Huge difference between backend and frontend

Resolved nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

On mentioned url we see about 100 views from around 10 posts. In the backend we see close to 6000 views and really different posts from what we see in the frontend. I’ve read documentation extensively but have not been able to solve this so far. Any ideas?

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)

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Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago
Hi @nowton,

I checked your homepage and one of the articles / posts and did not see the Popular Post widget anywhere so I’m not sure what you mean with “100 views vs 6000 views”. Could you please clarify and provide more details (like what settings you’re using, for example, and where to find your popular posts list)?

Additionally, since you have a page caching plugin installed on your website –Hummingbird by WPMU DEV- it might be a good idea to make sure that your site follows the recommendations from this FAQ: Is WordPress Popular Posts compatible with caching plugins?

Edit: oh, you mean the list under “Of bekijk de meest gelezen berichten hieronder” (I don’t speak your language and since you didn’t provide any clues I wasn’t sure what I was looking at).

Views count is not visible on this page though. This is what I’m seeing at the moment:

So, where are you getting this “6,000” number from exactly? What are you comparing this popular posts list to?
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by Hector Cabrera.
Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago
I’ve set the views count to hidden as it’s none of our user’s business. This is however what I see in the backend.
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by nowton.
Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago

I’m sorry, I’m a bit confused here @nowton

You said:

In the backend we see close to 6000 views (…)

But in your screenshot none of your posts reach that number. The top one says “808 weergaven” (views).

Where are you seeing this “6,000” figure exactly?
Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago
Also, about this:

… really different posts from what we see in the frontend

It’s because of Hummingbird. What you’re seeing in the front-end is the cached version of your popular posts list. On the back-end you’ll always see “live” (non-cached) data, hence the difference.

If you want your popular posts list on the front-end to match what you see on the back-end you’ll either need to disable caching for that particular page (check Hummingbird’s official documentation for more details) or load that entire “Of bekijk de meest gelezen berichten hieronder” section via AJAX to prevent Hummingbird from caching your popular posts list.
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by Hector Cabrera. Reason: Reworded last paragraph for clarity
Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

Where are you seeing this “6,000” figure exactly?

If you add up the top ten that’s over 4000 views, so 6000 doesn’t seem ridiculous 😉

Apparently I overlooked the one sentence in documentation mentioning Ajax loading, as I did set that in options but that doesn’t affect implementation using shortcode. As I am using the shortcode, that’s apparently not an option. So I resorted to excluding the page in Hummingbird, then manually clearing the cache. That did not solve it, unfortunately. FWIW I use this shortcode
[wpp wpp_start='<section>' wpp_end='</section>' excerpt_length=24 excerpt_by_words=1 post_html='<article class="my-2"><h4>{title}</h4><div class="wpp-excerpt">{excerpt}</div></article>']

Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

I’ve decided to test this using the block editor, w/ ajax enabled and data caching disabled. This does not make a difference. Maybe the plugin has trouble deleting it’s own cache?

Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago

If you add up the top ten that’s over 4000 views, so 6000 doesn’t seem ridiculous 😉

Ah, that explains it. There’s a bit of a misunderstanding here.

See, WordPress itself doesn’t store views data anywhere. It’s not a built-in functionality. The reason why WPP and similar plugins exist is to add that feature -the ability to track page views- to WordPress.

Now, every plugin does this independently. TopTen’s data is not shared with any other plugin. Same applies to WPP. WPP doesn’t know that you have been tracking views with another plugin, hence it won’t report nor add that data into its own statistics.

Hope that clarifies things a bit.

Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

I understand, but my problem remains unsolved.

Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago

Alright, what’s the problem again?

Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

I see wildly different results in the backend, compared to the frontend.

Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago

Alright, please share a screenshot of the settings you’re using with the widget.

Also, I assume you’re comparing your popular posts list from the front-end to the list you’re seeing under “Most Viewed”, correct?

Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

Block setting

Also, I assume you’re comparing your popular posts list from the front-end to the list you’re seeing under “Most Viewed”, correct?

Correct.
Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago
So the reason why the lists are different is because “Most Viewed” shows a list of posts that have been viewed within the currently active Time Range (in screenshot below “Most Viewed” is listing the most viewed posts from the last 7 days) while on the front-end you have configured the block to list your most popular posts from All-Time (since you first installed the plugin), hence the difference between the two lists.
- This reply was modified 4 years ago by Hector Cabrera. Reason: Reworded first paragraph for clarity
Thread Starter nowton
(@nowton)

4 years ago

What setting would I use for the block if I want it to show “Hall of Fame”?

Plugin Author Hector Cabrera
(@hcabrera)

4 years ago

The “All-time” one. That’s what the “Hall of Fame” section on the back-end uses.