Archive for the ‘WordPress Plugins’ Category
by Franky Branckaute on March 5th, 2010
One of the both better and more annoying factors of WordPress is the huge amount of core features. Of course it is great to work with a platform which makes almost everything possible but this can also take away from your focus.
I am a big fan of taking out clutter, focusing on what really matters and love to simplify both life and working environment. The WordPress dashboard is well thought out, and popular, but I am the first one to launch an external writing application such as OmmWriter or WriteRoom, helping me focus just on content, especially when writing longer entries. For many smaller projects I am involved in, I prefer ’simpler’ platforms than WordPress, platforms focusing more on blogging rather than on being the awesomest, most complete or extendable platform.
Enter Zen, a distraction free writing environment for WordPress by Mohammad Jangda. Read More
Categories: WordPress News, WordPress Plugins
Tags: Clutter, Mohammed Jangda, wordpress, writing, Zen
by Darnell Clayton on January 7th, 2010
Despite the fact that my Blackberry brothers have been experiencing the joys of videohood on their beloved smartphones, iPhone users (along with their Android friends) have no official way of posting videos to their WordPress blogs.
While lovers of the iDevice can get around this by using BlogPress and CellSpin, the videos are hosted upon YouTube or CellSpin’s servers respectively, which may not appeal to many bloggers.
This all may change thanks to the release of Google’s Nexus One, not to mention WordPress’s upcoming Android app (which has been in the works since last October) in which WordPress may finally embrace mobile video blogging via VideoPress. Read More
Categories: WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tools
Tags: Mobile Blogging, VideoPress, wordpress
by Franky Branckaute on January 5th, 2010
According to the Warrior Forums the plugins of MaxBlogPress have been removed from WordPress Extend without any official, apparent reason. MaxBlogPress is the developer of the popular Ping Optimizer and Stripe Ad plugins.
Anyone who has ever used one of MaxBlogPress’ plugins certainly knows to appreciate their value but also has been confronted with the compulsory email opt-in to activate these plugins and has subsequently received regular marketing emails, before unsubscribing.
There have been calls within the WordPress.org forums to ban MaxBlogPress plugins from the WordPress.org plugin repository and it looks as if the plugins have now been banned. I could not find any plugin developed by MaxBlogPress in the repository anymore, all links redirect to the plugins main page.
Let’s be clear up front and keep one can of worms closed: The GPL does allow this. Just like donation buttons in themes and plugins are allowed. Even plugins hosted in the official repository. And that’s entirely fine, it’s allowed by the GPL and a nice way to reward developers and designers. So a forced email opt-in to activate should also be possible or?
What makes a plugin a premium plugin?
Over the last two years the WordPress community has seen a massive shift towards paid, premium themes and slowly more and more premium plugins are available as well. There’s no doubt that the ban hammer used on the sponsored themes has helped this new market to emerge and grow.
A great, and probably the best known, example of premium plugins is the excellent Gravity forms. But in the case of Gravity Forms you do not pay for the plugin; the plugin itself can be used freely but you pay for the support license. Excellent and very fast support.
Are the MaxBlogPress plugins ‘premium’ plugins?
Keeping in mind that MaxBlogPress a marketing specialist is one could argue that every working email address a form of currency is and the plugins thus ‘premium’ are. We will leave the can other can of worms, whether this is ethical permission marketing or does border on spam, closed.
What do you think, do you use any of the MaxBlogPress plugins? Or did/does the forced opt-in activation put you off and should these plugin types be banned from the directory?
PS: I do think that if you want to install ‘unblockable popups’ on your blog, you might as well give your email address to a marketeer and stop whining. Both are just as unethical IMHO. Read More
Categories: WordPress Plugins
Tags: Debates, Ethics, Opinion, Premium
by Franky Branckaute on December 18th, 2009
With the upcoming WordPress 2.9 release and the new version of the WordPress.com stats plugin for self-hosted blogs the choice shorturl generator to use has become easier for most users.
The wp.me shorturls domain was introduced earlier this year for WordPress.com hosted blogs. As of Release Candidate 1 for WordPress 2.9 the URL shortener is now also available for your self-hosted blogs.
As soon as you have entered a title for a new entry the Get Shortlink button will become visible and give you a WP.me URL for your entry.
There are no stats available for the shorturl itself, but it will be a surprise if this option will not be implemented in the future.
Categories: WordPress News, WordPress Plugins
Tags: plugins, Shorturl, Statistics, WordPress 2.9
by Franky Branckaute on December 14th, 2009
Many people want to publish their blog in different languages or offer translations to their readers. Often a translation plugin is used offering automated translation via Google Translate or Babelfish. But if you speak/write several languages you can use the WPML plugin to publish your blog in several languages, and if you want to have each language on a separate (sub)domain.
The great thing about WPML is the ease to set the plugin up and stat using it, contrarily to other plugins. All you need to do is upload the plugin and fill in the settings.
Configuring WPML
The first settings panel after activating the plugin allows you to set the main language, this is the language an entry will be published in if you do not select an other language for that post. Note that this setting will not change the language of your WordPress admin backend, you still need to localize your WP install for this (more info on localization at the WordPress codex).
When using the basic settings, you now only have to opt what other languages you want to add to your site. Once you have selected the additional languages you only have to decide where you want the widget with the language switcher. If your theme does not use widgets, use <?php do_action('icl_language_selector'); ?> in your theme. You can customize the display/colors of the language selector in the advanced settings.
Now your site is prepared to deal with multi-lingual content. Read More
Categories: WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tutorials
Tags: plugins, WPML
by Franky Branckaute on December 10th, 2009
Matt Mullenweg dropped the bombshell yesterday in IRC: bbPress, the often forgotten forum option, could become a WordPress plugin in the near future.
Anyone who has ever looked at integrating forums with their WordPress blog knows that right at the moment bbPress an underpowered option is. Integrating other forums can be a real headache (Vanilla 2 Beta has a one way integration add-on, from WP to Vanilla) and bridges can break when changes to the database are made with new releases.
The first reaction of several people in IRC and on Twitter was that they prefer bbPress to be a standalone option but possible advantages of bbPress as a plugin largely outweigh here:
- User database integration;
- The possibility of an improved role management system to deal with the roles for integrated boards (extra admins, moderators)
- Site wide plugin interoperability;
- Site wide theme interoperability;
- Easy media upload and the new image editor in WP2.9;
Most of al I liked the possible [bbpress] shortcodes Matt hinted at:
[13:11] <Ryan_> There’s a lot of stuff in WordPress which would automatically become available with no effort if the two were combined.
[13:11] <photomatt_sf> that’s more along the lines of my [bbpress] shortcode idea
[13:11] <hajii> shortcodes for bbpress would be great
[13:11] <photomatt_sf> [bbpress tag="akismet-plugin"]
[13:11] <benhuson> @hajii – Yes, I think being able to benefit from existing wordpress theme would be a huge asset
[13:11] <photomatt_sf> [bbpress forum="newbies"]
The WordPress Shortcode API is very powerful and can be used to eliminate many plugins (related posts, Adsense in posts, send to Twitter, image galleries, image captions to mention only a few) and there is no doubt that this shortcode integration could lead to new possibilities, both for developers/designers and users. It would also be very nice to be able to post to your forum from the regular post page in the dashboard.
For those who prefer bbPress to be used as a standalone option, you could always set your forums as home page while still benefitting all the advantages which come with the WP integration.
One last thought: could it be that Matt’s motivation to convert bbPress to a plugin would make bbPress the first canonical plugin?
Categories: WordPress News, WordPress Plugins
Tags: bbPress, Canonical Plugins
by Karlo Licudine on December 9th, 2009
Want to put a little Christmas touch on your blog to commemorate the upcoming winter holiday? “Let It Snow!” might be the plugin that you’re looking for!
Once installed, your blog will be adorned with falling flakes of snow similar to the one seen on Wordpress.com and its blogs. The falling snowflakes look great as they are rendered realistically and come in different sizes.
It looks even better in action. Check it out here.
The plugin has an options page where you can change the speed and the number of falling flakes that appear on screen. You can have the snow fall lazily across your blog or even simulate a blizzard if you fancy.
As an added visual effect, you can have the snowfall follow the movement of your mouse and have the snow remain on the bottom of your screen. No need to worry about the snow piling up though, as the plugin automatically limits the number of flakes that appear on screen.
“Let it snow!” is compatible up to Wordpress version 2.8.6 (Editor’s note: Also works with most recent 2.9 nightly build and 2.9 Beta2). Created by Aen Tan of COMA blog. You can download this really “cool” plugin by going here.
Categories: WordPress Plugins
Tags: News, plugins, Snow
by Franky Branckaute on December 8th, 2009
The WordPress Core Commit Team ended their meeting after WordCamp Orlando and has announced on the development blog that there will be canonical plugins in the future.
What are ‘canonical plugins’?
The first question which comes to mind is ‘What are canonical plugins?‘. The team has provided the following definition:
Canonical plugins would be plugins that are community developed (multiple developers, not just one person) and address the most popular functionality requests with superlative execution. These plugins would be GPL and live in the WordPress.org repo, and would be developed in close connection with WordPress core. There would be a very strong relationship between core and these plugins that ensured that a) the plugin code would be secure and the best possible example of coding standards, and b) that new versions of WordPress would be tested against these plugins prior to release to ensure compatibility.
Canonical plugins will not be developed by one plugin developer anymore but by the community. They will also have their official web presence on the wordpress.org plugin repository instead of on website of the (original) developer.
What does this mean for several plugin developers? If you have a popular plugin and your plugin contains a ‘Donate’ button, be prepared to ditch this button if you want your plugin to be taken in consideration. This would be the case for example for. Arne Brachold’s Google (XML) Sitemap Generator and Donncha’s WP Super Cache plugin.
How to name ‘canonical plugins’?
The team clearly identified that the term canonical rather niche is and asks the community to vote on how these ’super plugins’ should be categorised/labelled. The entry on the develop blog offers some names for canonical plugins:
Read More
Categories: Opinion, WordPress News, WordPress Plugins
Tags: Canonical Plugins, News, wordpress, WordPress Plugins
by Karlo Licudine on October 25th, 2009
Any of you remember podPress? Yes, I’m talking about the popular podcasting plugin developed by Dan Kuykendall of MightySeek which halted development back in 2007.
PodPress was supposed to have resumed development back in August but two months has already passed and no news about its progress has been revealed at all.
Supporters of the plugin have been trying to contact the author for confirmation but to no avail. Rumors are circulating that podPress might not continue its development but some argue that this is not possible as there are already sponsors backing it.
Whatever the reason for the lack of updates on the plugin, I guess we have no choice but to wait for Dan to reveal any news. I’ll be sure to post updates regarding the progress of podPress here on BloggingPro so be sure to tune in.
Anyone else excited about podPress’ return? Be sure to leave your comments!
Categories: Podcasting News, WordPress Plugins
by Karlo Licudine on October 1st, 2009
Attention all Wordpress Plugin authors! WPMU.org’s annual Wordpress MU and BuddyPress Plugin Contest 2009 is now open!
The contest aims to encourage the creation of plugins for Wordpress MU and BuddyPress. Winners will get the chance to win cash prizes as well as recognition from the WPMU.org community.
The deadline for the competition is October 16. Check out their blog post for more details.
Categories: WordPress Plugins
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