Documentation

Thank you for purchasing my plugin. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to email me via my user page contact form here. Thanks so much!

Table of contents

  1. Last updates
  2. What this plugin does
  3. Installation & Quick Start
  4. FAQ
  5. Changelog
  6. Ohter Notes

Last updates

  • Created: Nov. 19, 2012
  • By: WP-Buddy
  • Updated: Mar. 30, 2019 20:20 Europe/Berlin
  • Current Version: 2.11.0
  • Required WordPress Version: 4.8.0
  • Tested WordPress Version: 5.1.0
  • E-Mail: support@wp-buddy.com

1. What this plugin does

Have you ever seen that cool stuff that „pimps“ search results on google.com? It may look like
this:

schema.org Recipe Demo
schema.org Recipe Example

 

This plugin helps you to generate these search results by using structured data. The plugin automatically pre-installs some snippets that are ready-to-use and included into your WordPress site automatically. But it‘s also possible to create new Rich Snippets that you need for you purposes.

2. Installation

  1. Upload the rich-snippets-wordpress plugin folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
  2. Activate the Rich Snippets WordPress Plugin through the „Plugins“ menu in WordPress.
  3. Head to the „Rich Snippets“ menu that appears in your WordPress dashboard and click „Activation“. Enter your Envato purchase code end click the big blue „Let’s get started“ button.? If you don’t know where you can find your Envato purchase code, click here.
  4. Then click the „Global Snippets“ menu in your WordPress dashboard to manage global snippets.
  5. Or add your own snippets directly in your blog posts, pages or custom post types.

Quick start

Take the Structured Data Training. It’s free for all customers. It tells you every thing from:

  • What Structured Data is.
  • What Rich Snippets are.
  • How to use SNIP.

 

3. FAQ

Please take a look at the documentation page or take the free Structured Data Training.

4. Changelog

  • 2.12.0 (Work will start soon – Add your feature request here)
    • Planned: Copy & Paste snippets (or import/export feature)
  • 2.11.0 (Mar. 30, 2019)
    • New: Allow to turn off caching.
    • Fix: Avoid autoloading of cached snippets.
    • Fix issue where it was not possible to add text or a number for schema.org/Quantity values.
    • Fix: make sure the plugin does not overwrite settings options if deactivated and activated again
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.10.2 (Mar. 28, 2019)
    • Fix: allow all fields that can have a text-value to be overwritten
    • Fix: Allow to use the “Date” fields on “DateTime” values, too.
  • 2.10.1 (Mar. 21, 2019)
    • Fix: Allow to set “Yoast SEO Content Image” for URL fields, too!
    • Fix: Caches maybe not always cleared (especially when a Global Snippet gets deleted)
    • Fix: do not strip zero-values that have been manually been entered
  • 2.10.0 (Mar. 18, 2019) – Add your feature request here.
    • New field type: “First image in Content” (Yoast SEO only)
    • New: Added Persian language translation. Thanks to CG-Team.
    • New: allow to include values from the WordPress options database
    • New: allow to integrate terms from taxonomies as a comma separated list
    • New: allow to target child terms in ruleset metabox
    • Fix: Updated the global Article schema to include fallback images and tags for keywords
    • Fix: Filter empty values from properties that are arrays (have multiple values) to avoid errors on the Structured Data Test Tool
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.9.1 (Mar. 9, 2019)
    • Fix: remove the “s” from “https” for the availability property on the WooCommerce “Offers” Field Type
    • Added all new videos to the “training” section of the “Let’s start” page.
    • New language translations
  • 2.9.0 (Feb. 28, 2019)
    • New: Make the user aware that (s)he should rate the plugin.
    • New: Allow to enter text into the “Delivery Method” field.
    • Fix: global snippets overview showed snippet id in the “predefined” column
    • Looping-Functionality fix: taxonomy loop did return the wrong terms
    • Fix double slash that gets added in some plugin/webserver constellations (WPML, etc.)
  • 2.8.3 (Feb. 21, 2019)
    • Fix: Settings options did not save properly if there was no value in the database.
  • 2.8.2 (Feb. 18, 2019)
    • Fixed: carousel for products were active an all pages
    • Fixed: Sitelink search box was active an all pages (should only be active on the front page)
    • Fix: Added url property for the Sitelink Searchbox (to avoid errors)
  • 2.8.1 (Feb. 15, 2019)
    • Fixed the Sitelink Searchbox predefined snippet (it produced an error)
  • 2.8.0 (Feb. 14, 2019)
    • New: Allow to loop through a query to dynamically create properties (particular interesting for archive pages, breadcrumbs, etc.)
    • New filters: wpb_rs/cache/rule_{post_id}, wpbuddy/rich_snippets/fields/loop_subselect/values, wpbuddy/rich_snippets/fields/loop_subselect/options
    • New: Two new fields: ‘Search URL’ and ‘Search URL with placeholder’ (important to create the Sitelink Searchbox)
    • New: Two new fields: ‘Term URL’ and ‘Term title’ that are needed for looping
    • New: New predefined examples: Sitelink Searchbox, Breadcrumbs for posts, Breadcrumbs for pages, Carousel for archive- and search-pages
    • New: Two new action hooks: wpbuddy/rich_snippets/save_snippet and wpbuddy/rich_snippets/clear_call_caches
    • New: Allow usage of sequential numbers (auto-fill with sequential numbers)
    • New: Allow to target archive- and search pages.
    • New: Integrated new columns into global snippet posts view on admin screen
    • Integrate new columns into global snippet posts view on admin screen
    • Fix: make sure the excerpt does not show the full content if there is an excerpt in the database
      Fix: make sure primary category (from YoastSEO) is only taken if YoastSEO plugin is actually active
    • Fix: remove the activation banner from the activation page
    • Fix: Show the activation state (if plugin has been activated already – yeah, it confused people)
    • Fixed in issue where some Global Snippets may have disappeared due to a wrong caching behavior
    • Fix: It was not possible to target the front page with the ‘Page Type = Everything’ Rule
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.7.4 (Jan. 3, 2019)
    • Fix: Show the authors display name instead of his/her nicename when “Current Post Author” has been selected on a global snippet
  • 2.7.3 (Dec. 17, 2018)
    • Fixed issue on WooCommerce offers where the default value for the priceUntil property is the same day of the page load.
  • 2.7.2 (Dec. 14, 2018)
    • WooCommerce Fix: make sure that no aggregateRating property is added when there are no reviews
  • 2.7.1 (Dec. 11, 2018)
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.7.0 (Dec. 11, 2018) – Add your feature request here.
    • This update is all about help!
    • New layout on snippet generation (now showing field type as well)
    • New: allow to expand/collapse all properties at once
    • New Activation page
    • New Training page
    • New: Recipe snippet as an example shipped with the plugin
    • New: Added a lot more inline help links
    • New: For WooCommerce the plugin can now automatically add reviews.
    • Fix: Default Organization snippet has been updated because of this
    • Fix: The WooCommerce offers field type has been updated because of this.
    • Fix: empty sub-schemas where transformed to a “Thing” if there were no properties
    • Updated: the predefined product snippet has been updated to use WooCommerce reviews, review ratings and product attributes for mpn, gtins, etc.
    • Updated: language translations
  • 2.6.0 (Nov. 26, 2018)
    • New: You can now add a Product Review Rating for WooCommerce products
    • New: It’s now possible to link/reference a Thing (needed for Breadcrumbs)
    • Fix: Plugin did not update via WP-CLI.
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.5.5 (Nov. 2, 2018)
    • Fixed an issue where snippets may not get saved correctly
  • 2.5.4 (Oct. 30, 2018)
    • Fixed: Sub-Snippets did get an @id property when an ID has been defined in a global snippet.
  • 2.5.3 (Oct. 3, 2018)
    • Fixed an issue where referenced snippets were not merged into the original snippet
  • 2.5.2 (Sept. 19, 2018)
    • Fix an issue where third party filter-methods are not executed accordingly
  • 2.5.1 (Sept. 18, 2018)
    • Fixed an issue where the plugin did not show the latest version of itself.
  • 2.5.0 (Sept. 18, 2018) – Add your feature request here.
    • New: Allow to deactivate a license right within the plugin.
    • New: AMP Support for the “Classic” AMP plugin as well as the new 1.0 AMP Plugin by Automattic (Paired and Native mode).
    • New: Allow to print snippets in the footer
    • New: Allow to add product attributes from WooCommerce
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.4.1 (Aug. 29, 2018)
    • Fixed an issue where the plugin sometimes created a ‘Thing’ on properties
  • 2.4.0 (Aug. 20, 2018)
    • New: Allow developers to add their own JSON+LD values.
    • New: Allow to edit the @id JSON+LD value from a global snippet.
    • New: Partial Gutenberg support.
    • Attention: Deprecated plugin version was removed.
    • Fix: Position Metabox: Single post types could not be selected properly
    • Updated language translations.
  • 2.3.8 (May 25, 2018)
    • Fix: Yoast SEO Primary category did not return a value
  • 2.3.7 (May 18, 2018)
    • Added link to feature requests page
    • Feature request page: child comments are now hidden
    • GDPR: add checkbox for GDPR compliance when a feature request is ready for being sent
    • Fix: Support menu did not appear
    • Support page: added missing </h1>
    • Fix: Only redirect global snippets submenu if plugin has been activated
    • Usability: Added placeholder for the new-property-input field so that users know that this is not a value-field
  • 2.3.6 (May 11, 2018)
    • Separated global snippets submenu from the main menu to allow setting up different capabilities. See this post for more information.
    • Fix: set correct filter and action hook names for menu items.
    • Updated language translations
    • Create new “global snippets” sub menu and redirect to the new main menu.
  • 2.3.5. (Apr. 24, 2018)
    • Fixed “Not found” error when adding new properties.
    • Fix issue with JavaScript triggering a console warning on 404 errors
    • Fix issue with PHP-warnings popping up if no snippet-properties are defined.
  • 2.3.4. (Mar. 26, 2018)
    • Allow to set “Direct text input” and “Post meta field” for DayOfWeek class
  • 2.3.3. (Mar. 26, 2018)
    • Allow to select “Direct text input” for schema.org/Time class
  • 2.3.2 (Mar. 7, 2018)
    • Fix: hentry and vcard CSS classes have always been removed, even when the settings-checkbox wasn’t checked
    • Removed “Surround comment section” option as this is no longer valid schema
  • 2.3.1 (Mar. 1, 2018)
    • Remove option to surround main content (as this is no longer supported)
    • Rollback: Remove blue colors; bring table column for the name back; remove animations
    • Add 5-Star-Rating/100-Points-Rating to schema.org/Rating property as well
    • Fix: 5-Star-Rating/100-Points Rating did not work when a property has just been added
    • Automatically check parents overridable when child-property has marked overridable
    • Added more predefined global snippets. Corrected others.
    • Updated language translations
  • 2.3.0 (Feb. 12, 2018)
    • New: Made snippet view more user friendly.
    • New: Allow to choose more snippet sub-classes.
    • New: Feature Requests in the plugin.
    • New: Allow to search the FAQ right within the plugin.
    • New: Made plugin compatible with the latest EU privacy law.
    • Fix: Select box can now be closed properly.
    • Fix: plugin update window generated a PHP fatal error if third party plugin may use the ‘plugins_api’ filter the wrong way
    • Fix: make sure WordPress refreshes its CSS/JS cache when changes have been made to the plugin CSS and JS files
    • Fix: Make sure 2xx response codes a recognized correctly when connecting to the WP-Buddy API
  • 2.2.9 (Jan. 28, 2018)
    • WooCommerce rating fix: ratingCount and ratingValue were filtered if there were no ratings.
    • Post content fix: shortcodes were not transformed properly.
    • Fix: plugin removed QuickEdit on all post types.
  • 2.2.8 (Jan. 25, 2018)
    • Fix: Star rating / 100points rating did not work on singular posts
  • 2.2.7 (Jan. 18, 2018)
    • Allow meta_value to be added on more snippet properties
    • Fixed some issues regarding meta values
  • 2.2.6 (Jan. 16, 2018)
    • Fix issue with wrong parameter-name for WooCommerce offers (priceCurrency instead of currency)
  • 2.2.5 (Dec. 20, 2017)
    • Custom ID: only return the value the user had integrated to be more flexible when choosing a name.
    • Fix: Some pages did not load correctly on every second page impression if it had a custom snippet and one of the properties had a “Custom ID” value.
  • 2.2.4 (Dec. 29, 2017)
    • Adding timeout to WP-Buddy requests (just in case the server doesn’t respond within 5 seconds)
    • Fix issue with AggregateRating and Duration times not being transformed to the right format when outputting the value to JSON+LD.
    • Fix: Do not show empty snippets (snippets that do not have any properties) on the frontend)
    • Fix JS error (no error class found)
  • 2.2.3 (Dec. 20, 2017)
    • Fix: Site-Icon URL appeared on top of frontend pages.
  • 2.2.2 (Dec. 20, 2017)
    • Fixed: Referenced snippets did not show up
    • Updated German language translations
    • Updated predefined article snippet to not longer use the “reference to post content” option
  • 2.2.1 (Dec. 19, 2017)
    • Fixed an issue where some users got a weird output on their pages.
    • Fixed an issue with broken JSON+LD code on the frontend.
    • Marked “Reference to Current Post Content” in the dropdown as deprecated.
    • Removed frontend content snippet.
    • Automatically include the post content, even when “Reference to Current Post Content” has been chosen.
    • Updated missing language translations.
  • 2.2.0 (Dec. 18, 2017)
    • New: Allow to overwrite global snippet values. Yeah!
    • New: There is now a 5-star- and 100-points-rating. Super simple to setup.
    • New: Partial WooCommerce integration (allows to automatically create Offers for simple and variation products, SKU and the built-in WooCommerce rating system).
    • New: Allow to read metadata from posts (that means you can read from simple Advanced Custom Fields now).
    • New: Allow to include Yoast SEO metadata.
    • PHP 7.2. support.
    • Fixed: references are not working any longer. So all texts will be included directly into the snippets.
    • Small bugfixes and updated language translations.
  • 2.1.4 (Dec. 6, 2017)
    • Get rid of select2/selectWoo JavaScript as it leaded to too many issues with many plugins and themes. Please don’t forget to flush your browsers cache after updating.
  • 2.1.3 (Dec. 3, 2017)
    • Fix: Post snippets showed different values (internal caching issue)
  • 2.1.2 (Nov. 30, 2017)
    • Fixed the error “Missing parameters: schema_type, return_type” on some hosts (GoDaddy and maybe others)
  • 2.1.1 (Nov. 17, 2017)
    • Fixed an issue where properties could not be loaded when WooCommerce is installed
  • 2.1.0 (Sept. 11, 2017)
    • Allow to re-activate the old plugin if – in any case – the user still need it.
    • Fix issue with post types other than ‘global snippets’ will have hidden publish settings
  • 2.0.0 (Sept. 7, 2017)
    • Added Required PHP tab in plugin header. Added readme.txt
    • Clear global snippet cache once the user hits the “reinstall predefined” button
  • 2.0.0RC9
    • Allow to select a post meta field
    • Don’t cache anything from frontend if debug mode is set to ON.
  • 2.0.0RC8
    • Fix issue with video preview image is too big on global snippets page
    • Updated german language translations
    • Add a help message to the global snippet section
    • Fix: Adding a ruleset did not work on post-new.php edit screen
    • Fix: item properties which allow to select a “thing” should show all schema types
  • 2.0.0RC7
    • Fixed issue with plugin not removing its data after uninstallation
    • Fixed a PHP fatal error when the plugin tried to use the WP-Buddy API
    • Add some more elp descriptions on the settings page
    • Move deprecated plugin to its own directory. Otherwise WordPress will recognize it as a standalone plugin during manual upload installation.
    • Remove unused code due to the fact that the icon was placed directly into the menu item.
    • Remove snip logo from intro page.
    • Display users first name on intro page.
  • 2.0.0RC6
    • Fix: Do not send the purchase code but use auth headers to send the purchase code in order to get the proper file for updating
    • Fix: Got error while updating a file (purchase code must be sent via authorization header)
    • Fix an issue where WordPress tries to update a plugin but no plugin URL was received by the API
  • 2.0.0RC5
    • Added missing DocBlocks
    • Fix: Settings page did not appear when language has been changed
  • 20.0RC4
    • Added help video
    • Fix: bring back settings page after renaming first menu item (!)
  • 2.0.0RC3
    • Added snip icon and renamed first menu item. Changed language translations accordingly.
    • Fix layout problem in sub-properties
    • Fix table layout problem in Chrome
    • Load translation files on REST init
    • Fix issue of not loading JS files
  • 2.0.0RC2 (Aug. 25, 2017)
    • Fix translation errors
    • Add “old PHP version” warning on plugin list
    • JS: Properly renamed $this to self
    • Added missing translation
    • Renamed REST routes
    • Updated language translations
    • Update licensing texts.
    • Move view.php to subfolder
    • Allow to uninstall the old part
    • Remove error logging when doing REST requests to wp-buddy
    • Fix PHP warning when WordPress checks for updates internally
    • Link to the blogpost that helps users to upgrade
    • Fix PHP warnings when plugin gets renamed.
    • Back compat: rename main plugin file
    • Fix issue where an update has shown up even if there was no update.
    • Fix description spelling mistake
  • 2.0.0 RC1 (Aug. 24, 2017)
    • Completely rewrote the plugin from the ground up. Old version is still included and marked as deprecated.
  • 1.6.3 (Mar. 19, 2017)
    • Fixed an issue where the plugin checks for updates multiple times
  • 1.6.2 (Aug. 12, 2016)
    • General compatibility with WordPress 4.6.
    • Fix a WordPress warning on get_currentuserinfo() usage
    • Fix: load translation files even when the plugin folder has been renamed
  • 1.6.1 (Nov. 30, 2015)
    • Fixed an issue with the event example shortcode.
    • General compatibility with WordPress 4.4
  • 1.6.0 (Oct. 26, 2015)
  • 1.5.0 (Aug, 15. 2015)
    • New: added uninstall.php for a clean uninstallation
    • General compatibility with WordPress 4.3
  • 1.4.8 (Jul, 29. 2015)
    • Fix: Some CSS will break the normal “Add media” modal window.
  • 1.4.7 (Jul, 22. 2015)
    • Some cosmetical CSS changes
    • General compatibility with WordPress 4.3
  • 1.4.6 (Dec, 17. 2014)
    • General compatibility to WordPress 4.1 (tested with RC-1)
    • Fix: Now allowing to edit “delete_posts” capability
  • 1.4.5 (Nov, 06. 2014)
    • Fix: Fixes an issue when used together with wpMandrill (giving you the error: “wp_mail() has been declared by another process or plugin, so you won’t be able to use Mandrill until the problem is solved.”)
  • 1.4.4 (July 15. 2014)
    • Replaced a deprecated jQuery function that was used in the plugin
  • 1.4.3 (May 27. 2014)
    • Fixed a problem where a post couldn’t be saved when capability handling has been deactivated
    • New retina icon in the backend
  • 1.4.2 (Dec, 16. 2013)
    • Updated WP-Buddy Framework again. Fixes a bug where the plugin checks for updates too often on certain WP installations
  • 1.4.1 (Nov, 21. 2013)
    • Updated WP-Buddy Framework (especially the update functionality which – in some cases – checks for updates too often)
  • 1.4 (Nov, 05. 2013)
    • New: Easy-to-use Editor button for WordPress’ built-in visual editor
    • Some language updates
  • 1.3.3 (Oct, 25. 2013)
    • Fixed an issue where the capability handling did not work in WordPress 3.7
  • 1.3.2 (Oct, 25. 2013)
    • Fixed an issue where the plugin breaks because of WordPress 3.7
  • 1.3.1 (Aug, 19. 2013)
    • Solved an issue where the page load takes a real long time because the plugin permanently checks for updates
  • 1.3 (July 31, 2013)
    • Making the plugin compatible with WordPress 3.6
    • Updated WP-Buddy Plugin Framework
    • Moved languages files to a new directory
    • Updated the examples
    • Made language files available on github
  • 1.2.2 (Apr. 09 2013)
  • 1.2.1 (Apr. 02 2013)
    • Update to the latest WP-Buddy Plugin Framework (compatibility with other WP-Buddy products)
  • 1.2 (Mar. 25 2013)
    • Improved compatibility with other WP-Buddy products
    • Solves the problem that WooCommerce could not be edited
    • Some other bugfixes
  • 1.1.3 (Feb. 7 2013)
    • Updated the examples that get installed automatically during the first activation of the plugin
    • New: Integrated some helpful links on the shortcode editing screen
    • Some other bugfixes
  • 1.1.2
    • Solves the problem that the examples could not be installed
  • 1.1.1
    • New: Adds the possibility to manage who can add new shortcodes
    • New: completely replaced the capability functionality in v.1.1 with a new capability engine which writes the new capabilities directly into the database (where it should be). Now it‘s possible to use WordPress‘ current_user_can() function to check whether a user can modify the current page type.
  • 1.1
    • New: Adds the possibility to manage who can access the shortcode post type (uses WordPress‘ built-in capabilities and roles)
    • The shortcode menu-icon has been updated
    • Adds the possibility to use shortcodes in text widgets, too.
  • 1.0 (Nov. 21 2012)
    • The first version of this plugin

5. Other Notes