June 04, 2024

JS Archive List Plugin

A JS widget (can be used in posts) for displaying an archive list with some effects.

This plugin provides a widget and a filter to display a collapsible archive list in your sidebar or posts using the JS JS library.

Features

Support for Gutenberg blocks. Add it to any FSE theme or Gutenberg compatible theme.
Display a collapsed list of your archives to reduce space.
Uses vanilla JS to add effects and to be compatible with all browsers.
Select your expand/collapse symbol and date format.
Support for archive filters.
Auto expands current/select year from posts.
Select the categories to exclude
Multiple instances support.
Shortcode support [JsArchiveList]
Generates valid HTML code.
Supports multiple languages.
Compatible with most JS cache and minify plugins.
And more to come…

Configuration

Title: title of the widget.
Trigger Symbol: characters to be displayed as bullet.
Effect: Effect to use.
Month Format: month’s display format of the month.
Expand: when to expand the content of the list.
Hide years from before: older years will be hidden under a link. To save space in the page on old sites.
Show days inside month list: group posts by day.
Show number of posts: display how many post are published in the year or in the month.
Show only posts from selected category: show only posts from the selected category when visiting a category page.
Only expand/reduce by clicking the symbol: select if animations start when click the link or just the bullet.
Only expand one at the same time: select if you want to have only one expanded at the same time.
Show posts under months: show post’s title under months.
Show post date next to post title: show post’s date next to post title.
Sort posts by: select how to sort the posts under months.
Include or Exclude categories: Select the categories to include or exclude.

Installation

Make a directory js-archive-list-widget under /wp-content/plugins/
Upload all downloaded files to /wp-content/plugins/js-archive-list-widget/
Activate plugin at the plugins section.
Go to Presentation -> Widgets and drag the JS Archive List to your sidebar and configure it, if you want to display it inside a post then write [JSArchiveList] at the location where it will be shown and save it.

Screenshots

A list of the archives, archives for each month are hidden under years.
A list of archives and its month archives expanded.
Block options to configure the list.

FAQ

Why there are 2 widgets?

Since version 6.0 the widget was migrated to a Gutenberg block. So there will be a Gutenberg block with the most modern code and compatibility and a legacy version that is 100% made in PHP to keep compatibility with older installations.

Why this plugin is not working?

By support experience, like 99% of problems are due to:

There’s a Javascript error caused by other plugin, and it stops any further code execution, check your browser’s logs to find the problem and deactivate the conflict plugin.
Your template doesn’t have a wp_footer() function, this plugin requires this function to load JS code at the end of the website to improve speed.

I’m using custom permalinks, How can I change the links?

Currently, there’s no function in WP API for getting link for date archives when using custom permalinks. So, you’ll need to modify/hack the source code to support your custom link structure, you can do this by changing the lines where I call get_month_link and get_year_link.

How can I exclude some categories from navigation?

This plugin only shows the posts from included/excluded categories. It does not remove them from the navigation. If you want to do it you have to install a 3rd party plugin like Ultimate Category Excluder or Simple Exclude Categories

How I can send you a translation?

Send me the translated .mo file to migueluseche(a)skatox.com and indicate the language, I can read english or spanish, so please write me on these languages.

Can I use images as bullets or trigger symbols?

Yes, select ‘Empty Space’ as trigger symbol and Save, then you can add any custom background using CSS,
just play with the widget’s classes: .jaw_symbol, .jaw_year, .jaw_month.

Can I show this list inside posts?

Yes, just add the JS Archive List block or add a shortcode block and write [JsArchiveList] anywhere inside a post
or page’s contest and it will be replaced for the archive list when rendering the content. You can add the following
parameters to change its behavior:

showcount ( boolean ): select if you want to show the count post inside that month/year.
showpost ( boolean ): show post’s titles under months.
expand (“none”, “never”, “expand”): never expand by default, current year only and always expand.
month_format (“short”, “full”, “number”): the format of the date.
ex_sym: the expansion symbol.
con_sym: the collapse symbol.
only_sym_link: only expand/collapse when clicking the bullet.
effect (“”, “slide”, “fade”): the JS effect to implement.
exclude: IDs (comma separated) of the categories to exclude.
type: ID of the type of the posts to show, this is if you’re using custom type posts. By default will show posts.

So for example:

[JsArchiveList month_format=number showpost=1 showcount=1 ex_sym=+ con_sym=- effect=slide type=page]

Will show a widget with months as numbers, show posts under months and their count, the symbols are + and – and the effect is fadeIn. You can check source code for more information.

How I contribute to this plugin?

By using it, recommending it to other users, giving it 5 starts at plugin’s WordPress page, suggesting features or coding new features and finally by DONATING using plugin’s website’s donate link.

How can I add multiples instances?

Since 2.0 you can add as many instances as you want, but there’s another way to do it, just add a new Text widget only with the shortcode [JSArchiveList] then it will have a new copy of the widget.

Can I have different instances with different configuration?

Since 2.0 it’s possible. Each instance has its own configuration. Shortcode widgets are controlled by shortcode attributes.

Changelog

6.1.4

Solving a bug when expand was selected to all and no symbol was set.

6.1.3

Legacy widget: solving settings save bug when changing checkboxes.
Legacy widget: solving settings load when using the widget mode.
Legacy widget: rewriting clicking event function to avoid bugs and issues with certain settings.

6.1.2

Solved scrolling bug when clickin day’s link.

6.1.1

Solved post’s list bug when using the shortcode.
Solved title bug of showing 1 when using the shortcode.
Updated translations for spanish and portuguese.

6.1.0

Added option to sort month’s posts by id, date or title.
Added option to add post’s date to the month’s post list.
New option to display posts grouped by day.
New option to hide older years in a toggle (good for old sites).
Improved frontend code to make it more efficient and slightly faster.
Fixed bug of changing the symbol when data was not loaded.
Legacy version: added jawl_widget_title hook to allow changing the widget’s title (helpful for translations).

6.0.5

Improved Gutenberg block to be more efficient and faster.
Changed block’s animation from CSS to JS to increase compatibility.
Changed legacy widget’s animation from CSS to JS to increase compatibility.
Fixed shortcode name and updated documentation to reflect the change.
Fixing shortcode parameters and values to make it work ok.
Adding support for accordion option for the Gutenberg block.

6.0.1

Code migrated to Gutenberg block. Now you can use this plugin as a Gutenberg block on any modern theme.
The block version reads the archive dynamically. It saves bandwidth and reduces old DOM size on old sites.
JS code is only loaded if there’s a widget or block is added to page. No more always loading JS and CSS code.
Updated CSS code to improve animations on all browsers.
Depecrated old php version. It will only be on maintenance mode and new Gutenberg block will be supported.
Improved automated tests and code, to make future versions easier to develop.

5.1

Fixed ‘missing array key accordion’ bug.

5.0

Removed jQuery dependency and rewrote the plugin in full vanilla Javascript.
Added compatibility with Gutenberg’s block.
Added option to include categories. You can now just select the categories to include.
Renamed plugin name, shortcode now it’s [JSArchiveList] but old one is kept for backwards compatibility.
Improved caret down symbol when selected.
Fixed wrong HTML at settings page (thanks to Cosam_jp for the report).
Fixed bad use of selected function at settings page (thanks to Cosam_jp for the report).
Solved expansion bug when current post belong to an excluded category.
Solved an expansion/collapse problem when activating this option and excluding or including categories.
Solved bug when post titles were empty.

4.0.1

Better JS file caching: enqueue URL now uses plugin version number when included (instead of WordPress version).
Solving CSS typo error introduced in 4.0.0
Fixing Data Source instance bug (thanks to imlwebadmin for the fix)
Solving incompatibility with Recent Post Widget( thanks to Ramanan for the fix).

4.0.0

Title is translated on showing, so the widget title is updated in real-time when a user switches languages on the site. (thanks to @udi86)
Added ‘widget_archive’ class to the widget. Many people requested this.
Added Ukrainian and Russian translation (thanks to Alex Popov).
Added support for ‘Remove Widget Titles’ plugin.
Added option to work as an accordion.
Changing collapse icon to – so it has the same width as the + sign.
Fixed closing wrong
tag at settings.
Fixed double join bug when excluding posts.
Formatted code to WordPress standards.
Several performance improvements.

3.0.6

Fixed some compatibility issues with translations plugins like PolyLang.

3.0.5

Fixed Javascript bug present in Internet Explorer 6,7,8,9,10.

3.0.4

Shortcut has been changed to [JSArchiveList] because WordPress 4.4 doesn’t let spaces in shortcodes.

3.0.3

Minor fixes to add total compatibility with WordPress 4.3

3.0.2

Solved missing months bug.

3.0.1

Solved month linking bug.
Checkbox are easier to click at widget’s configuration, now each text is a label.

3.0

Complete rewrite of the javascript code, it has less size, easier to understand and should work faster.
Added support for custom posts, now you can create archive widgets for your custom posts.
Added active CSS class to indicate when a link points to current URL.
Added title attribute to links to generate valid HTML5 code.
Added Dutch translation (thanks to Patrick Schreibing).
Migrated category selection to WordPress checkbox tool.
Solved bugs when excluding categories.
Solved bug of missing expanded class on months (thanks to pjarts).
Solved not expanding months bug when selecting some options.

2.2

Added support for HTTPS, now the plugin generates the correct link if HTTPS is being used, thanks to bridgetwes for the patch.
Added more expansion options, you can select if you want to expand: only on current date, current loaded post, both, none or all archives dates.
Added an option to show only posts from selected category when visiting a category page.

2.0.1

Added option to exclude categories when using shortcodes, just add categories’ ID separated by commas in the exclude attribute.
Solved bug of not including JS file when using a filter without any widget.
Solved bug of not including JS in some WP installations under Windows.

2.0

Huge update thanks to donations! If you upgrade to this version you’ll NEED to configure the widget AGAIN, due to architecture rewriting configuration may get lost.
Added support for multiples instances, finally you can have as many widgets as you want without any hack 🙂
Added support for dynamic widgets.s
Added an option to not have any effect when expanding or collapsing.
Added an option to activate the expand/collapse only when clicking the bullet.
Removed dynamic generation of the JS file, now you don’t need to write permissions on the folder.
Rewrote JS code, now it is a single JS file for all instances, improved performance and compatible with all cache plugins.
Updated translation files for Spanish, Czech, Slovak and Italian.

1.4.2

Fixed some several bugs, thanks to Marco Lizza who reviewed the code and fixed them. Plugin should be more stable and won’t throw errors when display_errors is on.

1.4.1

Solved Javascript bug where in some configurations, months and posts links were not working.

1.4

Updated i10n functions to WordPress 3.5, no more deprecations warning should appear with i10n stuff.
Solved the i10n bug of not translating exclude categories label.
Improved Javascript code (please save again the configuration to take effect)
Better shortcode/filter support. now it has attributes for different behavior on instances. (There’s no support for effect and symbol because it is managed through the JS file )

1.3

Improved query performance and added option to exclude categories. (thanks to Michael Westergaard for the work)

1.2.3

Fixing i18n bug due to new WordPress changes, now it loads your language (if it was translated) correctly.

1.2.2

Fixed the bug of wrong year displaying on pages.
JS code is not generated dynamically, now it generates in a separated file. For better performance and to support any minify plugins.

1.2.1

Improved generated HTML code to be more compatible when JS is off, also helps to search engines to navigate through archives pages.
Fixed a bug where in some cases a wrong year expanded at home page.
Added Slovak translation

1.2

Added option to automatically expand current year or post’s year (thanks to Michael Westergaard for most of the work)
Cleaned code and make it more readable for future hacks from developers.

1.1.2

Changed plugin’s JS file loading to the footer, so it doesn’t affect your site’s loading speed.
Added default value for widget’s title. And it is included in translation files, so this can be used in multi-language sites.
Plugin translated to Czech (CZ) thanks to Tomas Valenta.

1.1.1

Removed characters, all spacing should be done by CSS.

1.1

Added support for multiples instances (by writing [JSArchiveList] on any Text widget)
Added support for WordPress’ reading filters, like reading permissions using Role Scoper plugin (thanks to Ramiro García for the patch)
Improved compatibility with WordPress 3.x

1.0

Added support for month’s format
Now the jquery archive list can be printed from a post, just write [JSArchiveList] anywhere inside the post.
Added support for i18n, so you can translate widget configuration’s text to your language.
Separated JS code from HTML code, so browsers should cache JS content for faster processing.
Automatic loading of jQuery JS library.
Almost all code were rewritten for better maintainer and easy way to add new features.
Improved code to be more WordPress compatible.

0.1.3

Initial public version.