GD Rating System Pro 1.2 – Helios is new major release bringing new rating method Like This, ordering posts and comments by rating, top rating topic views for bbPress, query engine improvements and more.
GD Rating System 1.2 development is based on the feedback from plugin users, and ordering posts archives and comments is the most requested feature since previous plugin version. Few more requested features are coming in the next version including aggregated ratings.
Like This
Everyone has seen Facebook Likes, and this new addon brings classic Likes system into GD Rating System Pro and WordPress. New rating method includes several different looks (themes and templates), use of font icons or images for like buttons, and it can be restyled with the use of CSS. The new method includes 3 new shortcodes and 2 widgets (similar to other rating methods).
Like This can be used like all other methods. One major difference is the option to allow users to remove their like, and if that is enabled, users can like and remove like any time they want. Scroll down to the comments section, and try it out.
Posts and comments ordering
Posts, Comments, and bbPress addons now have methods to order by rating. Posts addon can order post based archives by rating or number of votes. This can be done using the query string in URL, query vars in WP_Query object or by using automatic ordering for custom post types. Comments require manual integration into theme comments template. bbPress includes 2 new topic views to show best-rated topics. Another form of ordering in bbPress is not possible and will not be implemented, only views.
Child theme with examples
Plugin download page shows new child theme with example data (only for development, do not try it on live websites!) and examples of various integration methods in archives, page templates, comments for sorting, customization and more. This is available for Pro license only. This theme and demo data will be updated over time to include more examples.
Improvements and fixes
Query engine used to get rating items using different criteria is improved with filters for posts (author, terms or meta), terms (meta), users (meta), comments (meta or author). Plugin adds Hooks extension for JavaScript to allow you to use WordPress-like actions and filters. This will allow you to control the rating process, maybe show popups or other information before or after voting. There are many improvements to all rating methods in form of new settings, improvements for rendering, templates, styling and more.
There are several things fixed in this version, including problems with Dummy Data addon, issues with some settings, custom CSS class not applied to rating blocks, problems with widgets in Customizer.
That’s all for now, please report any issues and problems in the support forum. Knowledge base is expanded with many new articles, so check it out.
Next major 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 versions are currently in the planning stages, and all 3 of these will be released during this year (every 2 months on average, maybe faster). They will bring 4 more rating methods, new addons…
If you want to test GD Rating System Pro, you can request demo website where you can check out all the plugin features and decide if the Pro version is what you need. If not, you can download the free version, and evaluate it and maybe later decide on an upgrade. The free version can be download from WordPress plugins repository: GD Rating System on WordPress.org.
This is just the test comment to show the Like This ratings in action, try it out.