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GoodReviews Plugin for WordPress

GoodReviews

The GoodReviews Plugin for WordPress displays information about a specific title from the social networking site Goodreads.com, including reader reviews. This plugin was developed mainly for authors or booksellers who want to showcase Goodreads information about specific titles on their WordPress sites.

You must obtain a Goodreads API developer key in order to use this plugin. You can obain an API key by following the instructions at goodreads.com/api. This plugin is not affiliated with Goodreads.

The GoodReviews Plugin for WordPress is free software that is being released WITHOUT WARRANTY under the Free Software Foundation’s GPL 3.0 license.

GoodReviews Features

  • Allows use of a shortcode to display Goodreads reviews and book information for a specific ISBN in any page or post.
  • Returns book information in divs and reviews in an iframe that can be custom styled or use the default styles.
  • Includes three separate widgets that can be used in place of the shortcode.
  • Supports WordPress localization (i18n)
  • Uses WordPress 3.8 and later Dashicons to display average ratings.

GoodReviews Rating


(4.3 rating based on 4 ratings in the WordPress Plugin Repository)
5 stars 2
4 stars 1
3 stars 1
2 stars 0
1 stars 0

Current Version: 2.2.5
Requires: WordPress 3.8
Compatible Up To: WordPress 5.5.15
Downloaded: 16,356 times from the WordPress Plugin Repository
Last Updated: September 30, 2020

GoodReviews Change Log

2.2.4

  • Updated API request to use HTTPS only.

2.2.3

  • Updated widgets for compatibility with WordPress 4.3.
  • Enhanced security by hardening URL sanitization.

2.2.2

  • Added a button to the WordPress text editor to automatically insert the GoodReviews shortcode
  • Updated ready
  • Updated POT file

2.2.1

  • Fixed a WP_DEBUG notice that could be displayed on WordPress content types that are not pages or posts
  • Added a Donate link on the plugin management page
  • Updated POT file

2.2.0

  • Replaced cURL and file_get_contents with wp_remote_get
  • Fixed some CSS issues with the_iframe element
  • Updated Readme
  • Updated POT file

2.1.4

  • Segregated widgets from shortcode so they can operate more independently.
  • Modified caching mechanism naming system.
  • Modified styles so that they are only loaded on shortcode/widget pages.
  • Modified CSS so that star ratings styles are applied only to GoodReviews container.
  • Fixed some text alignment issues in the default CSS files.

2.1.2

  • Removed some unneeded CSS that was causing some issues in Firefox.

2.1.1

  • Fixed a typo in some input form field markup.
  • Tested in WordPress 4.0

2.1.0

  • Added a caching mechanism and related settings for faster performance.
  • Added the option to defer loading of GoodReviews until the page footer.
  • Optimized shortcode input defaults.
  • Fixed some style issues that hindered responsive design.
  • Fixed a stylesheet/script loading issue that caused some WordPress debug errors.
  • Fixed some variable and index initializations.
  • Updated context-sensitive help.
  • Updated POT file.
  • Updated readme and FAQ.

2.0.1

  • Optimized instantiation/destruction of data retrieval function.
  • Fixed an issue with data retrieval that could have resulted in performance problems on some sites.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented used of file_get_contents on sites that require it.

2.0.0

  • Plugin has been completely rewritten to better integrate with the WordPress Settings API.
  • Now shows ratings count for all editions of a title.
  • Added widgets for book buying links, book information, and book reviews.
  • Added support for styling the output in a more responsive way.
  • Added support for WordPress localization (i18n).
  • Added support for HTTP retries and an exponential backoff method of dealing with throttling problems.
  • Added support for context-sensitive help on the Settings page.
  • Added support for an uninstall process that removes all settings and plugin files.
  • Added support for a shortcut parameter that disables the reviews pane.
  • Removed support for grheader shortcode parameter because calls to Goodreads API appear to no longer support modifying the header text.

1.1.2

  • Fixed a default stylesheet bug that could cause links sitewide to display as HTML color #660.

1.1.1

  • Fixed a stylesheet loading bug.
  • Added code to remove clear space div element when only the reviews pane is displayed.
  • Cleaned up some leftover pre-1.1.0 code.

1.1.0

  • Replaced star images with text-based stars so that colors can be easily modified.
  • Added a field to Settings to enable the use of an alternate stylesheet.
  • Moved default stylesheet to an included file instead of echoing it from functions.
  • Removed support for the grstyles shortcode parameter.
  • Added the grstars parameter to enable changing the color of the review stars.
  • Added the grlinks parameter to enable changing the color of the review links.
  • Added the grheader parameter to enable changing the text of the header above the reviews iframe.
  • Added the grbackground parameter to enable changing the color of the review background.
  • Added the grtext parameter to enable changing the color of the review text.
  • Added the grnumber parameter to allow configuration of the initial number of reviews that are returned.
  • Added the grminimum parameter to allow the configuration of a minimum review rating requirement.

1.0.5

  • Added a link to Settings on the Plugins page.
  • Added basic PHP environment detection on the Settings page to assist in troubleshooting.

1.0.4

  • Added the ability to retrieve a title by its Goodreads ID instead of ISBN.
  • Added the ability to display an author’s Goodreads photo beside the author’s name.

1.0.3

  • Fixed a DIV closing element that was creating problems with the reviews frame. Thanks, Conq and Baden!

1.0.2

  • Fixed an issue that was preventing some “Buy This Book” links from functioning properly.

1.0.1

  • Fixed an API key issue that could prevent GoodReviews from display information from Goodreads.
  • Updated the readme.

1.0

  • Initial release

GoodReviews Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

  1. Obtain an API developer key from goodreads.com/api
  2. If you have a previous version of GoodReviews installed, deactivate and delete it from the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
  3. Upload the GoodReviews folder to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
  4. Activate GoodReviews by using the ‘Plugins’ menu
  5. Under the WordPress ‘Settings’ menu, click GoodReviews and configure the appropriate settings
  6. Add the [goodreviews isbn=”<book ISBN>”] shortcode, where <book ISBN> is the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of the book associated with the reviews you want to display. You can use either an ISBN-10 or an ISBN-13. Do not include dashes in the ISBN. If your title does not have an ISBN, you can use grid=”<Goodreads ID>” in place of the ISBN parameter, where <Goodreads ID> is the ID number assigned to your title by Goodreads.

Donations

If you would like to make a donation in support of this plugin, you can do so by purchasing a single copy of any book from this publisher or this author.

See It in Action

The following information about my time travel novelette Timecast is retrieved and displayed by the GoodReviews Plugin for WordPress:

Average Rating:

4.0 rating based on 5 ratings (all editions)

ISBN-10: 0983761086
ISBN-13: 9780983761082
Goodreads: 13368313

Author(s):
James Hanback Jr.
Publisher: Two Peas Publishing
Published: 1/2/2012

Haunted by guilt and loneliness after a car accident that left the love of his life indefinitely comatose, an aging high school physical science teacher schemes to restore his wife to health and vitality by using the advanced space-time theories of quantum physics to change history.

Based in part on the speculations and published conjectures of theoretical physicists past and present, Timecast explores the nature of humanity, companionship, and the individual’s relationship to the universe through one man’s desperate need to set his life on a different path.

An ornery lawn-mowing neighbor and a confused, but concerned, English teacher become the old man’s first experiment and sounding board as he struggles to regain that which he believes his own youthful foolishness robbed him of twenty years before.

Can he set things right? Time will tell.
Information from Goodreads.com
  • Libraries
Links from Goodreads.com
 

Timecast Reviews

Reviews from Goodreads.com

2 thoughts on “GoodReviews Plugin for WordPress”

  1. Denver says:
    December 29, 2017 at 1:24 am

    Can you please show me a link to this in action. I have seen the star ratings being displayed on http://www.bookdepository.com but not reviews. Can reviews be displayed with my WooCommerce product reviews?

  2. James Hanback Jr. says:
    December 29, 2017 at 7:27 am

    Hello, Denver.

    You can see the results on this same page. I’m not sure BookDepository uses GoodReviews. They might. If you scroll up above these comments, you should see GoodReviews in action.

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