Init View Count – Lightweight, Accurate, and Developer-Friendly View Counter for WordPress

Review

Changelog

• 1.19 – Hotfix: Enable Day/Week/Month Counters by Default
  • Default enabled counters:
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_enable_day → default = 1
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_enable_week → default = 1
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_enable_month → default = 1
  • Bug fix: Previously, if the user did not save the settings page, the counters would remain disabled and views were not counted.
  • Backward compatibility:
    • If options were already saved, the plugin still respects the saved values.
    • No migration required – hotfix applies automatically to all sites.
• 1.18 – History storage & disable Trending option
  • History Storage (Archive Keys):
    • On reset, previous values are archived into new meta keys:
      _init_view_yesterday, _init_view_last_week, _init_view_last_month.
    • Useful for reviewing yesterday’s, last week’s, or last month’s data directly.
    • Completely safe, does not affect the existing reset logic.
  • Option to disable Trending Engine:
    • New filter init_view_count_trending_enabled – allows disabling the entire trending engine if not needed.
    • When disabled, all cron jobs and trending calculations are skipped, while view count features continue normally.
    • Backward compatible: trending remains enabled by default.
  • Ranking Shortcode:
    • Extended [init_view_ranking] to support new tabs:
      yesterday, last_week, last_month.
    • Default tabs unchanged (total,day,week,month).
    • JS & REST API enhancements for new tabs will be rolled out gradually.
  • REST API Top:
    • Extended /top endpoint with support for
      range=yesterday|last_week|last_month.
    • Results are consistent with reset logic and new archive keys.
  • Backward compatibility: All existing features (day/week/month/total/trending) remain intact to ensure zero breakage for existing sites.
• 1.17 – Traffic Shape Learner + Trending Engine improvements
  • Introduced Traffic Shape Learner – AI-powered hourly & weekday distribution model:
    • Collects raw hourly bins and rolls them up into site-wide traffic shape.
    • Hour-of-day pattern updated via EMA + Bayesian prior smoothing (kappa control).
    • Day-of-week pattern updated via EMA with stabilized daily totals.
    • Both distributions normalized to mean = 1 for consistent multiplicative scaling.
  • Performance & caching:
    • Learned shapes cached in transient for 2h (filterable TTL).
    • Rollup action protected by object-cache lock to prevent race conditions.
    • Minimal overhead: only 1 write per view increment + 1 rollup per day.
  • Filters & extensibility:
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_site_traffic_shape – provides current hour/day shape arrays.
    • Tunable alpha/kappa values via filters for both models.
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_shape_collect_enabled – enable/disable collection.
  • Reset & admin:
    • New admin-post action init_plugin_suite_view_count_shape_reset to clear all learned shape data.
    • Safe to run anytime – plugin will automatically rebuild patterns.
  • Trending Engine improvements:
    • Multi-key fallback (day → week → month → total) ensures enough posts even at early hours.
    • Day-views fallback estimation from week/month averages prevents empty scores.
    • Optimized CRON queries: skip week/month/total lookups if daily data already sufficient.
    • Debug payload now includes views_day_used and fallback flags.
  • Backward compatibility: all existing view count & trending filters remain intact. Trending Engine v3 (1.16) automatically integrates with learned shapes for uplift calculation.
• 1.16 – Trending Engine v3 + AI-powered enhancements
  • Upgraded to Trending Engine v3 – introducing AI-powered uplift and multi-layered scoring:
    • Added uplift scoring based on expected traffic patterns (hourly/daily) to adjust scores dynamically.
    • Introduced EWMA momentum with acceleration for smoother and more stable trend detection.
    • Implemented anti-gaming checks to cap score growth per cron run.
    • Added exposure fatigue to reduce dominance of posts staying at the top too long.
  • Integrated MMR re-ranking to improve diversity across categories/tags.
  • Introduced explore/exploit logic to occasionally boost promising new posts.
  • Extended debug payload in REST API:
    • New fields include: uplift_raw, expected_views, ewma_val, acc, fatigue_streak.
• 1.15 – Trending Engine v2 + Performance Optimization
  • Upgraded Trending Engine v2 – optimized for performance and stability:
    • Added cache lock (object cache) to prevent race conditions when cron overlaps.
    • Implemented soft-cap exponential formula for smooth limits, avoiding hard caps.
    • Optimized O(n) diversity filter with auto fill-back to always return enough results.
    • Improved hot topics SQL for ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY compatibility and timezone safety with post_date_gmt.
    • Reduced N+1 queries by caching author_id, categories, and tags per post.
  • New filters for Trending:
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_trending_post_types – limit/override post types (e.g., only manga).
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_trending_component_weights – adjust weights for Velocity, Engagement, Freshness, Momentum.
  • Sanitization & fallback: normalized post types from settings, auto-removed attachment, safe fallback when empty.
  • Engagement smoothing – improved stability when daily views are low.
• 1.14 – Hybrid trending algorithm with diversity filter
  • Introduced a powerful Hybrid Trending Algorithm that scores posts based on multiple dynamic factors.
  • Trending scores are updated hourly and combine five key components:
    • Velocity: view growth rate per hour, with logarithmic scaling to prevent high-view bias.
    • Time Decay: score decays naturally over time with a 36-hour half-life curve.
    • Engagement: quality of interactions (comments, likes, shares) per view.
    • Freshness: boost for newer content published within the last 24 hours.
    • Momentum: score boost for content related to hot categories or tags in the past 24 hours.
  • Trending results are cached using transient and automatically refreshed via WP-Cron every hour.
  • Added a Diversity Filter to ensure balanced results across authors and categories:
    • Limits to 2 posts per author and 3 posts per category (only if there are enough unique items).
    • Limits are automatically relaxed if there aren’t enough authors or categories to fill the list.
  • Fully compatible with all public post types, taxonomies, and existing view tracking logic.
• 1.13 – Top View API Post Type Filter
  • Added the init_plugin_suite_view_count_top_post_types filter to customize the post_type list used in the /top API endpoint.
  • Fully backward-compatible: defaults to ['post', 'page'] if no filter is applied.
  • Useful for limiting results to specific content types such as manga, article, etc.
• 1.12 – Support view count for any post ID
  • The [init_view_count] shortcode now supports an id="..." attribute to display the view count of any post, not just the current one.
  • Fully backward-compatible: if id is not provided, the current post ID will be used by default.
  • Useful for showing view counts of related posts, featured posts, or custom layouts.
• 1.11 – Post type filtering + time display cleanup
  • Shortcode [init_view_ranking] now supports post_type="..." to filter results by custom post type (e.g. post, page, manga…).
  • Updated ranking.js to pass post_type to the REST API and cache results per tab and post type.
  • Removed the custom function init_plugin_suite_view_count_human_time_diff() in favor of WordPress core human_time_diff().
  • The [init_view_count] shortcode now uses human_time_diff() for displaying publish time (when time="true" is enabled).
  • All templates have been updated to use the native human_time_diff() function.
• 1.10 – Auto insert, schema.org, and custom class support
  • Added new “Auto-insert shortcode” setting – automatically injects [init_view_count] before or after post content.
  • Auto-insert only applies to post types with tracking enabled – fully toggleable or filterable per context.
  • New shortcode attribute icon="true" to show a small inline SVG icon before the view count in [init_view_count].
  • New attribute schema="true" to output InteractionCounter Schema.org microdata for better SEO.
  • New class="..." attribute to allow adding custom CSS classes to the shortcode wrapper.
  • Added two new filters:
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_default_shortcode – customize the default auto-inserted shortcode output.
    • init_plugin_suite_view_count_auto_insert_enabled – enable/disable auto insert by post type or position.
  • Fully backward-compatible – all new features are optional and disabled by default.
• 1.9 – PHP 7.4 Compatibility
  • Replaced all PHP 8 match expressions with array maps and switch statements for PHP 7.4 compatibility.
  • No changes to logic – all filters like init_plugin_suite_view_count_meta_key remain fully functional.
  • Applies to all REST API endpoints and shortcodes: [init_view_count], [init_view_list], etc.
  • This is not a feature update – just a syntax downgrade to prevent fatal errors on outdated servers.
• 1.8 – Block Fake Views via Strict IP Check
  • Added Strict IP check option to block repeated views from the same IP within a short period.
  • Uses hashed IPs and a FIFO-style transient cache (default: 75 recent IPs per post).
  • Prevents bots or scripts from sending fake views directly via the REST API (e.g., cURL or cron jobs).
  • Privacy-safe: raw IPs are never stored and entries expire automatically over time.
  • New setting: “Enable strict IP check?” – disabled by default for compatibility.
• 1.7 – Ranking Widget & API Limit Handling
  • Added a Dashboard Widget that displays most viewed posts using the [init_view_ranking] shortcode.
  • Introduced a minimal admin-style.css file to ensure clean, single-line widget display.
  • Improved REST API /count to respect the configured batch limit and prevent server overload.
  • Performed minor backend cleanup and standardized hook structure for future updates.
• 1.6 – Batch View Tracking
  • Added new Batch view tracking option – allows grouping multiple views before sending to the server.
  • Batch threshold is configurable in plugin settings (default is 1 – real-time tracking as before).
  • Views are temporarily stored in localStorage and only sent when the threshold is met.
  • Greatly reduces REST requests on high-traffic sites while maintaining accuracy.
  • Refactored script.js to support scroll + delay + batch logic in a clean structure.
  • REST API /count now accepts an array of post_id values instead of just one.
  • View count is updated instantly in the UI after tracking (no reload required).
• 1.5 – Shortcode Builder UI
  • Added a visual shortcode builder panel in the plugin settings page.
  • Supports generating [init_view_count], [init_view_list], and [init_view_ranking] with all available attributes.
  • New script init-shortcode-builder.js is isolated and only loads where needed.
  • All UI strings are localized via InitViewCountShortcodeBuilder.i18n for full translation support.
  • JS architecture is now modular: core logic and UI are separated for future extensibility.
• 1.4 – Trending algorithm and hourly view analysis
  • Introduced the Trending scoring system based on views per hour and post age.
  • Trending scores are updated hourly via WP-Cron, optimized for large, high-traffic sites.
  • The /top REST API now supports range=trending with built-in sorting and pagination.
  • The [init_view_list range="trending"] shortcode displays currently trending posts.
  • Also added /trending slash command support (used via Init Live Search plugin).
  • All trending logic respects internal meta_key filters for advanced customization.
  • Improved post meta cleanup logic for day/week/month resets using filterable meta keys.
• 1.3 – New shortcode for tabbed post ranking by time range
  • Added [init_view_ranking] shortcode to display a tabbed interface showing top posts by today / week / month / all time.
  • Uses REST API + lazy-loading via JavaScript, only loads when visible — perfect for SPA/headless environments.
  • Includes built-in skeleton loader to maintain layout consistency during loading.
  • Follows consistent CSS naming using init-plugin-suite-view-count-* class prefix for easy theming and extension.
  • JavaScript is conditionally enqueued only when the shortcode is present on the page.
• 1.2 – CSS Optimization and Advanced Meta Key Support
  • style.css is now enqueued earlier to avoid being loaded in the footer.
  • Added an option in the settings page to disable the plugin’s default CSS.
  • The init_plugin_suite_view_count_meta_key filter is now applied consistently across REST API, shortcode, and WP-Cron.
  • Fixed an issue where custom meta key overrides were ignored in some cases.
• 1.1 – Pagination Support for View Lists
  • Added page parameter to the /top REST API endpoint to support pagination.
  • The [init_view_list] shortcode now supports the page attribute to display a specific result page.
• 1.0 – Initial Release of Init View Count
  • Counts post views using REST API + Vanilla JS, avoids bots and duplicate hits via session/localStorage.
  • Stores view counts in a dedicated meta key _init_view_count to avoid conflicts with themes or other plugins.
  • Supports daily, weekly, monthly, and total counts with automatic reset via WP-Cron.
  • [init_view_count] shortcode displays the view count with support for raw/formatted/short formats and post date difference.
  • [init_view_list] shortcode displays most viewed posts with full control over number, post type, range, category, tag, template, class, etc.
  • Supports template override from themes using the structure your-theme/init-view-count/*.php, similar to WooCommerce.
  • REST API GET /wp-json/initvico/v1/top supports filtering by any taxonomy (category, tag, genre…), caching, and fields=minimal|full mode.
  • REST API POST /wp-json/initvico/v1/count records accurate views for individual posts.
  • Includes a powerful system of filters and action hooks for developers: control when views count, override meta key, customize query, API output, cache time, and more.
  • No custom tables, no tracking, no bloat – uses only postmeta, lightweight and extendable.