. Are you overwriting comment.php using the plugin or will you be releasing a new theme.
loading...
Comment Link
No, comment form can’t be modified from code. Change is in integration function. Instead of setting the set in this function, you set 0. Once the set is 0, category based set is used.
loading...
Comment Link
Hey Millan,
I would suggest to put in the admin section the last votes.
Example : Name of the article, vote, by.
I would find this usefull so we won’t need to check all the articles in the articles page 1 by 1.
I’m not sure if this is clear (sorry for my english!)
Thanks
loading...