FAQ

Thank you again for your decision to buy Purple Heart Rating Plugin (PHRP)!

Since we want you to be satisfied and since questions might come up will you customize PHRP to your needs, you will find several frequently asked questions and the corresponding answers below.

Q&A about technical aspects

Can I use PHRP with all WordPress versions?

A: The plugin is configured for WordPress versions 3.4 and higher. Older versions may cause issues with the plugin.

Does PHRP work with all themes?

A: Unfortunately, since there’s such a huge variety of free and premium themes out there we cannot guarantee that it works with each and every one theme.

3. Can I get more icons for the PHRP?

A: If you have the basic version of PHRP then the purple heart will be your only option. If you want to have more icons then you will have to upgrade tot the premium version. In there you will have alltogether 27 icons that you can choose from (as of now). See the following screenshot:


Can I exclude certain pages where I don’t want the PHRP to appear?

A: As of now you can choose where PHRP should be displayed, e.g. posts, pages or media. We definitely plan to offer the option to exclude certain pages or posts in one of our future updates of PHRP.

Can I have, let’s say, a ‘thumbs up’ rating icon on one page and, let’s say, a heart rating icon on another page, and maybe a different icon altogether on each of my pages?

A: Sorry, this is not possible. For the time being you will have to choose one rating icon which will then appear on all spots where PHRP will show up.

How can I get rid oft the „Rating Plugin by WP Buddy“ mention?

A: To remove this you have to select ‚No’ under ‚Show “powered by”?’ in the main settings.

Do you plan to have an installation manual also in other languages?

A: As of now it is only in English. If you would like to submit a free translation, you can tell us about it here. You will also get extra points for ‚good Karma’ for submitting a translation.

I would like to see the plugin backend in my language!

A: Currently we have English, German and Italian which you can use. You are always more than welcome to support us with translations and send the translation suggestions here. It will definitely be ‘good karma’ for you to support us like this :)

I have a great idea for a new function within PHRP. How do I tell you about it?

A: Great, bring it on! J In the main dashboard of PHRP you will see ‚Helpful Links’ on the right hand side . There you click ‚Request a function’ which will take you to a form to fill in. Be specific so that we can understand what feature you are looking for.

How can I submit a free translation if I want to translate PHRP into another language?

A: To do so you have to tell us about it here. You will also get extra points for ‚good Karma’ for submitting a translation.

Will Google show hearts instead of stars in the snippets of the search results?

A: No, the rating will still be displayed as stars in the search results. Just note that Google says there is still no guarantee that the stars will be appear on your search results but as you can see on this live example, it’s already picked up by Google on our example page.

Can I adjust the layout of PHRP, such as font size etc?

In general PHRP adjusts the size automatically but if you’d like to play around a bit and adjust it further to your needs, then indeed you can adjust all fields, at least when it comes to font size and size of the field. It is also possible to leave out all text fields so that in the end you will be left exclusively with the rating part of the plugin. You can get rid of any unwanted text fields by checking the check-box next to the specific field in the backend of the plugin.

Can I strip down PHRP so that only the rating function is available, without any text fields?

That’s indeed possible! You do that by checking the little box that you see on the right side of each customizable text field in the backend of the plugin.

Can I have PHRP be displayed both at the beginning and at the end oft he article/page?

A: Yes, that’s possible. In the main settings you can choose that PHRP will be displayed both at the beginning and the end of a page, an article or a media. To choose both, simply click on the one, then hold your SHIFT-key and while holding it click the second option. This should result in both options being selected. Don’t forget to save your changes!

What’s the ‚IP Save Time’ or the ‚Log Save Time’

Note: The field “IP Save Time” was renamed to “Log Save Time” in version 1.6.4 and above. (Read the Changelog of the Purple Heart Rating WordPress Plugin).

A: This prevents that someone rates your article more than once from the same IP address. You don’t want anyone, like the owner of a competing website, to give you many bad ratings for your articles, right? With the IP Save Time field left blank you will make sure that the same article cannot be rated more than once within 365 calendar days.

  • Keep empty to save for the maximum duration = 365 days
  • Enter 0 to never log IP-addresses (you will never see anything in the log)

Can I adjust the size of PHRP?

A: Yep, that’s indeed possible!

Can I use a custom CSS for the plugin?

A: Yes, that’s possible as well! Just note that some of your changes might not appear on this page because WordPress sometimes overwrites it. Read more on this here: How to style the rating plugin.

Will the additional comments that someone leaves after having rated the article/page be automatically published?

A: No, these types of additional comments will not be published automatically since these should serve first and foremost for you, the site owner. This way we hope that you will find out even more about your audience and what it wants, so that you can optimize the content you publish. But: You are always capable of indeed publishing such a comment if you think it makes sense.

Where can I find the additional comments that someone sends me after having rated my article/page?

A: On the top menu you will see the icon of a heart. As soon as there are pending comments you will see a number on the right side oft he heart icon, indicating how many pending comments there are. Click the heart icon and you will be taken to the comments overview. Select ‚Pending’ and you will then see the pending comments. All these additional comments that come through PHRP will be tagged with ‚anonymous’ as the author. Although these additional comments are supposed to be feedback from your readers about how you can make your site even better, you may wish to publish the comment. Do so by clicking ‚Approve’. If you want to erase the comment after you have taken notice of your reader’s input, simply click ‚Trash’.

Another way to find the additional comments that come in through PHRP is on your main PHRP settings page. On the bottom you will see a button that takes you to the comments.

How can I publish the additional comment that someone leaves me after having rated the article/page?

A: Although these additional comments are supposed to be feedback from your readers about how you can make your site even better, you may wish to publish the comment. Do so by going to ‚Comments’ (alternatively by clicking the heart icon on the main menu on the top). There you will find these additional comments under ‚Pending’. If you want to publish such a comment just click ‚Approve’. These additional comments will show up with ‚anonymous’ rather than with the actual name oft he one who commented.

Will comments with positive/negative rating be more up/down in the comments section?

A: Exactly!

What’s the shortcode I can use to put the rating into a post/page or custom post type?

A: Just use the following shortcode:

[purple_heart_rating]

This will then use the standard-settings (from the settings-page). Please note the following! If you copy & paste the shortcode from this FAQ section then make sure that you enter the code in the ‘text view’ not the ‘visual view’. Why? because copy & paste might result in an additional ‘code’ tag that gets added to the shortcode. The result would be that the font of the plugin then isn’t correct.

If you want to change the icon or some text, please use this example:

[purple_heart_rating
headline="Headline-Text"
description="Description-Text"
more_button_label="Learn more"
more_button_headline="What this means"
more_button_description="Another description"
icon="thumbs-up"
poweredby="true"
headline_activated="false"
description_activated="false"
more_button_label_activated="false"
preview_mode="false"]

You can use the following options:

Attributes:

  • headline: The headline for the description text
    Can be: any string (no HTML)
    Default: The headline from the settings-page
  • description: The description
    Can be: any string (no HTML)
    Default: The description from the settings-page
  • more_button_label: The label on the “More”-button
    Can be: any string (no HTML)
    Default: The label from the settings-page
  • more_button_headline: The headline that appears on mouseover
    Can be: any string (no HTML)
    Default: The “More” Button headline from the settings-page
  • more_button_description: The description that appears on mouseover
    Can be: any string (no HTML)
    Default: The “More” Button description from the settings-page
  • icon: The icon that should be shown
    Can be: heart | plus | plus-sign | arrow-up | thumbs-up | ok | asterisk | circle | beer | comment | exclamation-sign | book | bullhorn | camera | headphones | legal | food | star | lightbulb | trophy | warning-sign | hand-up | double-angle-up | circle-arrow-up | caret-up | angle-up | play
    Default: The icon from the settings page
  • poweredby: Whether the link to our product should appear
    Can be: true | false
    Default: The value that has been set on the settings page
  • headline_activated: Whether to display headline
    Can be: true | false
    Default: true
  • description_activated: Whether to display the description text
    Can be: true | false
    Default: true
  • more_button_label_activated: Whether to display the more button
    Can be: true | false
    Default: true
  • preview_mode: Whether to integrate the rating in preview mode
    Can be: true | false
    Default: false

What happens with a comment chain if one oft he comments within such a chain will receive several good/bad ratings? Will the whole comment chain then go up/down in the list of comments?

A: Yes, the whole comment chain will be affected by this. It wouldn’t make sense to take out this specific comment from within a whole chain since it might then be totally out of context. Let’s say you have one comment in a chain that has 10 good ratings; if another comment in this chain hast he equal amount of bad ratings then this will be ‚neutralized’ and it’s like zero ratings.

Can the reader who comments use still use the regular comment function of my theme while PHRP is installed?

A: Yes, of course, as long as you haven’t deactivated the commenting function of your theme. PHRP is not intended to be a commenting plugin but a rating plugin. The additional comments that come in after someone has rated your article/page are intended to be for the site owner so s/he can make the site even better and more useful to the readers.

Is there a function with which the best rated articles can be displayed?

A: Yes, we also included such a feature! Just go to the “Widget” menu that you can find in the “Appearance” menu in your WordPress backend. Then Drag&Drop the Widget named “WP-Buddy: Purple Heart Rating” to one of your sidebars. By using this widget you can have the TOP ‘X’ rated articles appear in your side bad (‘X’ stands for the number of articles you would like to show up there).

Does it cost me anything to subscribe to your newsletter?

A: No, it’s totally free of charge and it will always be. It goes without saying that we will not share your data with anyone else.

How can I cancel my newsletter subscription?

A: To do that you only have to click the ‚unsubscribe’ button that you will see in each newsletter that you receive.

Is possible to deactivate comments?

A: Yes, it is.

Is it possible to add the rating plugin to my homepage?

A: This depends on your homepage. If you display a static page or post at your homepage, then yes. If you’re using a theme which uses a highly customized homepage than no. This is because the rating module needs a unique ID (the post_id) so that it know where to save the ratings in the database. But some themes do not support this. It just shows a special template to the user.

How can I access the Purple Heart functions?

A: You can use the internal function of the Purple Heart Rating Class like this:

<?php
global $wpb_purpleheart;
if( $wpb_purpleheart instanceof WPB_Purple_Heart_Rating ){
  $percent = $wpb_purpleheart->get_rating( $post_id ); // returns an array like array( 'ok' => 70, 'bad' => 30 )
  $wpb_purpleheart->get_rating( $post_id, 'both' ); // to get an array like array( 'ok' => 5, 'bad' => 2 )
  $wpb_purpleheart->get_rating( $post_id, 'ok' ); // only get the positive ratings
  $wpb_purpleheart->get_rating( $post_id, 'bad' ); // only get the negative ratings
}
?>

 Can I display the rating area on category/tag/taxonomy pages?

A: At the moment this function it not supported.

How can I test the rating plugin?

A: From version 1.6 it’s possible to easily test the rating plugin while not distort the rating.

  1. Login to your WordPress administration panel.
  2. Make sure that you’re an administrator because there are not cookies set when logged in as an administrator. In fact you can click on every single rating on the frontend while no “You have already rated this item” shows up.
  3. If the message show up, you should remove your rating from the IP-Table (Go to your WordPress administration panel and click on “Purple Heart Rating” -> “Logs)”. Search for the rating you’ve just made and remove it.
  4. Test again.

There is no example on the settings page that I can set up. What should I do?

A: This is the case when you have a fresh WordPress installation but no posts. Please publish at least one post so that the example can be bind to that post. After that the rating example shows up on the settings page.

How can I remove the post meta boxes for non-admins?

A: Try this in your plugin or your themes functions.php:

<?php
function ph_remove_meta_boxes() {
  if ( ! current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
    foreach ( get_post_types( array( 'public' => true ), 'names' ) as $post_type ) {
      remove_meta_box( 'wpbph-metabox-settings', $post_type, 'side' );
    }
  }
}
add_action( 'current_screen', 'ph_remove_meta_boxes' );
?>

 How can I import from GD Star Rating?

  1. Activate the GD Star Rating Plugin
  2. Activate the Purple Heart Rating WordPress Plugin
  3. Go to the Purple Heart Rating settings page and hit the “Import data from the GD Star Rating Plugin“. Note that this button will only appear when GD Star Rating is activated at current.
  4. After the import process GD Star Rating gets deactivated automatically.

Important notes:

  1. Our Purple Heart Plugin will not delete any GD-Star ratings. Want to have all ratings back from your GD Star Rating plugin? Just re-activate the plugin and everything is fine.
  2. Before hitting the “Import data from the GD Star Rating Plugin” please consider that all ratings made with the Purple Heart Plugin will be overwritten. This does not affect GD Star Ratings.
  3. The GD-Star-Rating plugin will be deactivated after the import has finished successfully. Want it back? Just re-activate it.

The Popup window breaks. What should I do?

A: In version 1.9 we’ve updated to Twitter Bootstrap version 3. Some older themes that are using version 2 of bootstrap could have problems with that. This means that in some cases the modal window will break. If this is the case, try to add the following code into the Custom CSS textarea field on the settings page:

.modal.fade.in {
  left: 50%;
  background-color: transparent;
  width: 615px;
}

Is it possible to change the 50/50 rating when the post was not rated?

A: Yes, since version 1.11 you can use the ‘wpbph_rating_percent_standards’ maybe in your themes functions.php. Use this sample code:

add_filter( 'wpbph_rating_percent_standards', 'my_wpbph_rating_percent_standards', 10, 1 );

function my_wpbph_rating_percent_standards( $p ) {
    /* This sets the "good" ratings to 0% and the "bad" rating to 100% */
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;return array( 'ok' => 0, 'bad' => 100 );
}

Q&A around Upgrade & Updates

I like the cost-free basic version of PHRP. How can I upgrade now to the pro version?

A: That’s simple! Simply de-install the free version and install the premium version of PHRP.

Will I get automatic updates if I purchased the pro version of PHRP?

A: Yes, you will! To do so you will have to enter your purchase code in the main settings are of PHRP.

Have any other pre-sales question?

Please contact us via our contact form.