WP-Stats

WP-Stats builds a statistics page for your blog out of what is already in your database: how many posts, pages, comments, tags, categories and links there are, which posts drew the most comments, who has commented most often, and who writes for you. Put the [page_stats] shortcode on a page and that page becomes your statistics page. There is a sidebar widget for the totals, and the same statistics appear in wp-admin under WP-Stats.

Other plugins of mine can add their own blocks to that page. WP-Stats does not need to know anything about them in advance and never reads their settings.

Features

• A full statistics page from one shortcode
• Totals for posts, pages, comments, commenters, tags, categories, links and authors
• Top X most commented posts and pages, most recent posts and most recent comments
• A per-commenter view listing every comment somebody has left, with paging
• A sidebar widget for the totals
• Every block can be switched off individually

Donations

I spent most of my free time creating, updating, maintaining and supporting these plugins, if you really love my plugins and could spare me a couple of bucks, I will really appreciate it. If not feel free to use it without any obligations.

Usage

Create The Stats Page

1. Go to WP-Admin -> Pages -> Add New
2. Type any title you like in the page’s title area
3. If you ARE using nice permalinks, WordPress will generate the permalink to the page after you type the title. You will see an ‘Edit’ link just beside the permalink.
4. Click ‘Edit’, type in stats in the text field and click ‘Save’.
5. Type [page_stats] in the page’s content area
6. Click ‘Publish’
7. If you ARE NOT using nice permalinks, go to WP-Admin -> WP-Stats, open the Settings tab and fill in ‘Stats URL’ with the URL of the page you just created.

The Block

Blog Statistics is in the editor’s inserter, under Widgets. Add it to a page and that page is your statistics page — there is nothing to configure on the block itself, because what the page shows comes from the settings and from whichever companion plugins are installed, not from the post.

It renders on the server, so the preview in the editor is the real page rather than an approximation, and the numbers are counted afresh on every view rather than frozen into the post when you save it.

The shortcode still works and is not going anywhere. [page_stats] behaves exactly as it always has, and a page already containing it needs no change. The block calls the same code the shortcode calls, so the two render identically — including the blocks other plugins contribute — and you can use whichever suits the page.

The Widget

1. Go to WP-Admin -> Appearance -> Widgets
2. The widget name is Stats.

For Plugin Authors

A plugin adds a block to the statistics page by answering one filter. Return an entry keyed by your own slug with underscores:

add_filter( 'wp_stats_sections', function ( $sections ) {
    $options = get_option( 'my_plugin_options', array() );

    if ( empty( $options['stats_display'] ) ) {
        return $sections;   // the site owner switched this block off
    }

    $sections['my_plugin'] = array(
        'title'    => __( 'My Plugin', 'my-plugin' ),
        'priority' => 10,
        'render'   => 'my_plugin_render_stats',
    );

    return $sections;
} );

function my_plugin_render_stats() {
    echo '<ul><li>42 things.</li></ul>';
}

title is a translated heading and is required. `render` is a callable that echoes the block body, takes no arguments, and is required. `priority` sorts the blocks and defaults to 10; ties are broken by the array key.

Decide out of your own settings whether to contribute at all, and return $sections untouched if the answer is no rather than adding an entry with an empty body. WP-Stats never reads another plugin’s option row and never checks whether your classes exist — if your plugin is not installed, nothing answers the filter and no block appears.

WP-Stats then fires wp_stats_section_my_plugin with your entry. Its own listener on that action is what prints the heading and calls render, so a theme can take one plugin’s block over without disturbing the others:

add_action( 'wp_stats_section_my_plugin', function ( $section ) {
    remove_action( 'wp_stats_section_my_plugin', array( 'WP_Stats_Page', 'render_section' ) );
    echo '<p>drawn by the theme instead</p>';
}, 5 );

An entry that is malformed — not an array, no title, a render that is not callable — is skipped. It will not take the page down, and it will not tell you either, so check your block appears.