Get Facebook Likes

Get Facebook Likes interacts with Facebook Graph API and saves likes, shares, and comments count to post meta right after users hit Like/Share button or leaves a Facebook comment therefore you can do some awesome stuff that you think it's impossible before like order posts, order search results, vote, deeper analytics... by Facebook likes (and shares, comments too).

As we're both developers and end users, we're obviously love fast & ease of use plugins. Get Facebook Likes uses native Facebook JS SDK and works right after activated, no cronjob setup is required. Just a few options to tweak your script to the highest speed.

Features

Basic Mode which compatibility with all WP Sites
Advanced Mode which have better performance and more accurate
Use native Facebook API to listening user event and get facebook likes/shares/comments
Save likes/shares/comments to post meta for further use
Built-in shortcodes [likes], [shares], and [comments]
Likes custom column and sorting
Most favourite content on the Dashboard area which display top 10 posts which have most likes+shares+comments
Display likes/shares/comments in Post Editing screen if Meta Box plugin is installed

Use Cases

Display most liked post from your website
Create a contest on your website which use Facebook Like (or Share) to vote
Restrict content, require at least X likes to view.
Discount your product if it has at least X likes
Track Facebook likes, shares, comments per day
...

Installation

Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/get-facebook-likes directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' screen in WordPress
Use the Settings\Get Facebook Likes screen to configure the plugin

Advanced Usage

Likes, Shares and Comments are saved in wp_postmeta table as fb_like_count, fb_share_count, fb_comment_count and a special field called fb_total_count so basically, you can use get_post_meta() function to retrieve these values.

We're created some helper functions and examples to make this process easier. Let's try it:

Get num of likes, shares, comments, or total likes+shares+comments

Likes, Shares, Comments and Total Likes+Shares+Comments can be retrived by using gfl_count() function

gfl_count( $custom_field_name, $post_id );

Where

$custom_field_name (Required) name of custom field. Default: fb_like_count

$post_id (Optional) Post ID. Default: Current Post ID

Get Num of Likes

gfl_likes( $post_id );

When

$post_id: Optional Post ID to get likes, default: current post id

This function is a shortcut of gfl_count();

Shortcodes to display likes, shares, or comments

[likes], [shares], and [comments] are shortcodes to display related action. You can also pass post id in case you want to display value from another post or outside the post. Like so:

[likes id="35"]

Order Posts By Likes

The most favourited part is here. You can order post by Facebook Likes/Shares/Comments or total of them. This is the example:

$args = [
	'meta_key' 	=> 'fb_like_count', 
	'orderby' 	=> 'meta_value_num', 
	'order' 	=> 'DESC'
];

$query = new WP_Query( $args );

Or simply pass variables to URL like so:

http://example.com/?fsortby=likes&forderby=desc

Please note that fsortby supports likes, shares, comments, and all forderby supports asc, and desc

To learn more about WP_Query. See WP Codex.

Javascript Events

Version 1.1 comes with Javascript Events, this allows you listening Facebook Events, Updating Events so you can extend it to create your own addons. Awesome right?

To subscribe an event, you must run GFL.subscribe() method after page load. The syntax like so:

GFL.subscribe(event, callback);

To fire an event, you can run GFL.fire() method after pageload, like so:

GFL.fire(event [,arguments]);

The Events List

Name	Arguments	Description
`edge.create`	url	Run when users hit like button
`edge.remove`	url	Run when users hit unlike button
`comment.create`	url	Run when users post a comment
`comment.remove`	url	Run when users remove a comment
`update.before`	null	Run when system try to update likes/shares/comments count
`update.response`	response	Run when system return a response after update likes/shares/comments count
`update.after`	null	Run when system updated likes/shares/comments count

Example:

Run an anonymous function to log url when user hit like button

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
	GFL.subscribe('edge.create', function(url) {
		console.log(url);
	});
});

Run my_custom_function() after update likes/shares/comments count

jQuery(function($){

	function my_custom_function() {
		alert('Update Successful');
	}

	GFL.subscribe('update.after', my_custom_function)
});

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it requires Facebook App ID?

No, Get Facebook Likes works without App ID. But it's recommended to use more advanced feature of Facebook like App Tracking, Moderate Comments, etc...

I have already installed Facebook JS SDK, what option I should use?

If you've already installed Facebook JS SDK by placing their script right after open body tag or by another plugin. Just uncheck Auto add Facebook JS SDK to wp_head option and place GFL_Main.init(); after FB.init(); in window.fbAsyncInit method like Setup Guide in Settings\Get Facebook Likes

Does the plugin count the likes from the beginning of time?

Yes, each time the update like event was fired (also applied to share, comment), it makes a GET request to Facebook to retrieve total count of them. This because some users may like or share your post outside of your website.

Roadmap

1.2

New Most Liked Widget
New Auto add like and share buttons so users don't have to edit theme file or use other plugins

Changelog

1.1.2 (March 08, 2016)

New Add sorting query args so user can sort posts via url
New Convert to K, M, B if total likes, shares, comments is more than 10k
Fix [comments] shortcode doesn't works

1.1.1 (Feb 25, 2016)

Improvement Add Likes, Shares, Comments columns in Most Favourite Content meta box
Improvement Add settings page hooks and default settings filter
Improvement Most Favourite Content widget now showing Likes and Shares
Improvement Add minified script gfl-main.min.js
Fix Javascript Event doesn't works properly
Fix Use WordPress recommended text domain

1.1 (Feb 01, 2016)

New Introduction to JS Events
New Add I18N support
New Allows users set JS SDK Locale
Improvement Use gfl_count() instead of gfl_facebook_count();

1.0 (Jan 24, 2016)

Initial Release

tanftw/get-facebook-likes