Monthly Archives: March 2007

Plugin Template

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Trev’s Travels
Trevor has released what looks like an excellent learning tool for WP users who want to venture into learning more about plugin development. Basically he’s released everything you need to create your plugin, simply without the specific function.

I haven’t tested it yet, but I did look at the file, and it’s very well commented. Options for widgets, including something like into a post/page and a normal plugin function call are included, as well as an options page for your plugin if you need it.

I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen anything like this before, though there are several tutorials floating around.

Speaking of Plugins…

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while on the topic of plugins particularly, I’d like to take a minute to suggest to users to really think about making donations to authors who provide the ability to do so. Though WP can be downloaded for free, and almost all plugins are freely available, it would hurt to if everyone who downloaded a plugin once donated a dollar, it would make a significant difference to the authors, and I’m sure would spurn quicker development, or user suggested features incorporated at a quicker rate. If not for every download, at least for ones that you’ve consistently relied on. (Especially spam plugins).

And this is not relegate to just plugin authors. Theme authors should be thought about as well. A lot of time and energy is spent on some of the themes, so giving back some of that in the form of a donation would be nice.

This particularly could be said about blogs that create revenue. Andy Beardrecently solicited suggestions for who to make donations to, as he is pledging to donate 50% of all revenue from doing paid reviews. More of this should be happening. Well done Andy.

So the next time you download a killer plugin, consider sending a paypal donation. Any amount will be appreciated, and know that it is one more way to keep the WordPress community strong.

For the record, I have donated to several plugin authors, and as this is will be the first month that WP Station has earned any amount of revenue outside of covering hosting costs, I will explore some of the other plugins I use on this and other sites I maintain.

“Official” Plugin Repository

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It was recently announced that a new “official” plugin repository. This is a good thing, however, before all the fan fare, a few things should be pointed out, as I see them.

First, for a plugin to listed there, it MUST be GPL. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a coder, or a lawyer, so I do not even begin to understand all the intricacies of what that means, but not all plugins are GPL. So this will never be a complete list of all the plugins available.

Second, the plugin author MUST upload the plugin to the wp server, and use their subversion directory. This could be a good thing, as it will help in version control, however, again, not all plugin authors are going to want to do this, either because they have their own subversion, method of development, or are just lazy. Also, a lot of plugin authors want the traffic for creating the plugin. Hosting the plugin off wp.org will take some of that away. WordPress.org is offering noticeable links back to their site, as well as paypal button for donations, however, that may not prove enough of a trade off for the authors.

Next, unless a decision is made to drop the bundled plugins from the “most popular” (akismet, default widgets if that becomes part of the download package, I see the delicious widget is included in that list), the data will be skewed. Speaking of “skewed”, the most popular tags listed on the left of the page there are numbers in parenthesis. Skype is listed first, with the # 36. Click on that tag, you see 1 plugin. Confusing? Yes. Granted these bugs could be worked out, however I would have thought some of the UI would have been better thought out before launching.

Another issue there is not currently a RSS feed for this, only feeds for individual tags. I’m quite surprised by this, but assume that will be another bug worked out.

Finally, as people have experienced with the “official theme viewer”, it is volunteer supported (or so I understand). And just as the other major source of plugin info, lapses in volunteers can lead to a bad experience for users.

All of that said, it is still a positive move, as more and more people rely on plugins for extending WP beyond basic blogging. An advantage I already see is it would provide developers with a localized source of plugins to develop new versions against. If you know certain plugins are highly rated and downloaded, you can test development against the plugins to avoid major “breakage” of a lot of blogs with an update. However, this will rely on authors keeping the plugin subversion up-to-date, and participating in general.

Another feature I see that can be beneficial to the community is the commenting on the plugin page. This very well can be used as a source of support, potentially moving that from the general support forums, to where the author can better track their plugin and offer support (or other users of the plugin if the author doesn’t participate).

Finally, the plugin page is beautiful, with lots of useful info, including the ability to have screenshots and FAQs.

So while a move in the right direction, I’m not sold this will be the de-facto solution, however only time will tell.

Marki

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ikram_zidane
This theme will probably prove to be quite popular, as it has a modern, grungy feel. A hybrid, 3 column theme, it features the most recent post in the left most column, with a list of previous entries below that. The right portion of the theme is split into 2 more columns, one with categories, and another for archives (though this can be modified with one caveat – the headings for those two columns are images, so unless you are proficient with Photoshop or Gimp, you will not have the same type headings). Below those two columns is an “about” section that spans the width of the above 2 columns. A search box rounds out the page.

As mentioned, it has that “distressed” feel, with a grayish header, dark background for the bulk of the design, and a contrasting blue footer, all which use images, so again, customization may be limited. I would say the navigation in the header is lacking, however as this was designed for as specific site, then made available, the nav bar may have been originally customized. I’d still like to see a little more prominence or style however. Also worth note is that it’s fixed width, however not with 800px or lower monitors in mind. All in all though, it’s definitely a notch above of the cookie cutter themes that seem to be released on daily basis these day.

Twitter Meets WordPress

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Alex King
Twitter seems all the rage(though I’ve not touched it), so it was inevitable that a WordPress plugin would follow. Fortunately, the first offering I’ve come across is from Alex King, so the quality is sure to be solid.

As I’ve stated, I’m not familiar with Twitter, so I won’t even begin to decipher the functionality (what is a tweet?), but I’m guessing it is one more way to get connected.

Blank Theme v2

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Miklb’s Mindless Ramblings
A semi shameless plug, but I’m in the process of upgrading my quasi-popular blank theme. Basically it’s a set of templates and a CSS sheet, without the style. A great (I hope) way of creating your own theme, or just a way to get under the hood. The difference between this version and the first is that this one is attempting to be based solely on my own attempts at a bit more simple, semantic code. Thus the beta, as I’m quite open to suggestions, critics, and feedback.

Keep in mind, it was released in the spirit of sharing, and the fact that the original is still the single most sought after search item on my site. Collaboration is not out of the question, to say the least.

Cleaker 2.0

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pomomusings
Well, I tried this post once, and for some reason it didn’t go through (if anyone is having an issue with WP 2.1.2 and getting a “are you sure you want to edit this post” page coming up when posting a new post, let me know).

Cleaker is one of the better WP themes I’ve seen in some time. It is a three column design, fixed width, with a two column sidebar to the right of content. Subtle blues and tans, it also includes as download of the header file in Photoshop format, as well as the author offers a download of the main graphics in the same .psd format.

I can not stress enough how “fresh” this theme is in comparison to the kubrick like factory that seems to flood the theme repository at themes.wordpress.net

Secure Form Mailer

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Dagon Design
I was surprised I hadn’t mentioned this plugin, but I felt even if I had, it was worth mentioning. Recently updated to version 5, this plugin gives far more options than just a standard name, email and message.

From the author:

Support for multiple instances, an easy to use dynamic form generation system (any number of fields, in any order), multiple recipients, multiple file attachments, an image verification system, numerous security features (including protection against email header injection), a message template system, and too many other things to list.

There is also a stand alone PHP version of the script for using outside of WordPress, worth investigating if you have non WP sites that might need a form.