WordPress post view count

There are lots of articles over the web regarding "WordPress post view count" and "Creating a custom column for Post table". But unfortunately, most of them are not bug-free. In this article, I'm going to cover both of them.

At first, let's see how to create post view count and stored as metadata.

remove_action( 'wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link_wp_head', 10, 0 );

function wp_set_post_views( $postID ) {
    $count_key = 'wpb_post_views_count';
    $count = get_post_meta( $postID, $count_key, true );

    if( $count == '' ) {
        $count = 0;
        delete_post_meta( $postID, $count_key );
        add_post_meta( $postID, $count_key, '0' );
    } else {
        $count++;
        update_post_meta( $postID, $count_key, $count );
    }
}

function wp_get_post_views() {
    if ( is_single() ) {
        wp_set_post_views(get_the_ID());
    }
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wp_get_post_views' );

Now let's create a custom column for Post table and show post view counts.

function wp_posts_columns( $defaults ) {
    $defaults['wpb_post_views_count']  = esc_html__( 'Post Views', 'text_domain' );
    return $defaults;
}
add_filter( 'manage_post_posts_columns', 'wp_posts_columns' );


function wp_post_custom_column( $column_name ) {
    if ( $column_name == 'wpb_post_views_count' ) {
        $count = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'wpb_post_views_count', true );
        $view_count = $count == '0' ? '1' : $count;
        echo esc_html__( $view_count, 'text_domain' );
    }
}
add_action( 'manage_post_posts_custom_column', 'wp_post_custom_column', 10, 2 );


function wp_post_column_sortable() {
    $columns['wpb_post_views_count'] = ['wpb_post_views_count', true ];
    return $columns;
}
add_filter( 'manage_edit-post_sortable_columns', 'wp_post_column_sortable' );


function wp_sortable_custom_column_query( $query ) {
    $orderby = $query->get( 'orderby' );

    if ( 'wpb_post_views_count' == $orderby ) {

        $meta_query = array(
            array(
                'key' => 'wpb_post_views_count',
                'value'   => '',
                'compare' => '>',
            ),
        );

        $query->set( 'meta_query', $meta_query );
        $query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wp_sortable_custom_column_query' );