Title: Now Reading Redux
Author: ashodnakashian
Published: <strong>2011-08-27</strong>
Last modified: 2012-11-19

---

Search plugins

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/now-reading-redux.svg)

# Now Reading Redux

 By [ashodnakashian](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ashodnakashian/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/now-reading-redux.zip)

 * [Details](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/#installation)
 * [Development](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/now-reading-redux/)

## Description

Now Reading Redux is a resurrection of the [Now Reading Reloaded project by Ben Gunnink](http://heliologue.com/)
5.1.3.2 codebase, which was itself a fork/re-enlivening of [Rob Miller’s original Now Reading plugin](http://robm.me.uk/projects/plugins/wordpress/now-reading/).
It was forked from Rob’s code as of 4.4.4svn, in order to update its interface to
work with WordPress 2.7 and above.

With NRR, you can manage a library of your current books, as well as historical 
and planned books.

NRR depends on jQuery and assumes it already loaded by WP or your theme. Please 
use a sufficiently recent version, say 1.4 or newer, preferably the latest. The 
graph is generated using [TufteGraph](http://xaviershay.github.com/tufte-graph/)
which depends on [](http://raphaeljs.com/). All necessary files are included, no
additional libraries necessary (beyond jQuery).

The home of Now Reading Redux is [blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/](http://blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/).
You may find news and leave comments and requests there.

For issues, complaints and bugs as well as for development source code, please go
to [github.com/Ashod/Now-Reading-Redux](https://github.com/Ashod/Now-Reading-Redux).

For comments and suggestions and even bugs, you may leave a comment on the [blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/](http://blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/).

### Known Issues

## Screenshots

[⌊The book manager where all the books are visible, sorted by any of the columns,
in both ascending and descending orders. Searching for -partial- book titles is 
supported. Author names are shortcuts to filter by that author only.⌉⌊The book manager
where all the books are visible, sorted by any of the columns, in both ascending
and descending orders. Searching for -partial- book titles is supported. Author 
names are shortcuts to filter by that author only.⌉[

The book manager where all the books are visible, sorted by any of the columns, 
in both ascending and descending orders. Searching for -partial- book titles is 
supported. Author names are shortcuts to filter by that author only.

[⌊The options page showing some of the new options available in Redux.⌉⌊The options
page showing some of the new options available in Redux.⌉[

The options page showing some of the new options available in Redux.

[⌊The book search/add page is unchanged, but...⌉⌊The book search/add page is unchanged,
but...⌉[

The book search/add page is unchanged, but…

[⌊The search results may return more editions than older versions of the plugin.
Clicking "Use This Result" adds the book in question to the library.⌉⌊The search
results may return more editions than older versions of the plugin. Clicking "Use
This Result" adds the book in question to the library.⌉[

The search results may return more editions than older versions of the plugin. Clicking“
Use This Result” adds the book in question to the library.

[⌊The library page showing statistics graph, which may be disabled from the options
page.⌉⌊The library page showing statistics graph, which may be disabled from the
options page.⌉[

The library page showing statistics graph, which may be disabled from the options
page.

[⌊The side-bar widget showing read, current, on-hold and up-next books, link to 
the library and search box. The shelves visible, their titles and appearence styles
are all controllable from the options page.⌉⌊The side-bar widget showing read, current,
on-hold and up-next books, link to the library and search box. The shelves visible,
their titles and appearence styles are all controllable from the options page.⌉[

The side-bar widget showing read, current, on-hold and up-next books, link to the
library and search box. The shelves visible, their titles and appearence styles 
are all controllable from the options page.

[⌊The library page showing Planned books with the new option of showing both book
images and text.⌉⌊The library page showing Planned books with the new option of 
showing both book images and text.⌉[

The library page showing Planned books with the new option of showing both book 
images and text.

## Installation

Please backup your database before installing/upgrading. I try hard to make sure
the releases are bug-free. However I can’t perform extensive tests. If you find 
any bugs or have feature requests, please kindly report them at https://github.com/
Ashod/Now-Reading-Redux/issues.

 1. Upload `now-reading-redux` to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
 3. Optionally, make any changes to the provided template files and store them in your
    theme directory (see the “Template Files” section.)

#### Upgrade

 1. Just to be safe than sorry, backup your database.
 2. Deactivate any existing versions of `now-reading` or `now-reading-reloaded`.
 3. Install `now-reading-redux` as described below.
 4. Activate `now-reading-redux`.
 5. Your database will be updated and library restored as was previously.
 6. Go to the options page and set every option as necessary.

Note: After upgrading the widget, if used, may get removed. This may happen in some
themes but not most. If it disappears, simply drag it where you’d like to see it.

## FAQ

  Can I upgrade from Now Reading or Now Reading Reloaded? How?

Please read the Upgrade section under Installation.

  I found a bug, what should I do? (or, this plugin is broken!)

Please leave a note on the [blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/](http://blog.ashodnakashian.com/projects/now-reading-redux/).
That is probably the easiest way. However, you may also log bugs on [github.com/Ashod/Now-Reading-Redux](https://github.com/Ashod/Now-Reading-Redux)
or on [https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/now-reading-redux/](https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/now-reading-redux/).

  Where is the old changelog?

Please find the original Now Reading Relaoded readme with the changelog in the readme.
old file.

  Why does NRR on your website (blog.ashodnakashian.com) look different from mine?

What the plugin ends up looking like is controlled mainly by two things: templates
and CSS.

The templates folder contain a single php file for each page or element on the screen,
with the exception of ‘shelf.php’ which renders the actual book shelves (starting
with v6.5).
 With a little PHP and HTML knowledge it’s relatively easy to customize
these files to fit your needs. However, before doing that I urge you to look into
the CSS and make the most of it, failing that, consider making a suggestion on the
plugin homepage and everyone may benefit from your suggestion in an upcoming version.

The second method to control the look and style of NRR is via the CSS script. Starting
with version 6.5 library, search and sidebar allow you to write a custom CSS script
in the options page. The plugin is highly customizable if you know your CSS. For
example, lists are rendered in a table-style (images only) using CSS.

  I just updated to the latest version and some stuff got messed up. What’s up with
that?

With new versions new options are added for ease of use and flexibility. Every effort
is done to keep backwards compatibility, however, in some cases this isn’t possible.
It’s also desirable to cleanup and refactor old options.

To avoid problems and surprises, please revisit the NRR options page after every
update. Check your old options and learn about the new ones. Sometimes default values
aren’t set correctly and therefore PHP defaults are effective. This sets some values
to false and texts to blank.

  Is searching for books broken?

If you get a warning such as “URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration”
then you need to edit your PHP.ini file. Searching relies on PHP’s file_get_contents()
function. This function is subject to security permissions. Specifically, allow_url_fopen
must be set to ‘on’ in PHP.ini (which is the default). More information [here](http://phpsec.org/projects/phpsecinfo/tests/allow_url_fopen.html),
[file_get_contents’s reference](http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php)
and [allow_url_fopen’s reference](http://php.net/manual/en/filesystem.configuration.php).

Note: Starting from v6.7.0 file_get_contents has been replaced by Snoopy/cURL controlled
from the Options page.

  How can I change the number of items shown in the sidebar?

Starting with version 6.5 there is an option that controls the maximum number of
books shown for each shelf.

To customize older version, you’ll have to change the query string in the section
in question.
 Under the section heading in question, find the following line (exact
values may be different):

This is a PHP function call (named have_books) and the string between the quotes
is the query string. To change the number of items returned by this call simply 
add “&num=4” (without the double quotes.) Here I chose to return 4 items, but you
can set it to any number. If you set it to -1 you’ll get all!

Here is how you may set it to return 7 finished books: have_books(‘status=read&orderby
=finished&order=desc&num=7’)

  What are the attributes of nrr_shelf and what are the defaults?

Any number of attributes can be used. Leaving out an attribute gives it the default
value.

style => [list*, numbered, table].
 status => [unread, reading, onhold, read, all*].
orderby => [reading, read, onhold, finished*]. order => [asc, desc*]. search => 
A substring to match author, title. author => The author to show books by. title
=> The book title to show. rating => Book rating Between 1 and 10 inclusive. reader
=> The user’s ID who added the book. started_year => The started year in decimal.
started_month => The started month in decimal. finished_year => The finished year
in decimal. finished_month => The finished month in decimal. num => The maximum 
number of items to show. -1 for all (default). viz => hide, show_text*, show_image,
show_image_text. items_per_row => Number of books per row. Only for style=table.
1 by default.

Example: Default everything. Lists all titles and authors of books sorted by last-
finished first.

[nrr_shelf]

Example: Lists titles and authors of books finished in the year 2011.

[nrr_shelf style=”numbered” viz=”show_text” status=”all” num=”-1″ order=”asc” finished_year
=”2011″]

Example: Lists titles and authors of books finished reading with a rating of 9.

[nrr_shelf style=”numbered” viz=”show_text” status=”all” num=”-1″ order=”asc” rating
=”9″]

Example: Covers of all books currently reading.

[nrr_shelf style=”table” viz=”show_image” status=”reading” num=”-1″ order=”asc” 
items_per_row=”3″]

Example: Covers, titles and authors of all books in the library sorted by last-finished
first.

[nrr_shelf style=”list” viz=”show_image_text” status=”all” num=”-1″ order=”desc”]

Example: Lists titles and authors of books started reading on or after April 2011,
finished before or during November 2011 and has a rating of at least 8.

[nrr_shelf style=”numbered” viz=”show_text” status=”all” num=”-1″ order=”asc” rating
=”>=8″ started_year=”2011″ started_month=”>3″ finished_year=”<=2011″ finished_month
=”<=11″]

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Now Reading Redux” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ ashodnakashian ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ashodnakashian/)

[Translate “Now Reading Redux” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/now-reading-redux)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/now-reading-redux/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/now-reading-redux/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/now-reading-redux/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/now-reading-redux/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 6.7.0.0

 * WordPress 3.4 support.
 * Fixed: The wp-config.php file may be either in its default folder or a folder
   above it. See [Hardening WordPress](https://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress#Securing_wp-config.php).(
   Thanks to Alex for this request.)
 * Fixed: Replaced file_get_contents() with url_get_contents() which is based on
   cURL/Snoopy and doesn’t suffer PHP settings. file_get_contents() required enabling
   allow_url_fopen in php.ini which some servers disallowed. (Thanks to Tom Saunders,
   TechnoMom, unsicherheitsserver, inktails and others for reporting).
 * Improved the robustness of Amazon searches, debugging and error-reporting. Also,
   untitled books are now show with the title “Untitled” (previously they were skipped).
 * Fixed: Removed hard-coding of styles from shelf and using CSS class nr_booktitle
   and nr_bookauthor for the title and author respectively. Also, new classes include
   nr_viewlibrary, nr_wishlist, nr_nobooks. Apply default CSS styles in NRR options
   page to get new default styles.
 * Fixed: Redesigned templates to use correct and up-to-date styles and better WordPress
   integration.
 * New options: Library Title and Wishlist Title options added.
 * New option: “Use Theme templatates” to control whether or not to load theme-specific
   templates or defaults. Themes can have ‘now-reading’ or ‘now-reading-redux’ folders
   added to the TEMPLATEPATH and by enabling this option the templates will be loaded
   from there. Suffusion makes use of this approach as it has heavily customized
   templates and the defaults don’t render so well (although latest templates are
   much better in this regard.) For Suffusion you’re advised to copy the templates
   from NRR’s suffusion subfolder into Suffusion’s now-reading subfolder and enable“
   Use Theme templates”. Don’t forget to repeat this every time you update Suffusion!
 * Added: NRR shortcode nrr_shelf added. Supports all rendering styles and filtering
   options supported in the Library page. See FAQ for doc and sample.
 * Improved book statistics and average reading rate calculation. Statistics may
   be calculated by books being read per-month as well as books finished per-month(
   no external option, just internal function implementation).
 * Improved nrr-generated page-titles shown in the browser caption-bar.

#### 6.5.0.0

 * WordPress 3.3 support.
 * Romanian translation courtesy of Alexander Ovsov [Web Geek Sciense](http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/).
 * New option: Wishlist link. An optional link to a wishlist page shown in the sidebar.
 * New options: Per shelf library, search and sidebar options to control appearence
   and style and more.
 * Redesigned sidebar, library and search templates.
 * Restructured and reorganized the Options page and grouped options.
 * Changed the default Amazon Associates ID to thevoid0f-20. This can be changed
   from the options.
 * Fixed: Library search was broken.
 * Updated many outdated, depricated and unrecommended codes.

#### 6.1.0.0

 * Updated and included Suffusion NRR templates.

#### 6.0.9.0

 * New option: Hides Added dates in Manager and Book Edit pages.
 * Authors and Statuses are linked to filter the books shown in the Manager.

#### 6.0.8.0

 * New option: Controls the default number of books displayed. Primarily controls
   the sidebar book count.
 * The ‘reading’ and ‘unread’ lists are now shown in random order, the ‘read’ list
   is shown last read first.
 * ‘View Full Library’ is now hidden in the library page. Search button is centered.

#### 6.0.6.0

 * New option: Set book visibility as private or public. Private books are not shown
   to anyone but the owner. Note: admins may be able to view them!
 * Templates updated to improve utility.

#### 6.0.4.0

 * New option: Ignores time in timestamps, showing only dates.

#### 6.0.3.0

 * Started and Finished timestamps are automatically set when changing the status
   from ‘yet to read’ to ‘currently reading’ and from ‘currently reading’ to ‘finished’,
   respectively, only when the user leaves these fields blank. NRR no longer overwrites
   the user’s set values.

#### 6.0.2.0

 * Added sorting support to the Book Manager table.

#### 6.0.0.0

 * Initial import of Now Reading Reloaded 5.1.3.2
 * Added this README file and renamed the old one to readme.old.

## Meta

 *  Version **6.7.0.0**
 *  Last updated **14 ел ago**
 *  Active installations **10+**
 *  WordPress version ** 2.9.0 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **3.4.2**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/)
 * Tags
 * [amazon](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/amazon/)[books](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/books/)
   [widget](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/widget/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://tt.wordpress.org/plugins/now-reading-redux/advanced/)

## Ratings

 3 out of 5 stars.

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## Contributors

 *   [ ashodnakashian ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ashodnakashian/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/now-reading-redux/)