Using NCR on Your Blog

Native Content Relationships fits blogs well: related posts, recommended reads, and series without post meta or custom code. Use the UI, shortcode, or block—no PHP required for basics.

What you can do

Use case	How
Related posts	Link posts manually in the editor; show them with shortcode or block.
Recommended reads	Same as related—add a type "recommended" and display per post.
Series	Use a relation type like part_of (post → post) and list "Others in this series."
Author favorites	User → post relation; list "Editor’s picks" from a user ID.

1. In the editor (no code)

1. Edit a post.
2. Open the Content relationships meta box.
3. Choose Related to (or your custom type).
4. Search and add the posts you want.
5. Update the post.

Repeat for each post where you want related content. Use Suggest related to get one-click suggestions by category/tag.

2. Show related posts (copy-paste)

Shortcode (in post content or widget)

[naticore_related_posts type="related_to" limit="5" layout="list"]

Grid of 6 with a custom class:

[naticore_related_posts type="related_to" limit="6" layout="grid" class="related-blog-posts"]

Block

Add the Related Content block (search “Related” or “Naticore”). Set type to Related to, limit, and layout (list/grid).

Theme template (single post)

Drop this in single.php or your single-post template to output a “Related posts” list:

<?php
$related = ncr_get_related( get_the_ID(), 'post', 'related_to', [ 'limit' => 5 ] );
if ( ! empty( $related ) ) :
	?>
	<aside class="related-posts">
		<h3><?php esc_html_e( 'Related posts', 'your-textdomain' ); ?></h3>
		<ul>
			<?php foreach ( $related as $post_id ) : ?>
				<li><a href="<?php echo esc_url( get_permalink( $post_id ) ); ?>"><?php echo esc_html( get_the_title( $post_id ) ); ?></a></li>
			<?php endforeach; ?>
		</ul>
	</aside>
<?php endif; ?>

3. Blog-specific relation types (optional)

If you want “Recommended reads” separate from “Related to”, register a type (e.g. in a small mu-plugin or your theme):

add_action( 'init', function() {
	ncr_register_relation_type( [
		'name'            => 'recommended_reads',
		'label'           => __( 'Recommended reads', 'your-textdomain' ),
		'from'            => 'post',
		'to'              => 'post',
		'bidirectional'   => false,
		'max_connections' => 10,
	] );
}, 20 );

Then in the meta box you’ll see Recommended reads; use type="recommended_reads" in the shortcode.

4. Sidebar widget

Appearance → Widgets: add Related content (Naticore). Set relation type (e.g. Related to), limit, and which post to use (default: current). Works for blog sidebars without blocks.

5. CLI for bulk (optional)

To add or inspect relations from the command line (e.g. after migrating from another plugin):

# Count related_to relations for post 123
wp content-relations count --post=123 --type=related_to

# List them
wp content-relations list --post=123 --type=related_to --format=json

See WP-CLI and Snippets for more.

---

Next: Snippets for more copy-paste code, or Basic relationships for the full API.