Links shortcode Plugin

The plugin re-enables the Link Manager in WordPress and provides the shortcode ‘links’. This shortcode displays a list of all links having specified characteristics, for example a link category name in your post. By default it includes a Facebook Like button for every link, but this can be easily disabled.

The plugin supports a customizable template for showing links. This enables you to use the shortcode to display links in any format you like, for example in a list or a table, with or without link images, etc. All relevant properties of a link are supported and listed on the Settings page of the plugin.

The typical format for the short code is

[links option1=”x” option2=”y” etc…]

The following options are available:

• fblike: Show the facebook Like button (default ‘1’, to disable set to any value other than ‘1’).
• fbrecommend: Show the Facebook Recommend botton (default ”, to enable set to ‘1’).
• orderby: Order the links by (default ‘name’). Use ‘order’ to order links by order specified with ‘My Link Order’ plugin.
• order: How to order, ASC or DESC (default ‘DESC’).
• limit: Limit the number of links shown (default ‘-1’, which means no limit).
• category: Comma separated list of link category ID’s.
• category_name: Category name of a catgeory of links to show. Overrides category parameter.
• hide_invisible: Hide links marked as not visible (default ‘1’, yes).
• include: Comma separated list of numeric link IDs to include. If ‘include’ is used, the category, category_name, and exclude parameters are ignored.
• exclude: Comma separated list of numeric link IDs to exclude.
• search: Shows all links matching this search string. It searches url, link name and link description.
• links_per_page: To paginate lists of links. How many links to show per page. Below the links a pagination will be shown.
• links_list_id: A unique identifyer on a page for the shortcode at hand. Mandatory in case ‘links_per_page’ is used to paginate. Optional to define custom styles for this id using css.
• class: A class that can be inserted using the links template. You could for example use <div class=”[class]”> in the template to attache different style to different instances of the short code.
• alttext: An alternative text that will be displayed if the shortcode does not return any links.

Dafault options can be changed on a ‘Links Shortcode’ page in the Settings menu.

Example:

[links category_name=”Blogroll”]

Using the customizable template, all properties of a link can be displayed. An example template is included. This template uses the Name, Web Address, Description and Rating of your links. The Name will link to the Web Address.

If the Name starts with a date, formatted as: yyyy-mm-dd followed by ‘:’, a separate property for the date is available.

Templates are fully customizable. For more information see http://www.apprique.com/community/wordpress-plugins.

Please note that the Description of a link has a limited length, but the WordPress UI does not show this. After saving changes to a Link in the Links section, WordPress only saves the first 255 characters. This has nothing to do with this Plugin.

Just use the “Add New” button in Plugin section of your WordPress blog’s Control panel. To find the plugin there, search for ‘Links Shortcode’.

After installing you can use the shortcode anywhere in your blog as described in the description.

1. 

   Settings page

2. 

   Links Short code

3. 

   Resulting list of links

1.8.3 (20-01-2018)

• Compatible up to WordPress 4.9
• Fixed warning for dates that do not include ‘-‘ character.

1.8.2 (21-04-2016)

• Compatible up to WordPress 4.5

1.8 (08-09-2014)

• Compatible up to WordPress 4.0
• If no links match the shortcode, an alternative text is displayed if provided, via [links alttext=”This text will be displayed when no links have been found matching the shortcode.”]

1.7 (16-06-2014)

• Compatible up to WordPress 3.9.1
• Star rating of links can now be displayed on other backgrounds than white by providing your own background image. Use [links emptystarsimg=”absolutepathto/filename” fullstarsimg=”absolutepathto/filename”] to indicate your own replacements of the emptystars.png and fullstars.png images.

1.6.2 (28-12-2013)

• Compatible up to WordPress 3.8

1.6.1 (29-09-2013)

• Fixed issue with initializing Links shortcode template on first activation.
• Fixed issue with table names not starting with the default ‘wp_’.

1.6 (02-09-2013)

• In WordPress 3.5 the Link manager is disabled by default if you don’t have any Links. This plugin now enables it anyway (which would be a logical thing to do if you want to use Links Shortcodes) in exactly the same way that the Links Manager plugin does this.
• A HTML class can be added to a shortcode to enable custom CSS for each shortcode. Use [links class=”your_class” ..] as a shortcode and [class] in the template on the settings page.
• The default CSS is now optional
• Small bug fixes

1.5 (13-06-2013)

• Added long desired option to paginate links. Let me know your opinion so I can improve where necessary.
• Removed “Links Shortcode” link to settings from Settings menu. Plugin settings can now only be found in the Links menu, where it should be.
• The default template now includes schema.org code for link ratings (http://schema.org/Rating)
• The plugin now supports nested shortcodes as described in http://www.sitepoint.com/wordpress-nested-shortcodes/

1.4.1 (01-03-2013)

• Fixed issue where newly installed plugin does not contain a default template, resulting in no links being shown by default.

1.4 (27-02-2013)

• Made Facebook button SSL friendly as well, to prevent https security warnings
• Compatible with latest version of WordPress
• Small bug fixes (making code neater)

1.3 (21-07-2012)

• Corrected code to be SSL friendly.
• Added option to choose Facebook like button color (light or dark).
• Added functionality to save the date on which links are added or updated. This date is also available for sorting (use [links orderby=”link_updated”]). The date is also availabel for display, where it can be overruled by adding the date in front of the link title as yyyy-mm-dd followed by ‘:’.
• Added the following fields to display dates in the links template: [date], [date_year], [date_month], [date_day].
• Added a link to the settings page to the Links menu, where they should be easier to find. The settings page can also still be found under Settings.
• Officially removed support for displaying category name, as this field is not supported by WordPress in almost all cases. The value will still be supported if available.

1.2

• Fixed issue where settings were deleted when the plugin was deactivated. Now, settings will only be deleted on uninstall.
• Link_owner now displays the owner’s display name instead of the useless owner ID.
• Added a new template tag “[link_rating_stars]” which displays the rating of a link using 0 to 5 stars.
• Improved the manual at http://blog.bigcircle.nl/about/wordpress-plugins/links-shortcode

1.1

• Added compatibility with ‘My Link Order’ plugin
• Fixed bug in link retrieving logic

1.0.1

• Added some example templates to choose from, including one that shows images (if you have entered image urls for your links)
• Added compatibility with what ‘Andy’s Link Last Edited Meta Box’ does WordPress’s link_updated field (thanks to wlindley)

1.0

• Added customizable template to display links in any way you like
• Added customizable alternative layout in case link property is empty

0.9

• Corrected spelling error

0.8

• Fixed issues where links showed too much space below and/or above a link.

0.7

• A Settings page has been added to set the most common default options.
• Translation support has been added for the Settings page.
• Stylesheet and layout have been improved to better display the links without the Facebook button.

0.6

• The first stable release at the WordPress.org plugin repository.