Count post views in loop

Question

I'm trying to show the post views for every post on a blog page (so in a loop).

I tried it with the following code in the functions.php:

  // function to count views.
function setAndViewPostViews($postID) {
    $count_key = 'views';
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if($count==''){
        $count = 0;
        delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
        add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
    }else{
        $count++;
        update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, $count);
    }
    return $count; /* so you can show it */
}

Then in the loop function I used this code:

<?php echo setAndViewPostViews(get_the_ID());  ?>

However, every post gets a count added every time the blog page is reloaded, strange thing is that the id is different for every post. How can I make this it will only count the every posts? And, if possible, how would I make it so that it only counts every individual views?

Thanks in advance!

Btw. I know there are a lot of plugins that do this, it's not my intention to use one, so please don't suggest a plugin.

Answer 1

Few remarks:

• You should consider using a prefix on your meta key, for example lars_views, to minimize the risk of other plugins messing around with it.

• If you want to hide it from the edit screen, you can use an underscore: _lars_views.

• Consider wrapping the part of your code, that updates the counter, with if( is_single() ){...}. This will restrict it to single post views. More about this conditional tag in the Codex. If you have custom post types, consider is_singular().

• You start the counter with 0, but I think it would be more accurate to start with 1 instead when you use is_single().

• You can use update_post_meta() instead of add_post_meta(), if you want to simplify your code. Check out the Codex,

• I would rather have a seperate function to show the counts and another one to update the counter via some hook. I think it's more flexible.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

function setAndViewPostViews($postID) {
    $count_key = 'views';
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);

    // Check if the post has already been viewed by the current visitor
    $viewed_key = 'viewed_' . $postID;
    $viewed = isset($_COOKIE[$viewed_key]) ? true : false;

    if (!$viewed) {
        if ($count == '') {
            $count = 0;
            delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
            add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
        } else {
            $count++;
            update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, $count);
        }

        // Set a cookie to mark the post as viewed by the current visitor
        setcookie($viewed_key, $postID, time() + (86400 * 30), '/');
    }

    return $count;
}

<?php echo setAndViewPostViews(get_the_ID()); ?>