---
title: "Weighted score & trending — Likes for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Rank by a weighted reaction score or recency-boosted trending activity, with portable SQL across SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/likes-for-laravel/ranking
language: en
---

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[Likes for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/likes-for-laravel.md)

# Weighted score & trending

Two ranking scopes go beyond raw counts:

```php
Post::orderByLikeScore()->get();    // rank by a weighted sum of reactions (desc)
Post::orderByTrending()->get();     // rank by recency-weighted activity (desc)

Post::orderByLikeScore('asc')->get();
Post::orderByTrending('desc', 'love')->get();   // trending loves
```

## Weighted score

orderByLikeScore() ranks by a weighted sum of reactions from config('likes.weights'). With the default (no weights) the score equals the raw like count. Give some reactions more pull:

```php
// config/likes.php
'weights' => ['like' => 1, 'love' => 4],
'default_weight' => 1,
```

Once weights is non-empty, any reaction not listed uses default\_weight.

## Trending

orderByTrending() scores each row as recent weighted activity × recent\_multiplier + all-time weighted activity, where recent means created inside trending.window. The window cut-off is computed in PHP and bound as a parameter, and every weight is bound too — so the SQL stays portable across SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL, and injection-safe.

```php
// config/likes.php
'trending' => [
    'window' => '3 days',        // what counts as "recent"
    'recent_multiplier' => 5,    // recent likes weigh 5x on top of all-time activity
    'driver_expressions' => [],
],
```

## Reading the score

Each scope selects its score onto the row — like\_score or trending\_score — so you can show it or debug the order:

```php
$top = Post::orderByLikeScore()->first();
$top->like_score;        // the weighted score the rows were ranked by

$hot = Post::whereNotLikedBy($user)->orderByTrending()->limit(10)->get();
$hot->first()->trending_score;
```

Both scopes accept a direction (asc or desc — anything else sorts descending) and an optional reaction type, ignore unliked rows, and compose with other scopes.

## Per-driver expressions

Hosts that want an exact decay curve can replace the trending score per database driver with a raw SQL aggregate over the likes rows. orderByTrending() uses it verbatim for queries on a connection of that driver — the portable hybrid for any other — and every ? in it is bound to the window cut-off (now minus trending.window):

```php
// config/likes.php
'trending' => [
    'window' => '7 days',
    'recent_multiplier' => 3,
    'driver_expressions' => [
        // Gravity: each like decays with its age in hours.
        'pgsql' => 'SUM(1 / POWER(EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (NOW() - created_at)) / 3600 + 2, 1.8))',
        // Recent likes count 10x, bound to the window cut-off.
        'sqlite' => 'SUM(CASE WHEN created_at >= ? THEN 10 ELSE 1 END)',
    ],
],
```

The expression is host configuration, never user input — it is placed into the query as written. TrendingScore::trending() resolves the same expression for your own ranking queries:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Likes\Support\TrendingScore;

['expression' => $expression, 'bindings' => $bindings] = TrendingScore::trending();        // the likes model's driver
['expression' => $expression, 'bindings' => $bindings] = TrendingScore::trending('pgsql');
// your driver_expressions entry for that driver (every ? bound to the window cut-off)
// when one is configured, otherwise the portable expression
```

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