Popular Authors Template Tags, Hooks, and CSS

Top 10 Pro provides PHP functions to display or query popular authors from a theme or plugin. They are defined only when Popular Authors is enabled under Top 10 Settings – Features, so wrap calls in function_exists().

Each tptn_ function has a wzpa_ alias kept for sites moving from the retired Popular Authors plugin. See Migrating from the Popular Authors Plugin.

PHP functions

tptn_list_popular_authors( $args )

Displays or returns the popular authors list.

<?php
if ( function_exists( 'tptn_list_popular_authors' ) ) {
    tptn_list_popular_authors(
        array(
            'number'      => 5,
            'optioncount' => true,
            'show_avatar' => true,
            'echo'        => true,
        )
    );
}
?>

Parameters:

• $args (array, optional) — Display arguments. See Display arguments below. Omitted arguments use the values under Top 10 Settings – Popular Authors.

Returns: string|void — The HTML, unless echo is true. The default for echo is false.

Alias: wzpa_list_popular_authors( $args ), with the same parameters and return value.

wzpa_list_popular_authors_args( $args )

Returns the display arguments merged with the defaults from Top 10 Settings – Popular Authors. Kept for themes written for the retired plugin.

Parameters:

• $args (array, optional) — Arguments that override the defaults.

Returns: array — The full set of display arguments.

tptn_get_popular_author_ids( $args )

Returns ranked author data without rendering any markup.

<?php
$authors = tptn_get_popular_author_ids(
    array(
        'number'      => 5,
        'daily'       => true,
        'daily_range' => 7,
    )
);

foreach ( $authors as $author ) {
    printf( "%d: %d views, %d postsn", $author->author_id, $author->visits, $author->post_count );
}
?>

Parameters:

• $args (array, optional) — Accepts number, offset, paged, daily, daily_range, hour_range, post_type, include, exclude, and exclude_admin from Display arguments below. Results always come from the current site.

Returns: array — Objects with author_id, visits, and post_count properties, sorted by visits in descending order.

Alias: wzpa_get_popular_author_ids( $args ).

tptn_display_top_posts_by_author( $author, $field, $args, $echo_value )

Displays or returns the most popular posts of one author, rendered by Top 10’s popular posts display.

<?php
tptn_display_top_posts_by_author( 42, 'id', array( 'limit' => 5 ) );
?>

Parameters:

• $author (int|string) — The author to look up, matched against $field.
• $field (string, optional) — What $author contains: id, slug, email, or login. Default id.
• $args (array, optional) — Top 10 popular posts arguments, such as limit, post_type, orderby, order, daily, daily_range, hour_range, and disp_list_count.
• $echo_value (bool, optional) — Whether to print the output. Default true.

Returns: string|void — The HTML when $echo_value is false. An empty string when the author is not found or has no published posts.

Alias: wzpa_display_top_posts_by_author( $author, $field, $args, $echo_value ).

Display arguments

Accepted by tptn_list_popular_authors(), the [tptn_popular_authors] shortcode, and the Other attributes field of the Popular Authors block. Defaults shown are for a site with no saved Popular Authors settings.

Filter hooks

tptn_popular_authors

Filters the HTML of a popular authors list, including cached output. See tptn_popular_authorsOpens in a new window.

Parameters:

• $output (string) — The list HTML.
• $args (array) — Display arguments.

wzpa_authors_class

Filters the classes on the wrapper <div>. See wzpa_authors_classOpens in a new window.

Parameters:

• $post_classes (string) — Space-separated classes.
• $args (array) — Display arguments.

wzpa_get_styles

Filters the styles offered in the Popular Authors style setting. See wzpa_get_stylesOpens in a new window.

Parameters:

• $styles (array) — Styles, each with id, name, and description keys.

wzpa_get_style

Filters the stylesheet chosen for a style. See wzpa_get_styleOpens in a new window.

Parameters:

• $style_array (array) — name (the stylesheet name, such as card) and extra_css (CSS added inline).
• $wzpa_style (string) — The selected style key.

tptn_popular_authors_dashboard_widget_args

Filters the arguments of the Top Authors dashboard widget. See tptn_popular_authors_dashboard_widget_argsOpens in a new window.

add_filter(
    'tptn_popular_authors_dashboard_widget_args',
    function ( $args ) {
        $args['number'] = 5;
        $args['daily']  = true;
        return $args;
    }
);

Parameters:

• $args (array) — Display arguments. Default number is 10, with optioncount and show_avatar enabled.

tptn_popular_authors_max_execution_time

Filters the MySQL MAX_EXECUTION_TIME hint, in milliseconds, added to the popular authors query. Return 0 to remove the hint. See tptn_popular_authors_max_execution_timeOpens in a new window.

Parameters:

• $max_execution_time (int) — Defaults to the Top 10 Max Execution Time setting.

tptn_cache_time

Popular Authors uses Top 10’s tptn_cache_timeOpens in a new window filter for the lifetime of its cached output.

CSS classes

The list is wrapped in a <div> with these classes:

The block also adds any classes entered in its Additional CSS class(es) field.

Inside the list, each author’s name is a link with the class tptn_author_name. The avatar is the standard WordPress avatar <img>, 96 pixels in size. View and post counts follow the link as plain text in parentheses.

<div class="tptn_popular_authors wzpa_authors wzpa-card">
    <ul>
        <li><img class="avatar avatar-96 photo" …><a class="tptn_author_name" href="…">Jane Doe</a> (1,024 / 12)</li>
    </ul>
</div>

The Top Authors dashboard widget wraps the list in .tptn-popular-authors-dashboard.

CSS handles

The stylesheet for the Popular Authors style setting is enqueued on the front end with the handle wzpa-style-card or wzpa-style-left-thumbs. No styles enqueues nothing. The minified file is loaded unless SCRIPT_DEBUG is enabled.