CM Contextual Product Recommendations (CMCPR) - Free Version Tutorial

Product Recommendations - Free Version Tutorial

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CM Product Recommendations

Learn more about CM Product Recommendations

This article covers only features present in the free version of Product Recommendations.

It shows you how to add a widget to items mentioned in the content. Each item is attached to an URL.

Example


Table of Contents

  1. Installation guide
  2. List of Features
  3. Using the Plugin - Overview
  4. Adding and Managing Products
  5. Settings
    1. General
    2. Widget Style

Installation guide

Here are the steps needed to install the plugin:

  1. Download - To manually install the plugin, you must first download it from WordPress.org to your computer.
  2. Navigate to the Plugins tab in the WordPress Admin Panel to install the plugin.
  3. Activate the plugin. 

TIP: Register for Benefits

If you like, you can register your plugin to receive information about updates and our latest offers. You can complete your registration at any time. 

If you don’t want to register right away, you can select the Skip button.

Difference Between Free and Pro

Free Edition Pro Edition
Automatic related products widget after post or pages
Automatic related products widget after any custom post type; Add widget anywhere on your site
Unlimited number of products
Unlimited number of products
Adjust Related Products widget style
Adjust Related Products widget style and position inside the post
- Show specific products based on categories and prioritize specific items
- Product names can have synonyms
- Products can have descriptions
- Move product data between sites
Interface in English Translate the plugin with customizable labels
No support Plugin can be used forever; one year support and updates  

CM Product Recommendations

Learn more about CM Product Recommendations

Using the Free Plugin - Overview

TIP: What is a Product?

To use the plugin, you first create a list of products. In this free version, each has three parts:

  1. Name - Will be searched for in the content.
  2. URL - Where users will be directed to when clicking on the product name or icon).
  3. Image - Displayed on the widget.

What is the Product Recommendation Widget

The plugin checks the current page or post's content for products you have added. 

It then lists three random products on a widget, shown below the content. Clicking on a product will direct the user to the product's URL

Where Does The Widget Appear?

You can enable it on:

  • All posts
  • All pages

Learn more below.

TIP: Skipping Specific Names (Shortcode)

You can prevent the plugin from considering specific parts of the content by using a shortcode.

In the example below, "Product 2" will not be considered.

Product 1, [cmcrpr_exclude]Product 2 [/cmcrpr_exclude], Product 3.

Adding and Managing Products

Product management is done from WP Admin → CM Product Recommendations → Products or Add New.

On the management screen, you can easily review each product and add them too.

Still in the same Setup tab, you have two important settings.
  • Permalink prefix - The prefix of the index and locations' permalinks.
    For example, "map-locations" will generate permalinks such as: site.com/map-locations/paris-trip.
    By default, it's "map-locations".
  • Enable wp-admin edit page for locations - If disabled, when you click the Edit link in the back-end, you will be redirected to the front-end location edit page.

Settings - General (Template, Units, Map Behavior, Custom CSS)

In this tab, you can configure the overall plugin behavior.

General Settings
  • Display items on given post types - Choose which post types will have the widget
    • Posts
    • Pages
  • Only display items on single posts/pages (not Homepage, authors etc.)? - Will skip single and index pages, and not show the widget on them
  • First occurrence only? - Will only highlight the first time the product is mentioned.
    This affects the highlighting, and not the widget.
  • Avoid parsing protected tags? - Skips the tags Script, A, H1, H2, H3, PRE, Object.
    This means that, even if the product name is inside an h2, for example, it won't be taken in consideration.
  • Terms case-sensitive? - Enable it to differentiate letter case. For instance, "Product" will be different than "product".
  • Add links to found items? - Enable to highlight items across the content. 
    Disabled = Only Widget 
    If this setting is off, products will appear on the widget, but won't be highlighted
Performance & Debug

Useful settings if you are having technical issues.

  • Only highlight on "main" WP query? - Select this option if you wish to only highlight items on main query. Unchecking this box may fix problems with highlighting items on some themes which manipulate the WP_Query.

    Warning

    Don't change this setting unless you know what you're doing!

  • Enable the caching mechanisms - Uses internal caching mechanisms. Can be useful if content is not being updated properly

Settings - Widget Display

Links
  • Show HTML "title" attribute for the links - Uses the item title as the HTML link "title" parameter.
  • Open links in the new tab - When clicking a link, it will force the browser to open it in a new tab.
Title
  • Show Title - Show or not product names.

Comparison


More information about the CM Products Recommendation WordPress  Plugin

Other WordPress products can be found at CreativeMinds WordPress Store

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