Hi, and thanks for your kind words.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way you can grab any other image than the post's thumbnail. Using the plugin that is.
If you examine the function get_the_post_thumbnail() in the file wp-includes/post-thumbnail-template.php you will see there is a filter executing when returning the html of the image. You can hook a function on that 'post_thumbnail_html' filter, and have it return the html of your custom field images (the html string will be empty in your case anyway, since you don't use featured images). In that hooked function, you could also use something like this function to get your first image. I'm not sure it will work though, as it will depend on when and how the things are run, i.e. your custom fields may be included in your content later than the hook, or not included in the content at all).

For your second question, the editor may have stripped whatever you wrote in the <code> block, so I don't know to what exactly you are referring to. I'll assume you use the function call of the plugin though, and not the shortcode.
You can have the function return the related articles instead of echoing them, (see first parameter of cptr() in the documentation) into a variable, and test if empty. The function returns an unordered list of posts only if one or more are related. Otherwise it returns an empty string.
So you could do something like:

$related = cptr(false);
if( !empty( $related ) )
{
echo "<h2>Similar</h2>";
echo $related;
}

Hope this helps.

Wow, I appreciate the responsive and extensive reply. Much appreciated.

So, the second tip worked out quickly. Thank you. In regards to the first issue, yes, we can probably just filter the photo. Makes sense. Good idea, thanks.

I seriously appreciate this plugin and tutorial. Have a good one.

Hi Jeff,
yes, the plugin is currently operating in a very specific manner. Searching only searches titles, because that's all you can see. If it looked on tags and main text, it would be impossible for you to tell what exactly matched.

Setting the default order is a good idea, and I'll try to implement it in the next version. You'll be able to change it from within the settings page.

Now, about the 500 posts limit you are mentioning, there isn't such a thing. The limits that are implemented are 10, 50, 100 and "All". Make sure you have updated to the latest version.

It's on my to-do list quite some time now :)

Hi Rachel,
you can download the previous version 2.1 from the Changelog. The version number is also a link for download.
Meanwhile, I will look into it and release an update as soon as I get it fixed.

I've just pushed the update (version 2.3) to the plugins repository. It should be available for update any minute now. Or download it from this page.

There is a serious bug in cptr_category_selector(). You are altering the global $post variable without setting it back (and without need). This causes code loaded after the CPTR editor to use the last related post and not the actual post.

The problem can be fixed by changing line 88 of cptr.php from

global $post_ID, $post;

to

global $post_ID;

You are right. I'll push an update later today.

Hi Olly,
this is really a CSS question. You can edit your theme's style.css file, and add a line similar to the following:

#cptr_related_posts { margin-top: 20px; }

Play around with that "20" and see what works best for you.

I left Bridgewater in 2000 and haven't been able to revisit yet, the memories are still vivid though. I also loved Weston-super-mare, as it had a Greek restaurant and sea! Taunton never really did it for me.

Hi Dave,
unfortunately there is no straightforward way to do what you ask.

You should implement custom display logic directly into your theme files. You can do this by calling the undocumented cpr_populate() function manually from within your template, passing the post id as the parameter. It returns an array of post objects, or an empty array if no related posts have been found. You then use those posts' IDs and fetch whatever you want with get_post_meta() for example.

(Note to self: I really need to document this function and create some examplar code, soon!)

I don't recommend editing the cpr.php file directly, as any future plugin updates will overwrite your code.

Great, I'll give that a shot. Thanks.

I'll check back soon for the documentation too, to see if I did it right as well, haha.

Dave

Hey Anastis,

I'm trying to get the cpr_populate() to work, but I'm not so confident in my php-from-scratch skills. I've been looking at the WP Codex for hints, but can't seem to figure it out.

I have started, but would you be able to show me how to pull one post meta item (e.g. exhibitor_table) from my custom post type? I can figure out how to get the rest if I know how to do one.

I really appreciate the help.
Thanks,
Dave

E.g. in your single.php file:

global $post;
$related = cpr_populate($post->ID);
foreach ($related as $article)
{
$meta = get_post_meta($article->ID, "exhibitor_table", true);
echo $meta;
}

I hope this makes sense.

Great! On my way I think.

That code pulls all of the data in all of the "exhibitor_table" fields. Shouldn't the "true" of the get_post_meta make it return only one per post? Or I guess it might be echoing them individually, but without any html wrapping, right?

I guess, here's a screenshot of what I'm trying to do: http://thegallerymusic.com/EventListingFormat.png
You'll see the "Exhibitors" section at the bottom (This is for a client. Not my site). I just need each piece of data from the related post(thanks to your plugin), wrapped in a span, div, etc.

By the way, did you just update your plugin to version 2.2? I just got an update notice.

Thanks again for any help,
Dave

That code gets the related articles/posts/whatever and for each one it pulls the "exhibitor_table" field (not plural). It then echoes them on the page. You can build around this code if you want extra markup, e.g.
echo '<p>'.$meta.'</p>';

The default behavior of get_post_meta() is to return an array of the history of the values that where saved on that custom field. "true" makes it return just the most current value.

Now, for your problem, it all depends on what you store and where. For example, if you have a separate custom field for each piece of info, you might have to do:

$name = get_post_meta($article->ID, "exhibitor_name", true);
$booth = get_post_meta($article->ID, "exhibitor_booth", true);
etc...and then echo them appropriately...

or you may be storing an array within "exhibitor_table", so you would do something like:

$meta = get_post_meta($article->ID, "exhibitor_table", true);
echo "<p>".$meta['exhibitor_name']."</p>"

Yes, I updated the plugin to v2.2 today. Everything CPR was renamed to CPTR, so cpr_populate() is renamed to cptr_populate(); Apart from custom code, all internal options should be updated automatically.

Thanks, you've really been a huge help! And got a jump on that documentation haha.

I've got a jump on this now. I really appreciate it. Love the plugin. Keep up the good work.

Hi Olly,
thumbnails are created automatically from the "Featured Image" of each post. Images uploaded before the plugins' installation, may not be displayed as the thumbnails will not have been created. In this case, I would suggest using a plugin to regenerate the thumbnails, such as this one.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I love Somerset. I've been studying in Bridgwater college back in 1999.

Hi Marco.
There is no "simple" way to do this with this plugin. Not without two separate instances of it anyway, which is not currently supported.

One way you could do it, would be to select all your "associated products" AND your "also available with" products, and then implement custom display logic differentiating the two. You can do this by calling the undocumented cpr_populate() function manually from within your template, passing the post id as the parameter. It returns an array of post objects, or an empty array if no related posts have been found.

So, depending on your setup, you could check the categories, titles or some custom fields if you have, and you could know if it is the same product but different color.

Hi Stuart,
I don't really understand your situation. Could you provide screenshots of what's happening?

Hi, and sorry for the late response.
Both are the same version, so no worries :)

What's your WordPress version? Also have you grabbed the latest version of CPTR?

I use WordPress 3.2.1 and version 2.0 of CPTR.

The simplest way to use the plugin within your single.php file, is by adding a line such as this:
<?php cptr(); ?>

Hello there,
Thanks a lot guys. You've been really helpful.
Is there any chance for the related entries to appear in a vertical way? Like this for example: http://goo.gl/fxYce?

Thank you.

It's a matter of styling it with CSS.
Adding something like this should get you started:

.cptr_related_posts li{
float: left;
width: 100px;
padding: 5px;
}

What do you mean?

How are contructed the permalinks using the pluguin?

misite.com/post1/linked-post/?

The plugin doesn't affect your current permalink structure. It will produce permalinks depending on your Settings -> Permalinks

Sure. There are two ways.
1) you can do something like $posts = cpr_populate($post->ID) and get an array of the related post objects, so for example if you do $p = $posts[0]; $p->ID will hold your first id, and likewise you can access all properties mentioned in http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_...
or
2) do a get_post_meta($post->ID, CI_CPR_POST_RELATED, true); and get an array of related post IDs

Fantastic! .. thanks for the speedy response. Much appreciated.