You can select exactly which posts you want to display. The smart_archives() template tag now takes a second parameter, which accepts most of the arguments that query_posts() accepts.
If you put that code in author.php, for example, it will display the list of posts by the current author. If you put it in tag.php, it will list the posts in the current tag etc.
You can also make it display the same set of posts, no matter where it’s placed:
With the previous version, generating the archive page on this site required around 900 database queries. Now it’s down to 300.
No more buggy caching
Older versions of the plugin stored the generated HTML in a text file, instead of generating it on each page load. Unfortunately, this relied on two rather unreliable things: file permissions and wp-cron. Thus, it was the biggest source of problems for users. So I decided to remove file caching completely.
If you want caching back, the best solution is to use a dedicated plugin, such as WP Super Cache. It will make your entire site load much faster.
Since version 1.9, you can make modifications to the plugin output, without having to modify the plugin code. This way, your tweaks won’t be lost when you upgrade the plugin.
Custom styling
If you want to customize the appearance of the archives using your own CSS, here’s how you do it:
Copy everything from smart-archives-reloaded/inc/styles.dev.css into your theme’s style.css file.
Change the CSS in your theme’s style.css file, as needed.
Custom markup
If you want to go one step further and change the generated HTML markup, you can do that too (understanding of object inheritance is required).
First, take a look at the SAR_Generator class (in smart-archives-reloaded/generator.php).
In your theme’s functions.php file, you can extend that class, like so:
class SAR_Custom_Generator extends SAR_Generator {
protected function generate_fancy() {
// your custom code here
}
protected function generate_block() {
// more of your custom code here
}
...
}
Then, all you have to do is add the ‘generator’ argument to the template tag:
Lots of goodies in this release, based on the feedback and requests I got from you guys (and gals).
The Menu Format
First off, there’s a new format called “menu”. It’s basically the year and month menu from the fancy format, but without the post list. It’s meant to be displayed on year and month based archives, to aid navigation.
Usually, those archives are handled by the archive.php template in your theme, so that’s where you should use it:
<?php smart_archives('format=menu'); ?>
New arguments
There are also two new arguments:
month_format – can be one of ‘numeric’, ‘short’ and ‘long’
posts_per_month – set the number of posts displayed per month; by default, all posts are displayed.
<?php smart_archives('posts_per_month=25'); ?>
Finally, you can now customize the look and feel more easily. See Advanced Tweaking.
I have been using Smart Archives for some time and I really liked it, but version 2.0 wasn’t up to snuff, in my opinion. So I decided to improve it, until I ended up with this plugin:
Easy setup – no code editing required
Better caching – no need to wait when publishing a new post
Settings page – elegantly choose how you want the archives displayed
Version history
1.2: better HTML output; various optimizations and bugfixes
