Post Views โ
Every site counts how many times each post is read (since v2.8.18). Show the count on a post or a card with the builder's dynamic content, and order a Card grid by it for "Most read" and "Trending" boxes. No plugin is needed.
How a view is counted โ
The post page reports the view once it has loaded in the reader's browser.
- It works with the page cache and behind Cloudflare. A page served from the cache or a CDN counts like any other.
- Bots are left out. Search engines and monitors that do not run scripts never count, and known bots are filtered by name too.
- A reload is not a new reader. A visitor counts once per post every 30 minutes.
- Your own team is left out. Signed-in visitors are not counted.
- Only published posts count, and only the post type
postby default.
Daily figures are kept for 120 days, so today, the last 7 and the last 30 days stay exact; the all-time count of each post is kept for ever. Old days are pruned every night by falcon:prune-post-views, which runs with the scheduler.
More control with Falcon News
The Falcon News plugin (Pro) adds a Most Viewed screen, a Views column in the admin lists, and settings for which post types count, the time before a reader counts again, whether signed-in visitors count and how many days are kept.
Showing a post's view count โ
Any title, text block or button can show the count. Click the database icon, choose Post โ Post Views, then pick:
- Period: all time, today, last 7 or 30 days.
- Number:
12,345,12.3Kor12345. - Label: the words after the number (
views), or around it with{count}:Read {count} times. Leave it empty for the number alone. - Digits: Latin, Bangla (
เงงเงจเงฉ), Devanagari or Arabic. - Hide below: show the fallback text instead until a post has this many views.
It works on a single post layout, in each card of a Card grid, and in the Post Card builder (since v2.8.19), so every card of a blog list can show View: 1,530 where it showed the reading time. In text you can also type the token {lazy:post_views}.
Most Read and Trending boxes โ
Add a Card element and set Order By to one of:
| Order By | Shows |
|---|---|
| Views | the most read posts of all time |
| Views โ today | today's most read |
| Views โ last 7 days | this week's trending posts |
| Views โ last 30 days | this month's most read |
Combine it with Posts By โ Categories for a "Most read in Sports" box.
In code, the same orders work in get_falcon_posts():
$trending = get_falcon_posts(['orderby' => 'views_week', 'limit' => 5]);orderby takes views, views_day, views_week and views_month.
Moving from Falcon News โ
A site that counted with Falcon News before v2.8.18 keeps its figures: the update copies them, and the counter's settings, into the core. Falcon News 1.1 and later count through the core, so nothing is counted twice.