Add New Custom Field and Query by Weekly Views in WordPress

WordPress allows you to create new meta_keys for your posts. This is useful when you want to store additional information about your posts.

By the other hand the [WordPress CRON event](https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/scheduling-wp-cron-events/) allows you to schedule events to run at specific times. In this case, we will use it to reset the daily views counter every day, store the daily views in a weekly array, and calculate the total weekly views.

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1. Add a New Custom Field to Store Daily Views

We can add a new custom field in different ways. Without code by using the plugin ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) or with code. In this case, we will use code.

To add a new custom field, WordPress provides the [add_post_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_post_meta/) and [update_post_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/update_post_meta/) functions. It's not necessary to use the first one because update_post_meta() will add the custom field if it doesn't exist.

Code for `single.php`

  

  ...Your post content

By doing so, we can see in the database that the custom field `daily_views` has been added to the post. Inside the postmeta table

2. Create CRON event to reset the daily views counter every day

To reset the daily views counter every day, we can use the WordPress CRON event. We will create a new function in `functions.php` to reset the daily views counter for all posts.

Code for `functions.php`

function reset_daily_views()
{
	$args = array(
		'post_type'      => 'post',
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
		'post_status'    => 'publish',
	);

	$posts = new WP_Query($args);

	if ($posts->have_posts()) {
		while ($posts->have_posts()) {
			$posts->the_post();
			delete_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'daily_views'); // Delete the daily views counter
		}
	}
	wp_reset_postdata();
}

if (!wp_next_scheduled('reset_daily_views_hook')) {
	wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'reset_daily_views_hook');
}

add_action('reset_daily_views_hook', 'reset_daily_views');

3. Add a New Custom Field to Store Weekly Views With a CRON Event

We will create a new function in `functions.php` to store the daily views in a weekly array. This function will be executed every day to store the daily views in the `weekly_views` custom field.

function add_day_to_week()
{
	$args = array(
		'post_type'      => 'post',
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
		'post_status'    => 'publish',
	);

	$posts = new WP_Query($args);

	if ($posts->have_posts()) {
		while ($posts->have_posts()) {
			$posts->the_post();

			$daily_views = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'daily_views', true);  // Comes from single.php
			$weekly_views = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'weekly_views', true);

			if (!is_array($weekly_views)) {
				$weekly_views = array();
			}

			if (count($weekly_views) >= 7) {
				array_shift($weekly_views);
			}

			$weekly_views[] = $daily_views;

			update_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'weekly_views', $weekly_views);
		}
	}
	wp_reset_postdata();
}

if (!wp_next_scheduled('add_day_to_week_hook')) {
	wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'add_day_to_week_hook');
}

add_action('add_day_to_week_hook', 'add_day_to_week');

4. Add a New Custom Field to Store The Total Views During The Week

This is a simple sum of the `weekly_views` array. We will create a new function in `functions.php` to store the total weekly views for all posts.

function total_weekly_views()
{
	$args = array(
		'post_type'      => 'post',
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
		'post_status'    => 'publish',
	);

	$posts = new WP_Query($args);

	if ($posts->have_posts()) {
		while ($posts->have_posts()) {
			$posts->the_post();

			$weekly_views = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'weekly_views', true);

			if (!is_array($weekly_views)) {
				$weekly_views = array();
			}

			$total_weekly_views = array_sum($weekly_views);

			update_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'total_weekly_views', $total_weekly_views);
		}
	}
	wp_reset_postdata();
}

if (!wp_next_scheduled('total_weekly_views_hook')) {
	wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'total_weekly_views_hook');
}

add_action('total_weekly_views_hook', 'total_weekly_views');

5. Query Posts by Weekly Views

Now that we have the `total_weekly_views` custom field, we can query the posts by weekly views. We will create a new file called `most-viewed.php` to query the posts by weekly views.

 'post',
  'posts_per_page' => 5,
  'meta_key'       => 'total_weekly_views',
  'orderby'        => 'meta_value_num',
  'order'          => 'DESC',
);

$query = new WP_Query($args);
?>

This code will return the `$query` we can use to loop through the posts.

// This returns the $query we can use to loop through the posts
...Filter the loop

How To Test The CRON Events

To test the CRON events you can use the [WP Crontrol](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-crontrol/) plugin. This plugin allows you to view and control what's happening in the WP-Cron system.

Then you can simulate the CRON events by clicking on the "Run Now" button.

Conclusion

There are of course many ways to achieve this. This is just one of them. You can use this as a base and improve it according to your needs.

Hope this helps you to filter posts by weekly views in WordPress without external plugins.