Herodotus – On This Day

FAQ

What is Herodotus for?

Herodotus is designed for creating “On This Day in History” sections on your website. You create posts tied to a specific day and month, and they automatically appear every year on that date. It is ideal for history blogs, music, art & educational sites, museum websites, anniversary trackers, and birthday calendars.

Does this plugin modify my existing posts or pages?

No. Herodotus uses its own dedicated Custom Post Type (herodotus_post). Your standard WordPress Posts, Pages, and any other content remain completely untouched.

How is this different from regular WordPress posts?

Regular WordPress posts are tied to the date they were published and appear in chronological order. Herodotus posts are tied to a recurring day and month — they have no “publication date” in the traditional sense and will appear automatically every year on the same day.

Does it support leap years (February 29th)?

Yes. You can set February 29th as the date. On non-leap years, this post will not be shown, which is the correct and expected behavior.

How do I display today’s events on my site?

Use the shortcode [herodotus] in any post, page or text widget. Alternatively, use the included Herodotus Events Gutenberg block which you can find in the block inserter.

Can I show events from a specific category only?

Yes. Use the category attribute with the category slug: [herodotus category="science"]. You can create and manage categories under Herodotus → Categories.

What is the compact layout and when should I use it?

The compact layout ([herodotus layout="compact"]) shows posts with a small square thumbnail, title and a short excerpt — without the category label or Read more button. It is designed specifically for sidebar widgets where space is limited.

Can I hide images and show only text?

Yes, in two ways. [herodotus show_image="false"] hides all images including the default placeholder, but keeps the card styling — background, border and rounded corners. [herodotus layout="text"] goes further: no images and no card chrome either, just a plain list of events separated by thin lines. Use the first when you want cards without pictures, the second when you want the events to blend into your page text.

What happens if a post has no featured image?

By default, a placeholder “No Image” graphic is shown. You can replace this placeholder with any image of your choice by going to Herodotus – On This Day → Settings and uploading a custom Default Image.

How does the random event shortcode work?

[herodotus_random] shows a random pick out of the events for the current day. Where [herodotus] lists all of them, this one highlights a single event — useful for a sidebar block or a spot where only one item fits. Use limit for more than one, for example [herodotus_random limit="3"]. It accepts the same category, layout, excerpt_words and show_image attributes as the main shortcode. A new pick is made on every page load; if you use a full-page caching plugin, the pick will stay the same until that page cache expires.

Is there an RSS feed?

Yes. Your events are available at /herodotus/feed/ — for example https://example.com/herodotus/feed/. The feed carries the events for the current day, so it changes every morning. This makes it useful for RSS readers and for automation services such as IFTTT or Zapier. The number of events follows the Posts Limit setting.

Can I use multiple shortcodes on the same page?

Yes. Each shortcode instance is independent and can have its own layout, category, limit and other settings.

How does caching work?

Herodotus uses WordPress transients to cache query results. The default cache lifetime is 3600 seconds (1 hour). You can adjust this under Herodotus – On This Day → Settings → Advanced, or set it to 0 to disable caching entirely. The same screen has a Clear Cache Now button. The cache is automatically cleared whenever a Herodotus post is saved or deleted.

Is the plugin compatible with WPML and Polylang?

Yes. The plugin includes a wpml-config.xml file which automatically configures WPML to handle the custom post type, taxonomy and date meta fields correctly. Polylang works automatically as well since the CPT and taxonomy are registered with standard WordPress hooks. The cache key includes the current locale so different language versions are cached separately.

Is the plugin translation ready?

Yes. The plugin is fully internationalized. Translations are included for: Georgian (ka_GE), Russian (ru_RU), Ukrainian (uk), French (fr_FR), German (de_DE), Spanish (es_ES), Italian (it_IT) and Turkish (tr_TR). Additional translations can be contributed via the WordPress.org translation system (GlotPress).

I see a red warning in the post editor — what does it mean?

The red warning appears when a Herodotus post does not have a day, month or year set. All three fields are required — posts without a complete date will never appear on the frontend. Simply click the date field in the Herodotus Date metabox (right sidebar) to set the date.

I see a warning icon (⚠) in the posts list — what does it mean?

The ⚠ icon in the Herodotus Date or Year column means that post is missing date information and will not be shown on the frontend until the date is set.

Can I change a date without opening the editor?

Yes. Hover a row in the events list and click Quick Edit — the day, month, year and era appear next to the standard WordPress fields, already filled with the current values. This is the fastest way to correct dates when entering many events. Bulk Edit intentionally leaves the dates untouched, since a single date for several events is almost never what you want.

Can I sort events within the same date?

Yes. Under Herodotus – On This Day → Settings → General you can choose between A → Z (alphabetical) and Z → A (reverse alphabetical) sorting. Events are always grouped by date first, then sorted by your chosen order.

What data does the plugin store and what happens when I uninstall it?

The plugin stores Herodotus posts (as a custom post type), categories (as a custom taxonomy), plugin settings (in wp_options) and temporary cache (as transients). By default, all data is kept when the plugin is uninstalled. If you want all data to be permanently deleted on uninstall, enable the Remove Data on Uninstall option under Herodotus – On This Day → Settings → Advanced.

Does the plugin add Open Graph or Schema.org markup?

Yes. Herodotus automatically adds Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags on single event pages and category archive pages, enabling rich previews when sharing links on Facebook, Twitter/X, Telegram and other platforms. It also outputs JSON-LD Schema.org structured data (Article, Event, CollectionPage) to help search engines understand your content. If Yoast SEO, RankMath, AIOSEO or The SEO Framework is active, Herodotus automatically skips its own tags to avoid duplicates.

Is the plugin compatible with page builders (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder)?

The shortcode [herodotus] works in any environment that supports standard WordPress shortcodes, including Elementor text/shortcode widgets, Divi Code modules and Beaver Builder HTML modules.

Does the plugin work with caching plugins (WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache)?

Yes. Herodotus has its own internal caching layer. It works alongside page-level caching plugins without conflict. Note that if you use aggressive full-page caching, the displayed date may be cached at the page level — consider excluding the pages with [herodotus] from full-page caching, or using a shorter cache TTL.