WordPress - Displaying most read posts in the last week

Question

How to display most read posts in the last week?

I have the following code to record every hit of the posts, so i would know how many people read the post.

    function getPostViews($postID){
    $count_key = 'post_views_count';
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if($count==''){
        delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
        add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
        return "0 View";
    }
    return $count.' Views';
}

function setPostViews($postID) {
    $count_key = 'post_views_count';
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if($count==''){
        $count = 0;
        delete_post_meta($postID, $count_key);
        add_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');
    }else{
        $count++;
        update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, $count);
    }
}


// Remove issues with prefetching adding extra views
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link_wp_head', 10, 0);
/**
 * Add a new column in the wp-admin posts list
 *
 * @param $defaults
 *
 * @return mixed
 */

function subh_posts_column_views( $defaults ) {
    $defaults['post_views'] = __( 'Views' );
    return $defaults;
}

/**
 * Display the number of views for each posts
 *
 * @param $column_name
 * @param $id
 *
 * @return void simply echo out the number of views
 */

function subh_posts_custom_column_views( $column_name, $id ) {
    if ( $column_name === 'post_views' ) {
       echo getPostViews( get_the_ID() );
    }
}

add_filter( 'manage_posts_columns', 'subh_posts_column_views' );
add_action( 'manage_posts_custom_column', 'subh_posts_custom_column_views', 5, 2 );

How can I set the following to show most read posts in the last week?

    $options = array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'posts_per_page' => $limit,
        'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
        /* 'orderby' => 'meta_value_num', */
        'orderby' => 'rand',
        'order' => 'desc',
        'meta_key' => 'post_views_count'
    );

Answer 1

You could add a 'last_view_date' meta-data for each post in wp_postmeta table, changing a bit your 2 first functions, and creating a conditional function that returns true for posts that have been read the last week (in the last 7 days).

Here are your 2 first functions that I have customized a bit:

function getPostViews($postID){
    $count_key = 'post_views_count';
    $date_key = 'last_view_date';
    $today_date = date("Y-m-d");
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if($count==''){
        // Note: update_post_meta() create the data if not exist
        update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');

        // Setting the "view date" for the first time
        update_post_meta($postID, $date_key, $today_date);

        return '0 View';
    }
    return $count.' Views';
}

function setPostViews($postID) {
    $count_key = 'post_views_count';
    $date_key = 'last_view_date';
    $today_date = date("Y-m-d");
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if($count==''){
        $count = 0;
        // Note: update_post_meta() create the data if not exist
        update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, '0');

        // Setting the "view date" for the first time
        update_post_meta($postID, $date_key, $today_date);

    }else{
        $count++;
        update_post_meta($postID, $count_key, $count);

        // Updating the "view date"
        update_post_meta($postID, $date_key, $today_date);
    }
}

This is the conditional function code, to filter last week viewed posts:

// Conditional function that return true, whem a post have been read at least once in last week.
function is_week_viewed($postID) {
    $now = time();
    $date_key = 'last_view_date';
    $view_date = get_post_meta($postID, $date_key, true);
    $viewdate = strtotime( $view_date );
    $datediff = $now - $viewdate;
    $days = floor($datediff/(60*60*24));
    $count = get_post_meta($postID, $count_key, true);
    if ( $count > '0' && $days < 8) {
        return true;
    }
}

With that material, you can manage to achieve showing most read posts in the last week for your search query…

Then with is_week_viewed() conditional function you can filter now your search results to get only last week posts.

Reference - The conditional function is based on this old thread:
Finding the number of days between two dates