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Beer Ratings WordPress Plugin

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About

The Beer Ratings plugin allows you to display information about beers, brewers, and places to drink. This plugin uses the RateBeer API to retrieve data and you must register for a RateBeer API Key at http://www.RateBeer.com/api/.

You can retrieve beers by brewers, best beers by style, beers available at a specific place, brewer information, place information, and beer information. You can also retrieve beer reviews, rankings, and scores.

Getting a RateBeer API Key

This step in the setup process may take a few days or weeks. Here's a few tips to help:

  • Be polite in your request! JoeT (owner of RateBeer.com) has a lot of tasks and projects going on in addition to managing the RateBeer.com web site. Allow him a few days (or week) to respond to your request.
  • Be concise in your request. You don't need to tell JoeT everything you plan to do, but a one-sentence description of your website/project (with URLs) may help pique his interest and spur the API key creation.
  • Have an active RateBeer.com account in good standing. This means that you should have rated a few beers with good commentary and descriptions.

For reference, it took 3 days for RateBeer staff to reply with a API key for myself. Here's a template of the request email I sent to them:

To: joet
Subject: RateBeer JSON API Request

Joseph,

I'd like to request a API developer's key.

First, add a very short (2-4 sentences) paragraph speaking about what you're going to do with the data.

Next, mention the web site URLs for your blog/project.

Finally, remember to be polite and thank JoeT and RateBeer for offering you a API Key. Remember, getting an API key is a gift from RateBeer.com and they are going out of their way to help you with your project/blog.

What if I haven't heard back in several days?

You can join the RateBeer.com API Google Group and speak with other developers and RateBeer.com staff. Please follow any guidance posted by RateBeer.com on their API page.

Links

Download the plugin via the WordPress Plugin Gallery at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/beer-ratings.

Post comments, bugs, and requests via the WordPress Plugin Forum at http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/beer-ratings/.

Examples

Beer Information

[beerratings-beer id='1315,32329']

Arrogant Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale ABV: 7.2%
Overall: 99.47% Style: 98.62%
This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.
Alchemist Heady Topper by The Alchemist
Style: Imperial/Double IPA ABV: 8% IBU: 120
Overall: 99.95% Style: 99.84%
An American Double IPA, packed with over 120 IBU!
RateBeer Data Source: RateBeer
Beer Ratings WP Plugin by James Welch

Best Beer By Style (IPA, limit=5)

[beerratings-bestbeer-style id='17' limit='5' show_retired='false']

  1. AleSmith IPA by AleSmith Brewing Company
  2. Bells Two Hearted Ale by Bells Brewery
  3. LaConner India Pale Ale (Bottleworks) by LaConner Brewing Company
  4. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA by Ballast Point Brewing Company
  5. Hill Farmstead Susan by Hill Farmstead Brewery
RateBeer Data Source: RateBeer
Beer Ratings WP Plugin by James Welch

Brewer Information

[beerratings-brewer id='4275']

The Alchemist
35 Crossroad
Waterbury, Vermont United States
Moved from their 23 South Main Road brewpub premises after they were flooded by Hurricane Irene.
RateBeer Data Source: RateBeer
Beer Ratings WP Plugin by James Welch

Top Beers

[beerratings-bestbeer limit='5']

  1. Westvleteren 12 (XII) by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus
    Avg Rating: 4.45
  2. Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout (Bourbon Barrel Aged) by Three Floyds Brewing Company
    Avg Rating: 4.39
  3. Russian River Pliny the Younger by Russian River Brewing
    Avg Rating: 4.34
  4. AleSmith Speedway Stout (Barrel Aged) by AleSmith Brewing Company
    Avg Rating: 4.33
  5. Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout by Three Floyds Brewing Company
    Avg Rating: 4.32
RateBeer Data Source: RateBeer
Beer Ratings WP Plugin by James Welch

Additional Examples

For more live examples, please visit my beer blog at http://www.vtbeer.org.

CSS and Layout Customization

Each tag comes with a simple predefined layout. You can modify the output and the generated HTML by changing the settings on the Format/Layouts tab of the options page.

Here's an example of the [beerratings-beer] tag's item content:

<b>#_BEERLINK</b> by <b>#_BREWERLINK</b><br/>
<b>Style:</b> #_BEERSTYLENAME {has_abv}<b>ABV:</b> #_ALCOHOL%{/has_abv} {has_ibu}<b>IBU:</b> #_IBU{/has_ibu}</br>
<b>Overall:</b> #_OVERALLPCTL2% <b>Style:</b> #_STYLEPCTL2%<br/>
{has_description}#_DESCRIPTION{/has_description}

As you can see, you can easily add in CSS classes, divs, spans, or whatever HTML you need to format the output however you want. Additionally, you can use #_BEERLINK as a quick way of creating a hyperlink or use #_BEERNAME and #_BEERURL to make your own hyperlinks. There's also conditional statements such as {has_abv} which work like a "if/end" tag. If the condition is true, then the inner content is rendered. If the condition is false, then the inner content is not rendered. In the above example, for beers with no #_ALCOHOL (ABV) or #_IBU values, the text will not be rendered.

RateBeer.com API function list vs plugin functionality

Implemented

  1. Best Beers By Style [beerratings-bestbeer-style] v1.0
  2. Beers Available At Place [beerratings-beer-place] v1.0
  3. Get Ratings (Reviews) For A Beer [beerratings-beer-review] v1.0
  4. Beer search by beerid [beerratings-beer] v1.0
  5. Place info by id [beerratings-place] v1.0
  6. Show Brewer Info [beerratings-brewer] v1.0
  7. Show all the Beers by a Brewer [beerratings-beer-brewer] v1.0
  8. Best Beers By Season [beerratings-bestbeer-season] v1.0.1
  9. Best Beers By Country [beerratings-bestbeer-country] v1.0.1
  10. Get Top Beers [beerratings-bestbeer] v1.0.2

Not (yet) Implemented

  1. Place Search
  2. Get Top Users
  3. Get Recent Raves
  4. New Beers
  5. Beer availability search by beerid
  6. Beer search by string
  7. Advanced beer search by string
  8. Brewer search by name
  9. Beer Places available by Geo
  10. User Info
  11. Show me Rate Counts of a User
  12. Show me Rate Counts of a Place
  13. Show me Rate Counts of a Beer

Not Planning on Implementing
* Functions are more for desktop/mobile personal apps rather than blogs. If there's a reason to implement these functions, please let me know.

  1. User remote login
  2. Saving A Beer Rating
  3. Beer Ticking
  4. Add A Beer
  5. Place Check-in
  6. UPC Search
  7. Add UPC /Bar Code for a Beer
  8. Personal Message View
  9. Event Beers Check
  10. Add Beer availability
  11. Get My Messages
  12. Brewer id search (duplicate of Show Brewer Info)

API function broken/doesn't work

  1. Best Beers By Country

Support This Plugin

Have you found this plugin useful? Please help support it's continued development with a donation of $5, $10, or $20!




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Need Help?

If you need help or have found a bug please visit the support forums.

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Disclaimer

The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's, family's, friends', acquaintances', or reader's view in anyway, form, or shape. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. Batteries not included. YMMV.