Addicott web which is a web design company has published a list of six must have plugins for WordPress. Among the list is Easy Contact, Thank Me Later and WP-UnitPNGFix. Do you use any of the plugins they suggested?
Addicott Web Suggests 6 More Plugins
WordPress Plugin Readme Generator
I saw this pass by on the WP Hackers Mailing list without much fanfare but I think it will help at least a few of you plugin developers out there. Sudar Muthu has created an online WordPress plugin readme file generator. The generator provides all of the necessary fields you need to fill out in order to have a properly put together readme file which is needed in order for the plugin to be accepted into the plugin repository.
Thanks to Sudar for creating and sharing this resource. Definitely one for the resources section of your bookmarks.
Know of any other Plugin readme generators? Let me know in the comments.
Vladimir’s Plugin Developer Tips
Vladimir Prelovac who has been seen all over this site recently has published a pretty cool guide of 10 tips for WordPress plugin developers on Mashable.com The tips range from how to get an idea for a plugin to, using the WordPress plugin directory. Vladimir wrote an entire book dedicated to developing WordPress plugins so I take it, he knows what he’s talking about.
phpBB Bridge Beta Testers Needed
Community member Brad Williams has put the call out via the Tavern Forum that he looking for beta testers for his brand new WordPress plugin which is a phpBB bridge. The plugin will do as follows:
Once activated/configured the plugin will bridge together WordPress accounts with phpBB accounts. This allows your users to register on your WordPress site and automatically be registered/logged into the phpBB forum. If you have existing phpBB members, they can link their two accounts by logging into phpBB from within WordPress once.
The plugin has been tested to work on WordPress 2.7.x and phpBB 3.0.x.
I remember when I published WordPress Weekly episode 36 where I interviewed Douglas Bell regarding phpBB and discussed the differences between the software and how important it would be to have a bridge between the two projects. The comments lit up with interest regarding a working bridge between the two systems. It looks like Brad is well on his way accomplishing this feat.
Widget Context Updated
Kaspar’s has announced that he has released a new version of his cool Widget Context plugin which fixes the problem of widget settings not being saved the first time around. The plugin also has added a new feature which enables you to show or hide a widget if the blog post has more or less than a certain number of words. Kaspar’s has this to say regarding the new feature:
Please note the new feature that checks for a word count in a post works perfectly only on single post view (when the full article is displayed) and makes only an estimate when paginated archive or index page is being viewed. The reason for this is that your theme can alter the ‘typical’ number of words that archive pages should display, which is everything above the (more…)
Custom Widgets 2.0 Released
Tom Slayer who is the author of the Custom Widgets plugin that I wrote a review about on Performancing.com back in November 2008, sent me a note that he has released version 2.0 of the plugin. One of the things that worried me about the plugin is its interface for how you configured widgets. Thankfully, Tom has redesigned the interface from the ground up so it’s more intuitive.
On top of the new interface design, two new features found their way into version 2.0. Widget name display and more organized management.
Sleeker Custom Widget Interface
So how does Custom Widgets weigh in against Kaspar’s Widget Context plugin? Well, I’ll have to use Custom Widgets to let you know but I moved away from Custom Widgets at first because of their complicated interface. Since that has changed, I may find myself switching back to custom widgets. While I enjoy using Widget Context on this blog and enjoy Kaspar’s work, the plugin does have some weird configuration quirks in that, the configuration settings I give a widget never seem to take affect after the first try. You have to save the configuration twice. I also know that Kaspar’s is a busy bee and doesn’t have much free development time to devote to the plugin so at this point, it looks like Custom Widgets is more actively developed than Widget Context.
What I think will be interesting is seeing if any one of these two Widget management systems find there way into the core of WordPress 2.8 in some form or fashion. Or, if we’ll see something completely different.
New WordPress Book For Plugin Development
Vladimir Prelovac who I consider to be a WordPress Rockstar in his own right has is very own book called WordPress Plug-In Development. Beginner’s guide. Vladimir is not only a plugin developer but also a good theme developer as well if you take Blue Grace or Amazing Grace as examples.
Approach
This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experiment and play. Each chapter builds a practical plug-in from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plug-in and follow up with a discussion of concepts.
Who this book is written for
This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plug-ins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.
Vladimir has worked on the book for the past year where version 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7 were released respectively. The book goes into detail regarding the underpinnings of the software, plugin security, development, hooks, and much more. It’s currently available in either Paperback form or online via PDF.
I’ve asked Vladimir if he would like to appear on a future episode of WordPress Weekly and he has agreed to do so despite the recording time being 2 AM at his location. What a trooper! As it stands, I have him scheduled to appear on WordPress Weekly on Friday, March 27th. We’ll be talking about his book, plugins, themes, and all sorts of WordPress Goodness.
If you’re new to development such as myself, I recommend giving WordPress For Dummies a read before this book. That way, you’ll gain knowledge of certain terminology used in development such as hooks, filters, actions, etc.
Have You Heard Of These 10 Plugins?
Brad Williams over at the WebDevStudios.com blog has published a list of 10 WordPress plugins you may have never heard of. Out of this list, I can say that I’m only familiar with two of the plugins. Featured Content Gallery and Exclude pages. Exclude pages has become one of those plugins that I bundle with every new install of WordPress instead of modifying the wp_list_categories tag.
Disclaimer: WebDevStudios is currently a sponsor of WPTavern.
WP AJax Edit Comments Needs New Dev
Ronald Huereca whom I thought fell off the earth contacted me via email the other day to let me know that he has ceased development of the awesome WP Ajax Edit Comments plugin. Development has ceased so that Ronald can concentrate on other projects.
So with that in mind, Ronald wants to know if anyone is interested in taking over development for this plugin. Ronald says he’ll help the new plugin author with the transition by answering questions via skype or email.
WP Ajax Edit Comments:
WP Ajax Edit Comments allows users and admins to edit comments on a post. Users can edit their own comments for a limited time, while admins can edit all comments. In a future version of the plugin, the blog admin can now easily de-link the URL field from the comment.
I’ve been a big fan of this plugin ever since its inception. It was cool when it was released because it worked just like the Digg comment editor and provided an easy way for commenters to edit their own comments within a certain amount of time rather than indefinitely. I’m sad to see the plugin go but thanks to it being GPL compatible, anyone can easily fork it or take over development which I hope someone does.
If you’re interested in taking over development, say so in the comments and I’ll forward the information over to Ronald.
WP Ajax Edit Comments Gets New Dev
By Jeffro on March 4, 2009
The other day I had mentioned that Ronald Huereca author of the WP Ajax Edit comments plugin was looking for a new developer to take over the project. Good news! Ajay D’ Souza has become the proud owner of this awesome plugin. Ajay has worked with Ronald before and I believe makes a great replacement for Ronald. This means development of the plugin will continue. Special thanks goes out to Ajay for taking this project under his wings!
Posted in Plugins | Tagged comments, Plugins, wp ajax edit comments | 3 Responses