Popular Authors is an addon for Top 10 and cannot function without it. Popular Authors aggregates the visit counts that Top 10 tracks and ranks your site’s authors by those counts. This article explains how the two plugins fit together.
Requirements
- Top 10 v3.0 or above must be installed and active. Older versions do not expose the helper functions and database tables that Popular Authors relies on.
- The plugin declares
Requires Plugins: top-10in its header, so WordPress 6.6+ shows a disabled “This plugin cannot be activated” notice if Top 10 is not active. - WordPress 6.6 or above and PHP 7.4 or above are required to run the plugin.
If Top 10 is missing or inactive, the admin area shows a warning on Dashboard and Plugins pages and the front-end output is replaced with Please install and activate Top 10 plugin to display popular authors.
How the integration works
Visit data
Popular Authors pulls its data from two of Top 10’s database tables:
wp_top_ten— overall visit totals per post.wp_top_ten_daily— daily totals used when the Custom period toggle is enabled.
The plugin joins those tables against wp_users and wp_posts to compute a per-author sum, then renders the ranked list. The SQL is exposed through the wzpa_query_fields, wzpa_query_join, wzpa_query_where, wzpa_query_groupby, wzpa_query_orderby, wzpa_query_limits, and wzpa_query_prepare_valuesOpens in a new window filters for advanced customization.
Settings storage
Popular Authors has no separate wp_options row of its own. Every setting is stored as a field inside Top 10’s tptn_settings array with the wzpa_ prefix and is read through tptn_get_option(). You will find the Popular Authors settings under Top 10 → Settings → Popular Authors.
Cache reuse
Output caching reuses Top 10’s tptn_cache_timeOpens in a new window filter, so turning caching on for Popular Authors piggybacks on the same lifetime you have configured for Top 10. See Popular Authors Settings for the toggle.
Helper functions
Popular Authors calls into Top 10’s helper namespace for date arithmetic and query building:
WebberZoneTop_TenUtilHelpers::get_from_date()— used to build thedp_datecutoff for daily queries.tptn_pop_posts()— used to render the top posts by author list.get_tptn_posts()— used to fetch raw posts by author.tptn_get_settings()andtptn_get_default_option()— used to read the per-setting defaults.
These functions are only guaranteed to exist when Top 10 v3 is active.
Top 10 Pro features
When Top 10 Pro is active, an extra Post types to include field appears under Top 10 → Settings → Popular Authors. The free plugin always uses the post post type; Top 10 Pro lets you count custom post types toward an author’s popularity. The same value can be overridden per shortcode or block via the post_type attribute.
Uninstalling Top 10
Deactivating Top 10 also disables the front-end output of Popular Authors. If you uninstall Top 10 while Popular Authors is still installed, Popular Authors’ admin notice will keep reminding you to reinstall it until you also deactivate or remove Popular Authors.
Popular Authors Frequently Asked Questions