Michael Fields, one of the many theme wranglers for Automattic has published his wishlist of items he’d like to see implemented into the WordPress media manager. Of the things he mentioned, The ability for a theme to define multiple types of images like Logo, Custom Header, Body Background, Content Background, etc. We have two of these already, but IMHO it would be awesome if themes could define more than these two sounds like a really cool idea. What’s on your wishlist? ∞
How To Insert Links Inside Of Image Captions
Occasionally, I ‘ll take a look through the WordPress Ideas site to see what kind of activity is going on. The other night, I discovered an idea that immediately lit the light bulb over my head, mostly because I couldn’t believe that it was not already a feature in WordPress. Approximately one year ago, Jeremy Clarke submitted the idea to allow URLs to be inserted into image captions with the primary goal of making it easy to attribute images to their source. I’ve personally come across the issue where instead of applying the image credits within the image caption, I have to add a note somewhere within the post which is stupid since image captions are the PERFECT spot for attribution. Fast forward to October 18th, 2011 with WordPress 3.3. knocking on the door and this ability is still not present within WordPress. However, there are a couple of things that point to this feature being added soon as the status for the idea is marked Good Idea! We’re Working On It. There is also a ticket in trac, #18311 that has a patch but is currently awaiting review.
While there is not a native, user-friendly way of adding links to image captions, there are a couple of ways in which it can be accomplished. The first is by using ‘ instead of ” when entering the code for your link. However, when switching between the code and visual editors, the link is erased leaving text in place of the link.
Second, you can try using the code provided by Kaspars of Konstruktors.com inside of your functions.php file which will add a “Source URL” field to every image that is uploaded through the WordPress media library. When using this method, it’s important to note that the source URL will be visible only if you specify an image caption upon inserting the image. If implemented correctly, it will look something like this.
Third, you can try using the Links In Captions Plugin by Zack Katz. After activation, you can add links to captions via the following format: {link url=”http://www.example.com”}Anchor text here{/link} Two benefits to this plugin is that it has support for the Target and Rel attributes and you can use shortcodes within the caption area.
Personally, I think Kaspars solution is the most user-friendly after the functions.php file is setup correctly. I’d like to see him package that as a plugin so more users can take advantage of it as it looks as though it was part of the media manager all along. However, the best scenario is for this functionality to some how end up within the core of WordPress. If you have the know-how, please consider contributing to the ticket or writing a better patch to get this into core.
Things To Look For In WordPress 3.3 Beta 1
WordPress 3.3 Beta 1 has finally been released for the curious at heart to get a glimpse as to what’s coming in the final version. There are quite a few visual changes that you should look out for and provide feedback on. Here are a couple things worth noting.
New Feature Pop-ups – After WordPress 3.3 is installed, you’ll see popups that display information pointing users to new features. When testing, see if the popups close upon clicking the close button. Also see if the popups reappear multiple times. There has been an issue with popups and IE7/8 with them not going away but Alex Mills is betting that those have been fixed as of ticket #18693
Admin Bar Revamp – The Admin bar now sports a darker color. The biggest changes to the admin bar reside within the rearrangement of menu items. Instead of the username and gravatar aligned to the left side of the bar, it’s now all the way on the right hand side. The search box has been moved to the right of the Add New menu link. Updates has been added as a top menu item. However, your website name now shows up on the far left side of the admin bar and this is where you’ll find all sorts of administrative tasks when you hover your mouse cursor over the link. The dashboard link as well as Appearance has been added to this menu item along with an assortment of other options. The drop down menus also look a lot like their Administration panel counterparts compared to the 3.2 version. Last but not least, on the left side of the admin bar, there is a small WordPress icon. This icon acts like the HELP button in typical software. From here, you can get information about the specific version of WordPress, Freedoms, Credits, links to WordPress.org, the support forums, documentation and giving feedback.
Flyout Menus – All of the top level links within the left menu now have Flyouts where as previously, Flyouts only occurred when the menu was collapsed.
Drag And Drop Uploading – I think users will be surprised the most by the new upload media screen. Thanks to something called plUpload which has been added to WordPress 3.3, we can now drag multiple files into the editor. This has also allowed the dependence on Flash within the uploader to disappear as support for HTML 5, Flash, and Silverlight are supported with plUpload. I’ve given it a try with 5 images and it worked great. Users who upload photo sets to WordPress are going to love this enhancement.
Uploading Multiple Files Or Images At Once Is Now Easier In WP 3.3
One Media Button – In WordPress 3.2.1, there are 4 icons within the post editor that allow you to add some type of media to a post. Images, Audio, Video, and strangely enough, an icon named Media. In WordPress 3.3, all of those icons have been replaced by one icon labeled Media. From here, you simply drag whatever media files you have into the uploader. No more picking and choosing since the uploader is smart enough to distinguish between different media types. You can add your typical meta data after the media has been uploaded.
One Instead Of Four
WordPress 3.3. will have more to offer than what I have listed here but if you plan on beta testing the new version, you now have a couple things to play around with. If you come across something you think is broken or not working as you think it should, the best thing you can do is report it within the Alpha/Beta section of the WordPress.org Support forums while being as descriptive as possible.
New Feature Pointers Slated For WordPress 3.3
Theme.FM has a great writeup explaining one of the new features that is slated to arrive with WordPress 3.3 called Pointers. These pointers appear to show the end user some information related to a new feature. However, it looks as though in future versions of WordPress, there will be an API built around pointers which should allow plugin and theme authors to tap into it’s usefulness. If you don’t like the pointers feature, WPEngineer has an explanation as to how to disable it. Keep in mind though, that the information is based on the nightly build of WordPress so the implementation could be different later on. ∞
What’s Your Breaking Point?
As WordPress becomes a mature piece of publishing software, more things are being added to the kitchen sink. Some features are great while others, not so much. As WordPress adds more features, how many of you have found yourself using plugins or convoluted ways to disable or remove the functionality that was added to WordPress? I’m not opposed to WordPress adding more features and functionality but I am interested in knowing what your breaking point is with regards to how many plugins will you use to go against the grain of WordPress before you decide that a different publishing platform would ultimately be the better choice?
Have You Removed Or Disabled The Admin Bar?
After all the hoopla surrounding the addition of the admin bar which is enabled by default within WordPress 3.1, I’m wondering how many of you have actually gone through and removed or disabled this particular feature? If you kept the admin bar but have used a plugin or custom code to hide it until your mouse cursor is over the area, select the third option. This is an in-between method that keeps the admin bar out of sight until needed.
As for myself, I’ve found the admin bar to be very convenient especially as it relates to comments as the link takes me straight to the comment moderation queue. Also, instead of logging into the site and browsing to the new post section, I’ve been selecting the Add New post link within the admin bar. The only thing I don’t like about it is the color but that can be easily corrected.
While not directly related to the poll question, how many of you have actually added additional functionality to the admin bar in the form of links or something else?
Have You Removed/Disabled The Admin Bar?
- No (59%, 44 Votes)
- Yes (39%, 29 Votes)
- It's Hidden Until Mouse Over (2%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 75
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Software Releases And The Kitchen Sink
Matt Mullenweg who every now and then publishes a long essay did so today on his personal site Ma.tt, talking about version 1.0 of software and how it’s the loneliest number. In the post, he mentions how Apple is not afraid to release a first gen product that contained flaws because waiting in the wings was the iPhone 3G ready to correct the flaws and public perception of the first generation product. Matt goes on to talk about the time frame between WordPress version 2.0 which was released on December 31st, 2005 while version 2.1 was released on January 22nd, 2007. Quite a long time between releases. Although on paper it looked like the development team took a hiatus, in fact, that specific time period saw a rapid rise in developers contributing to WordPress. However, the ‘one more thing‘ problem crept up preventing a release from happening sooner.
I think that is a common problem amongst software in general, proprietary or open. I can’t recall the first generation of a product or piece of software that was perfect. One more thing syndrome is a mindset issue. Matt illustrates this perfectly within the following paragraph:
I imagine prior to the launch of the iPod, or the iPhone, there were teams saying the same thing: the copy + paste guys are *so close* to being ready and we know Walt Mossberg is going to ding us for this so let’s just not ship to the manufacturers in China for just a few more weeks… The Apple teams were probably embarrassed. But if you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long.
This made me think of the slogan, ‘release early, release often‘. However, you can’t release too early and too often because it will wear out the patience of users. As a software developer, you’ll do more harm than good. That’s why as it relates to the WordPress.org development cycle, I think that 3 major releases per year is a good balance between releasing often and not having a space in-between that would allow for the kitchen sink to be added to the software. Now that software upgrades are relatively pain free with the automatic upgrade system built into WordPress, the interim releases after major releases are not such a problem anymore.
Something that I think theme, plugin and software developers in general should take to heart is the following:
Usage is like oxygen for ideas. You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you’ve created until it’s out there. That means every moment you’re working on something without it being in the public it’s actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.
Your Thoughts:
How many of you out there are sitting on plugins, themes, or little software projects of your own because you feel that they are not ready for release or that the public will consider what you’ve created to be a bunch of crap? Also, I’d like to hear your take on the 3 Major releases per year strategy for WordPress. Is that a good balance or do you think it’s too much or too little?
WordPress For iPhone 2.6.1 On The Horizon
Version 2.6 of the WordPress iPhone app was released a few days ago with the most notable addition to the app being support for video. However, while new features and some outstanding issues were fixed, 2.6 introduced new bugs or made current ones worse.
We’ve received many reports of improved speed and ease of use, so we’re happy to hear that many of you are happy with the update.
However, since WordPress is such an amazing and extensive platform, we weren’t able to fix everything, and in some cases we created new bugs that made things worse.
Chris Boyd outlined some of the issues being reported the most by users which include crashing during video uploads for WordPress.org users, crashing after video compression, and crashes at the start screen. The app is working just fine for me although I have yet to try adding any photos or videos to any of my posts. If you have an issue with version 2.6, report it in the comments or within the feedback section of the forum.
Six Revisions On Missing Features In WordPress
Jacob Gube of SixRevisions.com has published his take on ten features that are missing from the core of WordPress. According to Jacob, these features should be adopted into the core of WordPress for the benefit of all. I agree with some of his reasoning on moving features into core but it’s a mindset that I’ve been trying to stay away from. First of all, I as an individual user don’t really know what the WordPress userbase deems useful or worthy of being in the core of WordPress. Secondly, apart from the search in WordPress sucking, just about everything else on his list relates to a specific use case of WordPress and since everyone seems to use WordPress in a different way, these features could end up as useless bloat for many people. However, WordPress already has a number of features that I rarely ever use but I don’t want to see any more of them added to the core software.
This is one of the reasons why I now support the idea of core plugins. Keep the core of WordPress light, add hooks, functions, better APIs and let the third parties do the rest. Keep WordPress flexible and modular instead of weighed down. Unfortunately, there are thousands of plugins, multiple ones that perform the same subset of features, some that are outdated, etc. Having those features in core eliminates that worry but at the cost of modularity. As someone brought up in the comments, the idea of WordPress Installation Profiles seems like the answer to this problem as certain branches of the software could either ship with a predefine list of plugins for that use case or have those plugins built in. Those WordPress branches would need to mirror the development of WordPress though which means the core team most likely will not maintain them. The installation profile idea has been brought up on the WP-Hackers mailing list a few times before with the outcome being that WordPress.org will not create and maintain these new branches but nothing stopped anyone else from doing so. Dougal has a few tips and a link that explains how to use the install.php file to create automated WordPress customizations.
The bottom line is, if you think a particular plugin should be added to the core of WordPress for the benefit of all, you’re probably wrong. Think about the big picture before you come to any conclusions.
Feature Filled Comment Administration
By Jeffro on December 2, 2011
Comment administration within WordPress has come a long way. As illustrated by Lorelle VanFossen, the comment administration panel these days has 18 different features for comment management. While the current iteration of comment management features are great, there is one particular quick link that I hope gets added in a future version of WordPress. It’s called ‘De-Link‘ and it’s one of my favorite features of the WP Ajax Edit comments plugin.
Delinking Feature Within WP Ajax Edit Comments
I’ve noticed that a large amount of comments that I have deleted or trashed in the past can now be approved after I de-link them as the content is usually related to the post. It’s their way of trying to get a link on the site. I have my own rules for which sites are allowed to be linked to and which are not but if the comment is relevant to the post at hand but contains a bad link, I’ll simply de-link, then approve it. Sure, I could go into the Quick Edit mode within the comment management area and manually remove the links but the method of clicking once sure seems a lot easier to me then clicking the mouse button a few times.
Posted in WordPress | Tagged comments, features, Plugins | 4 Responses