Announcing Contextual Related Posts 3.6.0: Enhanced Blocks, Improved Settings, and More

I’m excited to announce the latest release of Contextual Related Posts, which significantly improves our Free and Pro versions. This update focuses on enhancing the block editor experience, improving customisation options, and fixing several issues. Whether you are a casual blogger or a seasoned web developer, these improvements will help you effortlessly showcase related content and boost user engagement.

New Pro Features

Advanced Featured Image Block

Pro users can now use our new “Contextual Related Posts Featured Image” block. This brand-new block offers advanced control over how your featured images are displayed. It intelligently handles situations where a featured image isn’t available, providing fallback options:

• Custom Image: If the post doesn’t have a featured image, select a custom image that will take priority.
• First Image: If the post does not have a featured image, the first image will be automatically used within the post content.
• Meta Key: You can specify a custom meta key to retrieve an image URL.
• Default Image: Set a default image as a last resort, ensuring a consistent and professional look even when missing images.

These features ensure that your related posts are displayed with appropriate imagery, maintaining a consistent and professional look across your site. You can use this advanced image block in other Query Loops or across your site!

Enhanced Related Posts Block

Our Related Posts block just got better! Now it includes:

• New settings: Set the related posts’ style and post thumb location.
• Buttons to Save and Clear Default Settings: Easily save your preferred settings and clear them whenever necessary.
• Auto-insertion of Default and Global Settings Attributes: This feature streamlines the setup process by automatically applying default and global settings attributes. You can turn this on in the List Tuning tab.

New Block Pattern

Introducing a new block pattern for the Contextual Related Posts Query Loop block, designed to display posts in an unordered list format.

Improvements for Both Free and Pro:

Improved Manual Related Posts

The “Manual related posts” feature in the meta box now offers more flexibility in search functionality. By default, it searches with relevance. However, you can now turn this off, allowing you to find posts based purely on keywords. To turn off relevance, use the following filter in your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

add_filter( 'crp_meta_box_manual_related_relevance', '__return_false' );

Other updates

• Streamlined Block Settings: To improve the block editor experience, I’ve moved the “Other attributes” for the Contextual Related Posts Block to the “Advanced” panel.
• Admin notices: I’ve added admin notices to clarify when the related posts’ style is “Rounded Thumbnails”, “Rounded Thumbnails with Grid”, or “Text Only” on the Settings page. A notice will appear below the Show post author, excerpt and date settings, indicating they cannot be changed.
• Refined Rounded Thumbnails Style: I’ve made some subtle but impactful visual tweaks to the “Rounded Thumbnails” style. The post title line height is now set to 1.1em, and I’ve removed unnecessary padding, resulting in a cleaner and more modern look.
• Updated Freemius SDK: I’ve updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.10.1, ensuring compatibility and improved stability. If you’re a free user, visit the Upgrade page to buy Contextual Related Posts Pro.
• Resolved Language File Warning: I’ve fixed a warning message about language files being initiated too early, ensuring a smoother and error-free experience.

Update Today!

Make sure to update your Contextual Related Posts plugin to the latest version and take advantage of these new features and improvements. The update is available on your Admin page, through WordPress.org for free users, and through your Freemius dashboard for Pro users. As always, I recommend backing up your site before updating.

As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know how these updates work for you or suggest features you’d like to see in future releases.