Topic

Is there any way (perhaps with the paid version?) to use the rating plugin without attaching a rating to a post, page, etc.?

What I want is for my visitors to be able to rate an external website (which is the ‘object’ I refer to in the title). I’d like to show this rating on different posts and pages and visitors should be able to vote for this same website regardless where the rating is shown.

Is this somehow possible?

Replies

You can register new rating type (there is a panel for that in plugin admin side menu), and you can use them wherever you want. But, each item for the rating type has to have unique ID (integer number). If you have websites listed in a database table, ID for each website will be ID for the rating. Check out the knowledge base for more info on rating types.

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Hi MilaN,

Thanks for your fast reply. I read the rating types article on the knowledge board, but I’m afraid it is a bit above my coding knowledge (which is close to zero).

As a (poor but acceptable) workaround I want to use the post rating type instead. I’d like to display it on other pages using shortcodes, just like you suggested on https://support.dev4press.com/kb/article/shortcodes-multi-stars-rating/.

Unfortunately, I did not get that working either, but that may have something to do with the theme I use, so I opened a ticket at my theme provider for it. Hopefully they can help me get this sorted.

One question I still have: Does using shortcodes as suggested on your knowledge board allow visitors to vote as well or does it only display the rating?

Thanks again!

Well, if you need to introduce custom rating type, the plugin can’t do everything, and you need to provide it with proper input data. Each rating item has to be described using entity, name, and id. For posts that is posts/post/post_id, for comments it is comments/comment/comment_id, for categories is terms/category/cat_id and so on.

If you want custom rating type: custom/website/website_id, you need to provide these ID’s to be unique. And, if you want these ID’s to correspond to specific websites, you need to have some way to connect them on your end. I have no idea how your website works, but for the rating to work, for custom rating types, each item has to have ID. And, if you need to show the list of best-rated websites, you must provide code that will tell plugin title and URL for each item, and that is something plugin can’t do on its own.

And, you can’t arbitrarily use one rating type like that, especially post types in WordPress. If you attempt to use ID that doesn’t exist in your posts table, that will cause problems. Bottom line is, if you need completely custom ‘something’ to be rated, you need to provide some logic for it (custom code), the plugin can’t help you there.

Shortcodes work the same as the ratings embedded in the posts, they are active ratings.

Milan

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Thanks again for the extensive answer! I understand the basics about custom rating types, however I realize I don’t have the necessary coding skills to use it (even with your elaborate explanation ;))

One final question:

And, you can’t arbitrarily use one rating type like that, especially post types in WordPress. If you attempt to use ID that doesn’t exist in your posts table, that will cause problems. Bottom line is, if you need completely custom ‘something’ to be rated, you need to provide some logic for it (custom code), the plugin can’t help you there.

Perhaps I misunderstand this part: If I have a post with ID 484 (for example) which has a rating, can I use the following shortcode on any page of my website to display the rating block there?

[gdrts_multi_stars_rating type=”posts.page” id=484 template=”expanded” style_size=48 style_type=”font” style_font_name=”circle”]

According to https://support.dev4press.com/kb/article/shortcodes-multi-stars-rating/ it seems that this should work, however the rating block doesn’t get displayed (the page just shows the code).

This shortcode is from the Multi Ratings Addon for GD Rating System Pro. GD Rating System Pro has 4 extra rating (including thumbs, likes, and emotions) methods and 10 more built-in addons compared to Lite version, and there are currently 3 more addons (one free, two paid) for it. You can check out the comparison between Lite/Free and Pro versions here: https://plugins.dev4press.com/gd-rating-system/articles/free-vs-pro-plugin/, and you can see additional addons here: https://plugins.dev4press.com/gd-rating-system/addons/. Lite version has only basic Stars Rating method and only 5 basic built-in addons.

If you want to test Pro version on our demo server, you can ask for demo here: https://www.dev4press.com/request-demo/.

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Ok, I’ve upgraded to the PRO version. I added the Multi Rattings Addon and also User reviews. So I’ve made quite an investment (not even my WP theme was this expensive). I really hope it is worth it and that I get all the help I need to get most use out of it and make it work like I’d want to use it.

Now for starters. How do I activate the PRO version? I definitely know my way around WordPress, but I can’t see any way to switch the lite version to PRO. Checked the Support section as well, but didn’t find an answer there…

Well.. I can download the PRO plugin of course and upload it manually, but then it says a GD Rating folder already exist.

And if I remove the Lite plugin, I think I’ll loose my settings and data, right?

Ok, never mind. I found out I need the Update plugin to install the PRO version.

I’d advise to make a Support item for this (or if one exists, make it more visible) because this is somewhat unconventional. You;d expect to be able to add a key or token in the Lite version itself to make it PRO.

And.. although I don’t fancy the extra ‘Dev4Press’ menu in my WP admin, it does work smooth with the updater.

The best way to work with our plugins is to use Dev4Press Updater, for both install and update, and it will notify you when new versions are released and update them without the need to manually download and install.

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