Total number of views

Hi Okoth!

This is something that can’t be done with the wpp_get_mostpopular() template tag, and there’s no function available to retrieve the total views count of a given category.

You could use the wpp_custom_html filter to loop through the popular posts and sum the views count from each post to obtain the total amount.

Here’s an example:

/*
 * Builds custom HTML
 *
 * With this function, I can alter WPP's HTML output from my theme's functions.php.
 * This way, the modification is permanent even if the plugin gets updated.
 *
 * @param   array   $mostpopular
 * @param   array   $instance
 * @return  string
 */
function my_custom_popular_posts_html_list( $mostpopular, $instance ){

    $views_count = 0;

    $output = '<ul class="wpp-list">';

    // loop the array of popular posts objects
    foreach( $mostpopular as $popular ) {

        $views_count += $popular->pageviews; // sum views count

        $stats = array(); // placeholder for the stats tag

        // Comment count option active, display comments
        if ( $instance['stats_tag']['comment_count'] ) {
            // display text in singular or plural, according to comments count
            $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-comments">' . sprintf(
                _n('1 comment', '%s comments', $popular->comment_count, 'wordpress-popular-posts'),
                number_format_i18n($popular->comment_count)
            ) . '</span>';
        }

        // Pageviews option checked, display views
        if ( $instance['stats_tag']['views'] ) {

            // If sorting posts by average views
            if ($instance['order_by'] == 'avg') {
                // display text in singular or plural, according to views count
                $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-views">' . sprintf(
                    _n('1 view per day', '%s views per day', intval($popular->pageviews), 'wordpress-popular-posts'),
                    number_format_i18n($popular->pageviews, 2)
                ) . '</span>';
            } else { // Sorting posts by views
                // display text in singular or plural, according to views count
                $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-views">' . sprintf(
                    _n('1 view', '%s views', intval($popular->pageviews), 'wordpress-popular-posts'),
                    number_format_i18n($popular->pageviews)
                ) . '</span>';
            }
        }

        // Author option checked
        if ($instance['stats_tag']['author']) {
            $author = get_the_author_meta('display_name', $popular->uid);
            $display_name = '<a href="' . get_author_posts_url($popular->uid) . '">' . $author . '</a>';
            $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-author">' . sprintf(__('by %s', 'wordpress-popular-posts'), $display_name). '</span>';
        }

        // Date option checked
        if ($instance['stats_tag']['date']['active']) {
            $date = date_i18n($instance['stats_tag']['date']['format'], strtotime($popular->date));
            $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-date">' . sprintf(__('posted on %s', 'wordpress-popular-posts'), $date) . '</span>';
        }

        // Category option checked
        if ($instance['stats_tag']['category']) {
            $post_cat = get_the_category($popular->id);
            $post_cat = (isset($post_cat[0]))
              ? '<a href="' . get_category_link($post_cat[0]->term_id) . '">' . $post_cat[0]->cat_name . '</a>'
              : '';

            if ($post_cat != '') {
                $stats[] = '<span class="wpp-category">' . sprintf(__('under %s', 'wordpress-popular-posts'), $post_cat) . '</span>';
            }
        }

        // Build stats tag
        if ( !empty($stats) ) {
            $stats = '<div class="wpp-stats">' . join( ' | ', $stats ) . '</div>';
        }

        $output .= "<li>";
        $output .= "<a class=\"wpp-post-title\" href=\"" . get_the_permalink( $popular->id ) . "\" title=\"" . esc_attr( $popular->title ) . "\">" . $popular->title . "</a></h2>";
        $output .= $stats;
        $output .= "</li>" . "\n";

    }

    $output .= '</ul>';
    $output .= "<p>Total views: {$views_count}</p>";

    return $output;
}

add_filter( 'wpp_custom_html', 'my_custom_popular_posts_html_list', 10, 2 );

Excellent Hector. Thank you very much!