WP Related Posts and Products Pro plugin

Documentation / FAQ

Where is the detailed description of admin panel?

Find detailed description for each field on the admin page.

What is related post type?

Post types which you want to display as similar items.

What is reference post type?

Post type for which you want to display the related items.

The reference item (what can be called reference page or reference content) is the original content that the user is reading now.
The aim is to find related items for this reference item and display them on the reference page (e.g. under the content or on the sidebar). So, the user will see the related items meanwhile reading the reference page (reference item).

So if you see an article, and under of it some related products, then the article is the reference content, and the products are the related items.

Does WRI support WooCommerce products?

Yes, WRI supports WooCommerce products natively.

Does WRI support other custom post types?

Yes. WRI uses the YARPP plugin that supports custom post types.
You should switch on all post types that you would like to use as reference post type or related post type on “Settings -> WP Related Items (WRI)” menu, “General” tab “Post types used by WRI” field.

For all the selected post types a separate section will be displayed on “Related” tab of “Settings -> WP Related Items (WRI)” page (e.g. “Related Posts” and “Related Products”).

For each selected post types, a new tab will be displayed on “Settings -> WP Related Items (WRI)” page (e.g. “Posts”, “Products”, “Pages). These are the settings pages of the appropriate reference post types. For example, “Posts” tab is for the setting of Post reference page, these settings influence the behavior of finding and displaying related items on the appropriate reference page (e.g. post reference page).

On this page, there are several rows, one row for every related post type. The settings of a row influence that particular related post type, inside the reference type defined by the selected tab. These settings are like a matrix, and it is very important, because every reference – related post type variation have different similarities properties, different thresholds.

Is it possible to use widgets for display related items?

Yes, you can use WP Related Items (WRI) widget to display related items on the sidebar.
You should set the “reference post type” that the widget displays. Thus, widgets work contextually for different reference post type. More widget can be used if you want to display different related posts.

What happened if related items do not appear?

The problem could be caused by the following reasons:

1. It is possible that the relevancy of similar products is lower than the match threshold, so YARPP can’t find any related items.
Try to use lower match threshold using one of the following ways:
– set a lower threshold value for every post type on “Related Types” tab of “WP Related Items” options page.
– or leave the above fields empty and set “Match threshold” on “Related Posts (YARPP)” options page. (If you can’t find these settings on YARPP admin page, you should switch on “Relatedness options” section using “Screen Options” tab on the upper right corner of YARPP options page.)
You can try to enter the value 1 as a threshold, and if you get related items, you can increase the value (if the value is too low, less relevant items will be displayed). So, you can find the optimal threshold value.

2. After you change WP Related Items settings, you may need to save YARPP settings also in Settings -> Related Posts (YARPP) menu, to refresh them. So please push “Save Changes” button on “Related Posts (YARPP)” options page. Before you save YARPP settings, please check the followings:

• on “Relatedness options” metabox the title, body or appropriate categories are set to “consider” or “considered with extra weight” (including “Manual Relationships”)
• on “Display options” metabox “Automatically display related content from YARPP Basic on …” is unchecked (preventing the double display of related items)
• check all other YARPP settings to fit your needs

3. Try to increase relevancy between different types of a post by using same words in the title or content or if you have the pro version, use common categories or tags between different types of items.

It is possible to display related products on post pages, or other variations of post types? How can I do this?

Yes, it is.

There should be similarities between different type of posts, and the Match threshold should be set according to the relatedness of posts. It is up to you how do you make more similar posts to your products, we have some ideas about it.

In Lite version only the title and content text similarity is relevant, and no more possibilities to increase relatedness.

In Pro version, you have more opportunities to create stronger similarities between different types of posts. In the normal case, posts are assigned to post categories, products to product categories. So, you have two independent category structures for the two post types, and these will not result in relatedness.
Pro version ensures to increase similarity by using the SAME CATEGORIES in different post types. For example, you can assign post categories not only to posts but other content types (e.g. to products). You can set the possibility of using cross taxonomy metaboxes on “Related” tab of settings page, in the appropriate related post type section.
Then on the appropriate content Edit pages, you can assign your content to other content type categories. So, the two post types (e.g. posts and products) will be assigned to the same category structure, and the relatedness will be strong.
You can use a special similarity maker category type for relatedness reasons: “WRI Categories for related items”. You can set this category type easily for every post type used by WRI on the “General” settings tab.
The “WRI Categories for related items” category selection metabox will be available on the edit pages of posts and other post types.

For example, if you want to display related products on post pages, do the following:
Go into WP Related Items settings in the settings menu, switch on “Posts” and “Products” on the “General tab in Post types used by WRI” checkbox group, then save this setting. Then you will have “Post Page” and “Product Page” tabs in the WP Related Items (WRI) Settings page. Choose Posts page tab (because you would like display items on your Posts page), and set the value 1 or 2 in the Match threshold field in the “Products” related post type row (because you would like to display related products). The Match threshold 1 or 2 is low enough to find similarity if any. Try to use similar text in titles and descriptions. (This part is available in Lite and PRO version.)

In PRO version you have more possibilities. On the Related Types tab, you can select „Categories” checkbox in „Show selected cross taxonomy metaboxes on PRODUCTS admin page”. This ensures that the normal WP category selector will be displayed on Product editor admin page, so you can assign your products to post categories. It will result a strong relatedness.

Related items are displayed in a numbered list, and not as thumbnails

WRI has templates, that are stored in “wp-contentthemes/YOUR_ACTIVE_THEME/wri_template” directory. This is a YARPP convention to store templates inside the active theme directory
Please check if “wp-contentthemes/YOUR_ACTIVE_THEME/wri_template” directory exists. If not, please deactivate and then activate WRI plugin in WordPress Plugins menu. If you change your active theme, please always do this.