FAQs

How do I add custom formatting to the generated lists of favorites?
As of version 2.1.0, the list may be customized through the plugin settings.

• Visit Settings > Favorites > Display & Post Types, and scroll to the “Listing Display” header.
• Check the “Customize the favorites list HTML” and click the “Settings” button. Here, the list wrapper HTML element type and individual listing HTML element type may be customized. Custom CSS classes may be added to elements as well.
• To edit the content displayed in the listings, select the “Customize Content” checkbox. A WordPress editor field will display, which represents a single listing. To add dynamic post fields, select the fields from the list above and click “add.” To add a custom field, include the field key, surrounded by brackets. Only single variable custom fields are supported (not arrays).

How do I include the post thumbnail in the favorites list?
As of version 2, the thumbnail may be included by setting the shortcode parameter in the [user_favorites] shortcode: include_thumbnails=”true”. To display a size other than “thumbnail/small”, include a size parameter: thumbnail_size=”large”. Additionally, the listing content may be fully customized using the steps outlined in the above answer.

Is this plugin multisite compatible?
As of version 1.1.0, Favorites is multisite compatible. The plugin API is designed for maximum flexibility while maintaining ease of use. For example, by passing a site_id parameter to the included functions, you may display user favorites across sites.

Does this work on sites with caching enabled?
Yes, although the buttons may display the incorrect state momentarily. Button states are updated via an AJAX call after page load in order to accommodate cached pages. This may be noticeable on slower servers or on pages with external resources that are slow to respond.

Some servers use very aggressive caching methods. If anonymous user favoriting is enabled, and favorites are not saving, this may be due to the host caching cookies. You may need to request that they disable caching on the simplefavorites cookie. If you have chosen ‘session’ as the save type, and favorites are not saving, the host may have sessions disabled on the server. In this case, cookies may be required for anonymous users.

How do I donate to this plugin?
Monetary donations are not currently accepted. If you’d like to express appreciation, consider leaving a nice review on wordpress.org, or giving me a shout-out on Twitter.

Is this plugin available in “X” language?
The front-end components generated by this plugin are extremely minimal. The favorite button text is configurable to be any text/html combination. To submit a translation of the plugin admin, submit a Github pull request with your translation files, and it will be included in the next plugin release (pending review).

I want to display the favorite buttons, but not let unauthenticated users favorite items. How do I do that?
As of version 2.1, there is an option to prevent unauthenticated users from favoriting posts while showing them a modal alert:

• Visit Settings > Favorites > Users
• Uncheck “Enable Anonymous Users”
• Check “Require Login & Show Modal to Anonymous Users”
• Customize the modal content to display. The content is also filterable.

How do I change the star icon to a hear in the button?
Version 2 offers several methods of customizing the button:

Option 1: Custom Markup

• Visit Settings > Favorites > Display & Post Types
• Under “Button Type,” choose “Custom Markup.”
• Include the markup specific to your theme in the provided Text/HTML inputs. Colors may also be specified (these will override theme colors).

Option 2: Use a Preformatted Button

• Visit Settings > Favorites > Display & Post Types
• Under “Button Type,” choose a different type of button. A preview will display. Colors may also be specified (these will override theme colors).

Option 3: Use a Filter

• Filters are available for the button html. If a preformatted button is selected, additional filters are available for each of the button elements.

My site is hosted on WP Engine. Favorites aren’t saving. What do I do?
WP Engine disables PHP sessions, so anonymous users must be saved via cookies. WP Engine also caches cookies, so you’ll need to contact their tech support and ask to have the cookie simplefavorites removed from caching. If favorites are still not saving, the server may be forcing admin-ajax to load via HTTPS, even if an SSL has not been installed. If this is the case, save a file named ‘x_disable_wpesec.php’ in the /mu-plugins directory with the following:

<?php
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'wpe_remove_encourage_tls', 0 );
function wpe_remove_encourage_tls() {
remove_action( 'init', 'wpesec_encourage_tls' );
}