In this post I will show you one of the ways how to display list of the top authors without using a plugin.

You can use the following small function:

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function top_authors($number = 10) {
  $uc = array();
  $blogusers = get_users();
  if ($blogusers) {
    echo '<ul>';
    foreach ($blogusers as $bloguser) {
      $post_count = count_user_posts($bloguser->ID);
      $uc[$bloguser->ID] = $post_count;
    }
    arsort($uc);
    $i = 0;
    foreach ($uc as $key => $value) {
      $i++;
      if ($i <= $number) {
        $user = get_userdata($key);
        $author_posts_url = get_author_posts_url($key);
        $post_count = $value;
        if ($post_count > 0) {
          echo '<li><a href="' . $author_posts_url .'">' . $user->display_name . '</a> (' . $post_count . ')</li>';
        }
      }
    }
    echo '</ul>';
  }
}

Paste this function in the functions.php file of your theme and then put the following code in a place of your theme, where you want to see the top authors list:

<?php if (function_exists('top_authors_list')) top_authors_list(10); ?>

10 here is the number of authors you want to show in the list.

That’s all.

As a result you will see the list of top authors with their names and number of published posts. Author’s name is linked to his archive page where is a list of all his posts.

List of top authors is sorted by number of posts.

It works on the basis of the function for a pagination on archive pages (as you know, it also may work without a plugin), therefore very similar to it.

Code of the function:

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function wp_comments_corenavi() {
   $pages = '';
   $max = get_comment_pages_count();
   $page = get_query_var('cpage');
   if (!$page) $page = 1;
   $a['current'] = $page;
   $a['echo'] = false;
 
   $total = 0; //1 - display the text "Page N of N", 0 - not display
   $a['mid_size'] = 3; //how many links to show on the left and right of the current
   $a['end_size'] = 1; //how many links to show in the beginning and end
   $a['prev_text'] = '« Previous'; //text of the "Previous page" link
   $a['next_text'] = 'Next »'; //text of the "Next page" link
 
   if ($max > 1) echo '<div class="commentNavigation">';
   if ($total == 1 && $max > 1) $pages = '<span class="pages">Page ' . $page . ' of ' . $max . '</span>'."\r\n";
   echo $pages . paginate_comments_links($a);
   if ($max > 1) echo '</div>';
}

You need to paste this code the functions.php file of your theme. As you see the function also contains just five options.

To show the comments pagination on your site, paste the following code in comments.php of your theme near the wp_list_comments() function:

<?php if(function_exists('wp_comments_corenavi')) wp_comments_corenavi(); ?>

HTML code of the function will looks like this:

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<div class="commentNavigation">
  <span class="pages">Page 7 of 14</span>
  <a class="prev page-numbers" href="http://site.name/post/comment-page-6/#comments">&laquo; Previous</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-1/#comments'>1</a>
  <span class="page-numbers dots">...</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-4/#comments'>4</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-5/#comments'>5</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-6/#comments'>6</a>
  <span class='page-numbers current'>7</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-8/#comments'>8</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-9/#comments'>9</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-10/#comments'>10</a>
  <span class="page-numbers dots">...</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/post/comment-page-14/#comments'>14</a>
  <a class="next page-numbers" href="http://site.name/post/comment-page-8/#comments">Next &raquo;</a>
</div>

And you can use a CSS classes for styling this navigation. That’s it.

One more thing. Don’t forget to activate the option “Break comments into pages” in WordPress admin area.

But not everyone knows (including me until recently), what WordPress has a built-in function (starting from version 2.1) which implements virtually the same functional. And compared with the WP-PageNavi plugin this function very small in size.

Here’s what this function looks like:

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function wp_corenavi() {
  global $wp_query, $wp_rewrite;
  $pages = '';
  $max = $wp_query->max_num_pages;
  if (!$current = get_query_var('paged')) $current = 1;
  $a['base'] = str_replace(999999999, '%#%', get_pagenum_link(999999999));
  $a['total'] = $max;
  $a['current'] = $current;
 
  $total = 1; //1 - display the text "Page N of N", 0 - not display
  $a['mid_size'] = 5; //how many links to show on the left and right of the current
  $a['end_size'] = 1; //how many links to show in the beginning and end
  $a['prev_text'] = '« Previous'; //text of the "Previous page" link
  $a['next_text'] = 'Next »'; //text of the "Next page" link
 
  if ($max > 1) echo '<div class="navigation">';
  if ($total == 1 && $max > 1) $pages = '<span class="pages">Page ' . $current . ' of ' . $max . '</span>'."\r\n";
  echo $pages . paginate_links($a);
  if ($max > 1) echo '</div>';
}

This code must be placed in the functions.php file of your template. The function have just five options, they are separated by line breaks.

To show the navigation, paste the following code in your template:

<?php if (function_exists('wp_corenavi')) wp_corenavi(); ?>

As a result the HTML code will looks like this:

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<div class="navigation">
  <span class="pages">Page 7 of 27</span>
  <a class='prev page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/6/'>&laquo; Previous</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/1/'>1</a>
  <span class='page-numbers dots'>...</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/4/'>4</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/5/'>5</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/6/'>6</a>
  <span class='page-numbers current'>7</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/8/'>8</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/9/'>9</a>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/10/'>10</a>
  <span class='page-numbers dots'>...</span>
  <a class='page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/27/'>27</a>
  <a class='next page-numbers' href='http://site.name/page/8/'>Next &raquo;</a>
</div>

As you can see it contains all the necessary classes to stylize navigation with CSS (the current page, dots, links to previous and next page).

I’ve tested this function on WordPress 2.3.3 and 3.1 and also tested variants with active and inactive permalinks. Everything works as expected. I think it will work also in a new versions of WordPress.

This plugin contains one interesting function, which may add a little bit of informativity for your site. It allows you to mark the commentators of your site who subscribed to comments.

The function looks as follows:

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<?php
  if (function_exists('comment_subscription_status')) {
    if (comment_subscription_status()) {
      echo 'Image or text, speaking about subscription.';
    }
  }
?>

On this blog it looks like this:

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<?php
  if(function_exists('comment_subscription_status'))
    { if (comment_subscription_status()) {
      echo '<div class="subscribed" title="Subscribed to comments via email">@</div>';
    }
  }
?>

I.e. I’m adding the symbol @ with the tooltip. You can see live example in a comments of this blog.

You need to paste the function in the comment template, for example near the comment author name.

I found in this thing a couple of goodies:

• Firstly, it gives me to understand, will see my comment or not the person to whom it is addressed. For example, I often observe the following situation. Some comment was added to my new post and I have responded to him, but later turns out that the addressee did not see it, because he was not subscribed on new comments. It looks as though I wrote to nowhere and spent my time in vain.
• Secondly, this is one of ways for detecting spam. For example, someone asked a question on the post with an obvious answer and did now subscribed to comments. If at the same time he left under his nickname a link to a questionable site, a high probability that he is spammer.

The essence of the script is as follows: it shows a welcome message for regular commentators.

How it works

It’s very simple. Script checks whether the required fields Name/E-mail are filled and performs the following:

• If a visitor of your blog at least once left a comment, next time he will see a “Welcome back, %username%!” message at the comment form.
• The Name/E-mail/URL fields will hide, there will be only comment field.
• Commentator can change his data by clicking on “Edit” link.
• If visitor has disabled JavaScript in his browser, he will see the full comment form.

For working the script it’s necessary to satisfy the two conditions:

1. Cookies must work in visitor’s browser.
2. WordPress must remember a previously entered data in comment form.

Always be sure that the second condition is satisfied, otherwise there will no sense in connecting the script. I know what some WordPress plugins can prevent to output entered data in the comment form.

Examples

1. If you at least once left a comment on this blog, you will see “Welcome back” message near the comment form.
2. Also you can see an example on a separate page:

How to use it

1. Find in the comments.php file of your theme the code of a name, e-mail and URL fields and wrap them into the <div id="authorData"></div> container.

   I’ll show an example with default WordPress theme.

   Before:

   <p><input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author); ?>" size="22" tabindex="1" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />
   <label for="author"><small>Name <?php if ($req) echo "(required)"; ?></small></label></p>
    
   <p><input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author_email); ?>" size="22" tabindex="2" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />
   <label for="email"><small>Mail (will not be published) <?php if ($req) echo "(required)"; ?></small></label></p>
    
   <p><input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author_url); ?>" size="22" tabindex="3" />
   <label for="url"><small>Website</small></label></p>

   After:

   <div id="authorData">
     <p><input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author); ?>" size="22" tabindex="1" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />
     <label for="author"><small>Name <?php if ($req) echo "(required)"; ?></small></label></p>
    
     <p><input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author_email); ?>" size="22" tabindex="2" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />
     <label for="email"><small>Mail (will not be published) <?php if ($req) echo "(required)"; ?></small></label></p>
    
     <p><input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author_url); ?>" size="22" tabindex="3" />
     <label for="url"><small>Website</small></label></p>
   </div>

2. Connect the following jQuery script to your site (and also don’t forget to connect the jQuery framework, if it still isn’t connected):

   (function($) {
   $(function() {
    
     var author = $('#author').val();
     if( author !='' && $('#email').val() !='' ) {
       $('#authorData').hide();
       $('#authorData').before('<div id="welcome">Welcome back, <strong>' + author + '</strong>! <a href="#">Edit &raquo;</a></div>')
       $('#welcome a').toggle(
         function() {
           $('#authorData').show(300);
           $(this).html('Minimize &raquo;');
           return false;
         },
         function() {
           $('#authorData').hide(300);
           $(this).html('Edit &raquo;');
           return false;
         }
       );
     }
    
   });
   })(jQuery)

3. That’s all.

I think the commentators of you site will appreciate this feature ;0)