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.

Series

Description

Series is a plugin created to allow users to easily link posts together by using a WordPress taxonomy (like tags or categories) called “series”. It can be particularly useful if you write several posts spanning the same topic and want them tied together in some way that tags or categories doesn’t cover.

Professional Support

If you need professional plugin support from me, the plugin author, you can access the support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is a professional WordPress help/support site where I handle support for all my plugins and themes for a community of 75,000+ users (and growing).

Plugin Development

If you’re a theme author, plugin author, or just a code hobbyist, you can follow the development of this plugin on it’s GitHub repository.

Donations

Yes, I do accept donations. If you want to donate, you can do so from my donations page or grab me something from my Amazon Wish List.

I appreciate all donations, no matter the size. Further development of this plugin is not contingent on donations, but they are always a nice incentive.

Screenshots

  • Series meta box on the edit post screen.
  • Widgets on the widgets admin screen.
  • Manage series admin screen.
  • Example widget output in theme.

FAQ

Why was this plugin created?

Originally, it was a bit of a proof-of-concept of how plugins could create custom taxonomies based off a couple of highly-popular WordPress tutorials I wrote (Custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8 and Using custom taxonomies to create a movie database).

However, it was also a plugin I wanted for my personal blog. I’d been using custom fields for years to handle series, but it was always kind of a crude method of doing so. When WordPress created the Taxonomy API, I knew it was time to build something simple and usable for handling series on my site.

What does this plugin do, exactly?

It creates a new taxonomy called “series” for use on your site. It gives you template tags, shortcodes, and widgets to allow you to more easily tie posts together in a series.

Basically, you get a new meta box on the edit post screen titled “Series” that works just like regular tags. You can input a series name to add a post to a series. You also get a “Series” screen under the “Posts” menu in the WordPress admin.

Why am I getting a 404 error on series pages?

You just need to set up the plugin. Go to Settings > Series in your WordPress admin and save the settings. It’ll let WordPress know about your series permalink, which is necessary for showing series on the front end of the site.

What widgets are available to use?
  • Series – List Posts – This widget allows you to list posts from any series you’ve created.
  • Series – List Related – This widget displays posts within the current post’s series. So, it only shows up under two conditions: 1) you’re viewing a single post and 2) the current post is within a series.
Are there other functions to use in my theme?

All standard WordPress functions for taxonomies work. The name of the taxonomy is series. So, if you want to do anything custom, WordPress already has the functions you need. I’m not going to list them all here. That’d be just like rewriting a large portion of the WordPress Codex, which is already available to you.

If you’re looking for a specific template tag, start with the category template tags. Most of them allow you to use custom taxonomies.

Can you show me some examples?

Okay. I’ll show a few, but you’ve probably seen them before if you’ve done anything with tags or categories.

Displaying a “tag” cloud
‘series’ ) ); ?>
Displaying the current post’s series
Displaying a “category” list of series
    ‘series’, ‘title_li’ => false ) ); ?>
Can I create custom templates for series?

Certainly. You can create templates for series archives. Just copy your theme’s archive.php or index.php template. Then, rename it to taxonomy-series.php and make custom modifications from there.

If you want a template for a specific series, name the template taxonomy-series-exampleslug.php.

Can you add feature X?

I’ll consider it. Let me know what features you’d like to see added to the plugin.

This is way too complicated for me!

Please let me know how I could make things simpler for you in a future version of the plugin.

Also, keep in mind that there are other series plugins out there. This particular plugin might not be the best fit for you. However, I’m more than willing to listen to feedback on making things easier.

Reviews

May 15, 2020
I've been using Series for ages and it still works great. Now I use PHP 7.1 and WordPress 5.4.1. Thanks to Justin Tadlock for this plugin.
June 22, 2018
the widget to show related listings that only shows on relevant posts is great
January 27, 2017
Does what it needs to do and still works fine, even though not updated for a long time. Somewhere in the support forum of one of his plugins, Justin said he would only update a plugin when necessary (read: when it doesn't work after a WP core upgrade or a vulnerability has been discovered). Although that is fine, since there is already too much change for the sake of change, it might be a good idea to do a WP-compatibility bump now and than. If it weren't for Justin's reputation, I would never consider using a plugin that hasn't received updates for over two years.
September 3, 2016
This an A+ job. I do not know Justin Tadlock personally but he is probably the best maker of plugins in the world. This is another hole-in-one from the Tiger Woods of plugins: - it works just like it says on the box - it's elegant and has no annoying promotional or other types of notifications
Read all 4 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Series” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Series” has been translated into 3 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Series” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

Please see the changelog.md file included with the plugin. Or, you can view the online change log.