StarStruck
StarStruck is a fast, lightweight, and elegant star rating system. It works with any WordPress site and is a breeze to setup. Your visitors can then rate a comment, post, or page with a click of a star.
It’s a great way to engage with your visitors and see which comments/posts/pages are most popular. Then take action based on overall data collected. It’s so good, we use it on AppThemes.com (See example here. Scroll to the bottom).
Feature Highlights
- Simple interface and options page
- Instant AJAX rating feature (no page reload)
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Supports pages, posts, comments
- No code or theme template files to edit
- Allows anonymous and logged in user voting
- Adds a “Votes” column to wp-admin comments, pages, and posts screens
- Supports any language (text translation and .pot file required)
Advanced Features
- Supports custom post types
- Works with WordPress Multisite
- Works on WordPress.com
- Works with nested comments
- Supports both http and https websites
- Portability. WordPress export includes all data
- Clean, professional, well commented code
- Built with rich snippet microdata for Google compliance & awesome SEO results
- Includes several hooks and filters
- Uses the WordPress API for quick processing
- No hardcoded select statements or custom database tables
- Uses WordPress post and comment meta tables
- JSON-LD schema format for structured data
- Used web fonts instead of images to easily change color via color picker option and for retina/hdpi support
- Support for rating bbPress Forums/Topics/Replies
- Support for rating WooCommerce products/taxonomies/authors
- Top ratings widget for post types
- Shortcodes for displaying ratings
- Rate Authors
- Rate Taxonomies (including Clipper stores)
- Half star ratings
More features coming soon!
How do I verify my website is configured correctly?
Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to verify that your markup is well-formed and can be processed by Google.
How can I preview what my site will look like in Google?
It usually takes a few weeks before Google will show the star ratings in their search results. If you’d like to confirm everything is working correctly, you can Fetch your Website as Google. This is a tool that allows you to test how Google views your website which should show you the star ratings in action.
Before you can use the tool, you must have your website verified and setup in Google Webmaster Tools. Here’s a good tutorial on how to use the tool.
How long does it take for rich snippets to be visible?
Once you’ve installed the plugin, Google will discover it the next time they crawl your site (although it may take some time for rich snippets to appear in search results, if they do choose to display rich snippets for your site).
The star ratings don’t show up in Google
It takes time for Google to re-crawl your site and for rich snippets to appear in their search results. If it’s already been a few weeks and you tested your site’s markup and ran the Fetch as Google tool per above and they still don’t show up, read their FAQ.
Are there any filters or hooks?
Yes. There are several filters built into the plugin. These allows developers to modify the StarStruck content before it’s returned to the browser.
starstruck_content – executes before StarStruck is displayed on the post/page.
starstruck_comment – executes before StarStruck is displayed on each comment.
starstruck_mini – executes before StarStruck is displayed as read-only values.
starstruck_sidebar – executes before StarStruck is displayed in the sidebar.
startruck_template – executes before a StarStruck template (top ratings or content) is displayed.
The best way to figure out how filters work is by looking at the source code. You’ll be able to see the exact parameters and how the function works.
For example:
function your_filter( $content, $data ) {
if ( $data = maybe_unserialize( $data ) ) {
// do something with the data if you wish
}
// more importantly, do something with the content
// look at starstruck-content.php for an example
// always make sure to return the content!
return $content;
}
add_filter( 'starstruck_content', 'your_filter', 10, 2 );
For more information on how filters work, see the WordPress Codex.
Have a suggestion for a new filter or action? Let us know in the comments below or our support forum.
Installation Guide
It’s easy to install the plugin. Just follow the steps below. What’s most important is to verify that your theme has microdata setup correctly. Once you’ve done that, see the FAQ tab for more guidelines.
- Download the plugin from your customer dashboard
- Login to your WordPress site and visit “Plugins” => “Add New” in the sidebar
- Click on “Upload” and then “Choose File”. Browse to the starstruck.zip.
- Click on the “Install Now” button
- On the plugins page, scroll down and find “StarStruck. Click on the “Activate” link.
- You’ll then be redirected to the options page
- Visit your site and view a blog post. At the bottom, you should see the star ratings
Setting up the Microdata
If you site has already been configured with microdata, StarStruck will automatically work once you accumulate ratings.
Google provides a free testing tool to see if everything is configured properly. If so, you’ll see the star ratings in the results.
If not, chances are you need to add microdata tags to your WordPress theme. The exact tags depend on the content StarStruck is displayed on. For this example, we’ll use the BlogPosting item type.
If you’re familiar with editing theme code this will be easy to do. You’ll need to modify your theme’s single.php (or possibly content.php or loop.php) file. There might even be a plugin that does this for you without having to edit the theme files.
The key pieces we need to add are:
- itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/BlogPosting”
- itemprop=”name”
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
<h2 itemprop="name"><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div>
For different microdata item types such as products, restaurants, etc, see the Schema AggregateRating page.
Display the Ratings and Total Votes in the Sidebar
We have this setup on our Marketplace (see the right sidebar) and you can do it too. Just add the following code to your theme’s sidebar.php file.
if ( function_exists( 'starstruck_sidebar_ratings' ) ) {
echo starstruck_sidebar_ratings();
}
Note: You might need to add some custom styles to match your theme.
Changelog
2.5.2 – Feb 24, 2021
- Made the author rating shortcode usable on the ad page
- Fixed some structured data issues
2.5.1 – Oct 2, 2018
- Fixed text domain name, renamed from “starstruck-domain” to “starstruck”
- Added Spanish translation
2.5.0 – Sep 27, 2018
- Added JSON-LD schema format for structured data.
2.4.1 – Mar 24, 2018
- fixed “illegal string offset” issue
2.4 – Feb 12, 2016
- fixed microdata structure (provides rich snippets for reviews on google search)
- fixed duplicate microdata issues
- updated raty.js lib from 2.4.5 to 2.7.0
- added web fonts instead of images to easily change color and for retina/hdpi support
- added a color picker option for the star color
- cleaned up admin options
- cleaned up sidebar function
- fixed shortcodes bug and created separate new shortcodes
- added new read-only mini rating function ‘starstruck_mini_ratings()’ for within post loop
- fixed singular bug where “1 vote” showed as “1 votes”
- removed the images folder since we use web fonts
- merged all front-end dynamic js into scripts.js
- minimize all js and css to improve page load performance
- converted spaces to tabs
- fixed PHP7 incompatibility issues
2.3 – Jan 30, 2015
- fixes issues with YOAST plugin
2.2 – Jan 05, 2015
- fixed ratings being displayed on user listings (should only be displayed with posts listings)
2.1 – Nov 21, 2014
- fixed ratings not showing correctly on front page and other non-singular pages
2.0 – Oct 23, 2014
- added top ratings widget for post types
- display ratings using shortcodes
- allow rating bbPress Forums/Topics/Replies
- allow rating WooCommerce products/taxonomies/authors
- allow rating authors
- allow rating taxonomies
- allow half star ratings
- fixed CSS issue with coupon codes success bar in Clipper
- moved styles into separate file
- added two new sidebar filters to control read only mode
1.1 – Dec 12, 2012
- added more instructions on options page
- fixed css issue where stars inherit theme styles
- fixed issue where https wasn’t working
- added raty MIT license.txt file
1.0 – Oct 22, 2012
- initial release
Comments (202)
Any updates on supporting custom taxonomies for Clipper theme ?
@kohlisj, yes we’re working on it for the next release which is scheduled in November 2014.
Hello everyone, our development team is working on an update to StarStruck. It should be ready in November.
Is this ready for custom taxonomies in Clipper theme (Store page)
@kohlisj, yes, the latest update adds support for rating Clipper stores.
It can be used in ClassiPress Ads?
@weiching, yes, StarStruck, supports any custom post type, including ClassiPress Ads.
I’m using classipress and I want only registered users to be able to rate authors. Can this be done with this plugin?
You have the option to disable anonymous voting globally. Meaning that only registered users will be able to rate posts, authors, etc..
Hi,
I am looking at the widget to the right side of this page:
http://marketplace.appthemes.com/plugins/starstruck/#comments
(the comments page) and there is a rating widget there, is that part of the feature in the star starstruck plugin? If not, what plugin is that?
Thank you
Brian
@brianjester, that’s actually a custom widget built for the marketplace. It uses the starstruck plugin for the stars rating (with CSS changes) but the stats are custom built.
so is this PlugIn now working with store taxonomy in Clipper?
Yes. StarStruck can now be used to rate Clipper stores.
Can Starstuck be used to rate individual pages in Taskker?
@176042, I presume you mean, if ‘Starstruck’ can review services?
Yes, that is what I meant to ask. I want current and former customers to be able to review the the services in Taskker by using Star Struck. Is that possible?
Taskerr itself provides the ability for service buyers to review services after they are completed.
With StarStruck you gain the ability to allow users to rate the service at anytime. Works a little like a ‘Like’ button but in this case users are giving their rating to the services.
I am looking for a way to have a rating for everyone on my classipress add listing site. Like ebay does. People are able to go on and rate their experience with a seller that listed and ad and they bought the item. Will this plugin do this and how would it work if you could do it.
@gatorman2014, you can use StarStruck to provide reviews for listings but these will be available at any time and to everyone.
With StarStruck you gain the ability to allow users to rate listings at anytime similar to a ‘Like’ button but in this case users are giving their rating to the listings.
Will this plugin out of the box get me the desired ‘stars’ next to my Google organic results? Are there special configurations I need to do in order to get the ‘star’ ratings in the Google SERPS for web design related searches in my local area?
Also, does a user have to login in order to leave a vote? Is there a quick easy way to add votes to a page/post yourself?
Yes. Anonymous users can vote. You also have the option to disable anonymous voting.
To add votes to a post, page or any other post type, you just check the related option under ‘Show star ratings on: posts, pages, etc…’
Hello!
I noticed by gtmetrix.com that the .png files are not in my CDN. Why can’t the star png files be stored into my CDN to improve site speed?
Or how is it possible to do this? I asked already in forums but nobody answers there.
@grafro, to use a CDN for your images you would need to change the ‘StarStruckPath’ variable inside the ‘starstruck-init.php’ file. This is not recommended if you’re not comfortable with editing PHP files and understanding Javascript.
Nevertheless, we’ve registered your suggestion about using a CDN for images. It’s something we will consider in a future update.
Thank you for your excellent help!
I managed to change the path to my CDN path and it works fine!
Keep on the good work!
Greetings
Julia
I have purchased this plugin yesterday.
Star ratings working but opened single ad right side poster place user star ratings not displaying. how to enable star ratings in users. i have checked all options but not working. Please help me.
This is my website :
http://outdoorservices.co.in/ads/dance-music-classes-in-hyd/
@srinu, star ratings for users are only displayed on
author pages. Visiting your site I can see it is indeed working on author pages:
http://outdoorservices.co.in/author/anonymous/
Hello Bruno Carreço,
Could you please help me. Star rating how to add right side user info bottom. I was trying many more times PHP Shortcode but not working.
i have add link for required screenshot :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwe6g-fnX5eVeWI1cFlick9ZcGs/view?usp=sharing
@sreenubfa, please post your request in the StarStruck forum. From there the support team will be able to assist you better and maybe provide you with a code snippet.
is it possible to allow our visitors or users after buy an ad to rate the author. in classipress theme child
@Gino, I presume you are referring to a review system like Vantage and HireBee provide where buyers can review authors after each purchase, based on their experience with the author.
StarStruck works a little differently, it allows visitors to rate authors at ANY time, but not on an ad basis. Meaning that when a visitor is rating an author it is doing it based on the author global quality. Visitors won’t be able to give different rates to the author based on each purchased ad.
With StarStruck you gain the ability to allow users to rate ads at anytime similar to a ‘Like’ button.
Rich Snippet giving problem on store pages in clipper i get:
microdata
ERROR: unable to determine affiliation of these fields. There are two possible reasons: this fields are incorrectly placed or an orphan itemprop attribute is indicated
itemType =
aggregaterating
aggregaterating
itemType = http://schema.org/AggregateRating
ratingvalue = 4.5
ratingcount = 1
aggregaterating
aggregaterating
itemType = http://schema.org/AggregateRating
ratingvalue = 4.5
ratingcount = 1
Thanks for reporting @joloshop. We will investigate this issue and eventually patch it.
It´s just not working if i click the rating an refresh the page there is still no rating see example http://joloshop.de/shops/danato
Is there anywhere to see a demo of the plugin?
Robert, there’s not demo page for StarStruck but you can actually see it in use through our site on blog posts.
As an example take a look at the stars ratings (after the main content) on the latest blog post.
Ok, I checked that out. Is there a way to display the average rating and number of votes (as the example post you sent me to does) and also display each person’s individual rating for that post next to their comment? Plus have a place for them to make their vote next to the comment input box?
That’s not currently possible. For that you would need some custom changes
StarStruck allows users to vote on post types, authors or comments. So, if you add a voting option next to a comment it means that users are voting for that comment and not for the post that comment refers to.
Hi there still the same Problem, i need this to be fixed!!!
Getting AggregateRating Error:
AggregateRating: http://joloshop.de/shops/wrap_star_1595
ratingValue: 5
ratingCount: 5
ratingValue: 5
ratingCount: 5
Für diese Bewertung wurde das bewertete Objekt nicht angegeben.
this means there is no Objekt to rate
@joloshop, can you provide more details? Where do you get this error? Please post your reply and further support questions in the plugin forum (http://forums.appthemes.com/starstruck/) so our support team can better assist you.
Thank you.
Hi i did this already and I am not the only one having that problem, and what not to understand? GOOGLE DOES NOT SHOW THE STARS!!!!!!!!
joloshop, the plugin works fine. Something must not be correct with your website. I see your comment in the forum so we can troubleshoot it there. Thanks.
I am so disappointed – plugin doesn’t work in my theme clipper with child koupon. 🙁
I pasted the html shorcode and any results
My website: http://kuponowo.pl
@adrian_paz, can you please report your issue and provide more details of the issue you’re having on the support forum (http://forums.appthemes.com/starstruck/)? Our support team will be able to better help you there.
Thanks!
still having problems, even on new sides google does not show stars.
The Rich Snippet Tool shows no ERROR however it shows the ratingValue and ratingCount twice, I am using shortcode but the ratting shows a second time somewhere on my side. You can test it here
https://developers.google.com/struct…/testing-tool/ try http://joloshop.de/shops/gebrueder-goetz
This is what google sees:
Product
name: gebrüder götz Deine Bewertung: keine Bewertung: 4.9 bei 6 Bewertungen
aggregateRating [AggregateRating]: http://joloshop.de/shops/wrap_star_924
ratingValue: 4.9
ratingCount: 6
ratingValue: 4.9
ratingCount: 6
please need help….
using this code now:
Shop Bewertung von name; ?>
posted the Problem already in Forum!
@joloshop, I’ve notified the support team regarding your forum post reporting this issue.
still nothing, real bad Service for a paid plugin!!!!!!
@joloshop, apologies for the late reply. Please check the support forum. There we’re asking some more details of the issue you’re having.
Thanks.