New Plugin, “Rate”

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Update: It broke! Update to 0.1.1 please!

Disclaimer #1: Beta Release, it might break

Disclaimer #2: I am not a maniac, the only reason I am writing so many plugins right now is because I have a lot of freelance projects, little time to fuck around, and a desire to save my solutions for future use

I am well-aware that there are 5 million Ratings plugins for WordPress, and (from what I can tell) most of them suck. The amount of bad inline JavaScript and disgusting HTML that most of them produce is just sad. Ratings are a little wee feature of a site, not a monstrous piece of architecture that need to jam itself into every corner of your  code base.

That’s why I wrote “Rate.” In sticking with my verb naming scheme see (Tumble and Shuffle), I have tried to make ratings as painless and clean as possible.

There are 2 functions that display ratings:

the_rating()

and

the_comment_rating()

Your users rate your Page / Post / Product whatever in the comments section, and the average rating from all of the Page / Post / Whatever’s ratings is accessible with the_rating(). Rate makes use of the oft-overlooked and under-utilized comment_karma field in the wp_comments table.

The functions don’t install themselves automatically, you must insert them into your Theme in the appropriate places. The ratings styles are loaded by default from within the plugin directory. If you want to override with your own styles, drop a rate.css file in your theme’s directory and the rate plugin CSS won’t load, yours will!

I really thought I could download a plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory that would suit my needs. I installed PollDaddy the minute I realized that it supported ratings. PollDaddy’s implementation is disgraceful and completely un-override-able. Aside from having inline event handlers (which is ghetto), the styles are written dynamically with JavaScript which makes them virtually impossible to override in CSS. The presentation options/settings are pretty limiting as well.

Hopefully Rate will grow and mature into the cleanest and best ratings plugin for WordPress.

43 thoughts on “New Plugin, “Rate””

  1. Hi!

    I use this plugin but it doesn’t work.

    I have this error on single page :

    “Warning: Division by zero in …plugins/rate/rate.php on line 42”

    ?

    Thanks a lot

  3. The instructions are absolutely horrible…. What exactly is done to install this? I mean where do i drop the code? What file? What Folder? What will it display? how can i alter current comments with ratings? What will the rating subject be? Will it work in widgets? What comments will it collect? Will it take already existing comments? Will it remove a rating if a comment is deleted? Need mroe info please!

  4. You should provide some screenshots and/or use this on your site, so we can see it in action. I don’t have time to check all the plugins my self.
    If you want more downloads, you should add some more information. Hoping to see more info soon! 🙂
    Keep up the good work.

    • I feel it. I tried to indicate “Beta Release” as much as possible so it would excuse the lack of detail, but I will def get some screenshots up as this is the 2nd comment on the subject. Most of my plugins lean towards developers so I need to work on the broader audience as well.

  5. Well, I am a developer (and musician :)) also, but I’d still like to see the plugin in action, as it’s easier to decide if you want to use/extend it or not.

  7. Hi

    Thanks for the efforts.. it is a great plugin and no other plugins for reviewing sites are avilable.

    I installed it and placed the code as instructed, but the starts are not clickable. I do not get any response when I click on them to rate.

    See the link below

    http://muslimcommunityradio.com/?p=139

    Thanks

    • Currently, you can only rate AFTER you leave a comment, that way you must have an identity (you are logged in, or you have Cookies from leaving comments before) – I am considering adding the rating with the submission form, just haven’t written that in yet 🙂 I definitely will add it in the near future, you’ll get an update notice in the admin panel when I do

  9. The AFTER factor is relevant. The idea to let visitors rate your posts or whatever through comments is just great and I’ve been looking for something like this for days..
    I’d be happy to be notified when the rating will be included right in the comment fields..
    good job and keep it up!

  10. Pingback: Rate Plugin | Wordpress Plugins

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  14. Great plugin, very simple to install and use, I’d say elegant.

    I agree with Marco that the AFTER factor is important.

    One request though : I have tried to no avail to have the_rating(); displayed on the index page. I surely lack a lot of knowledge on the new loop system. Could you provide some pointer ?

  16. is there a way to make it so a user can only comment on a post one time?

    this plugin is awesome btw!!! keep up the good work

  17. help, ur pluggin just killed my website!!!

    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘<' in /home/mrjozcom/public_html/showcase/wp-content/themes/autofocuspro/functions.php on line 886

    can you help me get it back please. i dont understand php 🙁

  18. ok, sorry….panic over. i learnt FAST 🙂

    so anyway, i guess i need to add the funtions but do i omit the php tags?

  19. ok so i got the function issue sorted now but my rating stars are top/left of the page (every page). i only need the code on a certain page template….what code do i need to remove and put in said template page?

    thanx

  21. This is really a fantastic plugin. Thank you SO much. I have tried nearly every alternative and this wins hands down.

  22. Hi.

    Is there a way to dispaly the ratings of each person that rated? I want to use the plugin in a kind of review site.

    Thaks for the plugin.

  23. Sorry if I am double posting, but I didnt see my last comment go through.

    First of all, thanks for a great simple plugin 🙂

    Is there a way I can show how many stars each person who rated clicked? I want to show that beside each persons username.

    Thanks:)

  24. Hey, just for info:

    In Chrome, the output of the_comment_rating is still clickable with hover-effects, in Firefox, it’s read-only as it suppose to be…

  25. Can i pass the name of the “Post Type”
    as a parameter to the function “the_rating()” ???

    ….if not -> T_T…, It’ll be cooler,… thanks.

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