Take for example the nice little number displayed on the Plugins menu item when some of your installed plugins are out of date. What a nice little feature. There is also an update display on the actual Plugins page the little yellow-ish box below a plugin row to indicate there is an update and the user needs to take action. From a usability stand point I think this sort of forward thinking is the reason I keep hacking in WordPress instead of other CMS-type systems like Drupal, Joomla, eZ Publish, etc.

But I do have a major annoyance with this ‘feature’. Like many other WordPress users I have man plugins installed. At any given time I will have a third of the plugins disabled maybe because I was testing things or maybe I deactivated the plugin but didn’t want to uninstall it. My annoyance is that the plugin update indicators work on all plugins even those you don’t have active. Not good. Worse on the client sites I support I really don’t want the client to need to worry about updating inactive plugins.

Sure I know there are at least half a dozen plugins that will completely turn off the plugin and WordPress core update nag indicators. But I really don’t want that. I just don’t want to see update nag on those plugins I’m not currently using.

So I did some research on this lazy Sunday afternoon and figured out how to hide the update indicator on those inactive plugins. The code below will hide these inactive plugin from the update counter. When the plugin is re-activated the plugin update indicator will once again show in the sidebar menu and on the plugins listing.

The Code

A note on the ‘add_filter’ lines just above. Seems there are two different hooks depending your the WordPress version. If you are running version 2.8.x or newer you should be safe to use the first add_filter line. If however you are still using 2.7.x then comment out the first add_filter an use the second one.

Installation

I really don’t plan to turn this into an official plugin for WordPress. So the simplest method of installation is to add it to your theme’s functions.php file.

1. Added a new tab to the Media Upload popup box. Anyone familiar with WordPress Post or Page entry is familiar with the popup provided to upload images and other media files. In this popup if you wanted to search for items using the handy Media Tags it was not possible. Now the user is provided with a new Tab labelled ‘Media Tags’. When the tab is clicked the user is presented with a listing of all Media Tags used on the site. Along with the Media Tag name there is a use could in the far right of the listing. This count if greater than zero is a link and will filter the Media Library (another Tab) listing for items from that Media Tags group.

   Below is a screenshot of the new popup tab.

   

   Media-Tags New Upload popup tab

2. More control over the permalink prefix. The Media Tags plugin works with the WordPress Permalink rewrite system to provide ‘pretty’ URLs for the archive. For example if you have some media loaded and tagged on your site for say ‘Texas’. The you can display these items in an archive type listing by using the URL http://www.mysite.com/media-tags/texas/ This format should be familiar to most users of WordPress since Categories and Tags or handled in much the same way. This feature was added in Media Tags version 2.0 and has received much acclaim from the users. The problem is the prefix ‘/media-tags/’ was hard-coded into the plugin. I have a few users request a way to alter this prefix. Other than suggesting they edit the config file for the plugin there was not a good solution.

   So I starting thinking I would just build my own admin page where the user can set this permalink prefix. But I hated having to build a new admin page just for the one setting. Well over the weekend I found the solution of solutions. Why not just add my own field to the WordPress Settings -> Permalink page. This turned out to be quite easy using the new Settings API introduced into WordPress 2.7.

   Below is a screenshot of the new Media Tags Permalink option. The new field just below the standard Category and Tags fields.

   

   Media-Tag Permalink Slug Prefix

3. Playing nice with other plugins. I’ve used the Google Sitemap XML plugin for quite some time and generally install it by default onto any client site I’ve worked on. This is one of those plus plus plugins that can only help your site. Recently I had to figure out a way to include non-WordPress pages into the XML sitemap output. This is actually very easy to do as the plugin authors have provide a nice hook to allow this.

   So my next enhancement to the Media-Tags plugin was to include the Media Tag archives into the Google Sitemaps XML output. This feature is quite powerful since it just adds juice to Google content harvesting. Not wanting to hard-coded this feature into the plugin I ended up building that admin interface I mentioned in the previous point. There is only one option on the page (more to come soon). A simple Yes/No box to include/exclude the Media Tags archive from the Sitemap XML output. I assume most people will wan this but also know there is always the possibility some may now.

   Below is a screenshot of the new Media-Tag admin interface. Look for this under the standard WordPress Settings section.

   

   Media-Tags Admin Page

4. Along with the above mentioned new features I also cleaned up some code related issues. Most of these are under the covers cosmetic items and not related to any screen changes.

Media Tags Future Enhancements

Still on my list of features to add in some upcoming release is Media-Tags Cloud. This is still one of the most requested options for the sidebar. Still working on that code. Trying to follow some of the code written for the built-in WordPress Tags. pretty ugly stuff. Has to be a better way.

Other than the Media Tags Cloud I don’t have any big changes planned for the plugin. Then again the three features mentioned in this post were not planned at all. Just something that hit me on Friday that I started working toward.

So if there is a feature you just think would make the Media-Tags plugin rock for your blog please consider leaving a comment below.

Donations

If you enjoy using the Media Tags plugin or any of my other WordPress plugins, please consider making a donation to show your support. Anything is appreciated. Thanks.

Many theme developer who rely on JS for different effects simple place the link into the template header.php. Something like this:

While this does accomplish the goal of loading the JS library it also increases the chances of a second instance of the library also being loaded. Thus bloating your site.

A better option in my opinion is to add a little code to the themes functions.php file. The theme file functions.php is standard in most WordPress themes and is considered the best place to place common code that is needed by the theme. The functions.php file is automatically loaded by WordPress.

Note we are hooking into the WordPress ‘init’ logic. We must setup the JS loading early. Some time later WordPress will load the theme. If the theme header used the theme function ‘wp_head()’ then our JS library will automatically be included. The ‘wp_head()’ function allows plugin author to insert needed JS and CSS files dynamically. Using this hook we are doing the same thing for our theme. No more hard coding the JS file link.

So how is this really “Better”?

The biggest benefit is we are preventing multiple copied of the same JS library from being loaded by WordPress or plugins. If we did hard code the JS link for jQuery and we also installed some plugin like cforms which used the jQuery library then it will load it’s own copy. By using the ‘wp_enqueue_script()’ function we are letting WordPress know we need jQuery loaded. When the plugin is loaded it will also tell WordPress is needs to load jQuery. As a result WordPress can track what JS files need to be inserted via the ‘wp_header()’ function.

For more information on the ‘wp_enqueue_script()’ function check the WordPress Codex
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_script

Some highlighted features in the new Media-Tags 2.0 release:

Media tags storage now using WordPress Taxonomy

In previous versions of the Media-Tags plugin the tag information was stored into the postmeta table. While this worked well it meant the tag information was only accessible in relationship to the post parent. The Media-Tags 2.0 version now uses the built-in WordPress Taxonomy system. Using this system greatly increases the flexibility of the media tag data. Using the standard WordPress functions get_terms() for example to directly query media tag information.

Permalinks Support

Because the media tags plugin now uses the WordPress Taxonomy system you can now access attachments archives via the new permalink tag ‘/media-tags/’. This is very powerful and one of the most requested features since the plugins initial release. An example of a media tag archive is something similar to

http://www.yoursite.com/media-tags/<media tag name>

where ‘<media tag name>’ is one media tag name from your site.

Media Tags Archive

Along the same lines as the new permalink structure you can now also use archive template files specific for media tags. By default WordPress will use the template file ‘archive.php’ if part of your theme. While this works fine you may also want to have a template file specific for displaying media tags archive. Introducing the ‘mediatags.php’ template file. The mediatags.php template is looks and functions much like a normal archive.php file complete with the header, footer, sidebar options as well as the standard WordPress loop. Actually my recommendation is to copy the existing archive.php to mediatags.php to start. Then add needed code to finish out the template file. Also you may define tag specific template files. Lets assume you have many media tags in your system. But one media tag, ‘bulk’, for example you want displayed a certain way. You can define a tag specific template file like ‘mediatags-23.php’ where ‘23 is the ID of that media tag. Please not the template file when used will display attachments not the parent post. In WordPress all uploaded media is part of a parent/child association. Unlike the normal post related template the media tag template display the actual media files.

Media-Tags Management interface

In version 2.0 of the Media-Tags plugin I’ve included a new management screen. When the plugin is activated you will see a new menu options ‘Media-Tags’ located under the top-level Media section. This management screen lets you add, delete, update media tags in your system. The interface should seem very familiar to user who use the WordPress Categories and Tags management screens.

Template functions

Also included as part of the plugin rewrite are some handy template tags to use via your theme. Below are a list of the template functions available. These are located in the plugin file mediatags_template_functions.php. All these functions should seem very familiar since they were modeled after the built-in WordPress tags template functions.

• is_mediatag() – Tests is we are displaying a media-tags archive. Much like is_category() function
• in_mediatag() – Tests is an attachment post marked in a certain mediatag_id.
• get_mediatags()
• list_mediatags() – Very handy for listing your media tags like list_tags() in the sidebar.php
• get_mediatag_link() – Given a mediatag_id this functon will return a link href value.
• the_mediatags() – Very much like the post-level the_tags() to display a comma separated list of tags for a given post item. Used then displaying media tags archives.

The original plugin function mediatags->get_media_by_tag(…) has now been replaced with a more simple non-object based template function get_attachments_by_media_tags(…). The original function has been deprecated and will be removed in future releases.

More options for Media-Tag Queries

The new Media Tags access function, get_attachments_by_media_tags(…), now supports many more parameters to let you filter the returned information better.

• media_tags: (Required) This is a comma separated list of tags you want to filter on.
• media_types: (Optional) This is a comma separated list of media types – gif, pdf, png to return
• post_parent: (Optional) This is the post ID of the related media items. This item is no longer required. This allows you to query media_tag items across all posts
• numberposts: (Optional) Default is all. Allows control over the number of items returned.
• orderby: (Optional) Default menu_order. See get_posts() for full list of options
• order: (Optional) Default ‘DESC’. Controls the order of items. Other option is ‘ASC’.
• offset: (Offset) Default is 0. Allows control over the subset of items returned.
• return_type: (Optional) Defaults to Array. Other option is ‘li’. In the case of shortcodes the return type is ‘li’ by default. When using the ‘li’ return type each element is given a class of ‘media_tag_list’ and an id of ‘media-tag-item-xxxx’ where ‘xxx’ is the attachment id.
• tags_compare: (Optional) Defaults to ‘OR’. When requesting multiple media_tags elements allow a compare between the lists of items returned. When using the ‘OR’ option returned item will be in one or more of the requested media_tags values. Other value is ‘AND’. When using ‘AND’ you are requesting only attachments which are in all requested media_tags.

Shorcode support

The media tags plugin now support the use of shortcodes. In its simplest form the media tag shortcode appears like

[media-tags media_tags="alt-views,page-full,thumb"]

Note you need to include quotes around the element value to ensure proper handling. The shortcode parameters available are pretty close to the direct function call. The exception is you need to specify the parameter name and value pairs.

[media-tags media_tags="alt-views,page-full,thumb" tags_compare="AND" orderby="menu_order"]

When using the shortcode option the return type is automatically set the ‘li’ which means list elements will be returned. When using shortcodes you can specific two parameters ‘before_list=’ and ‘after_list=’ to control the wrapper elements. Also, you can specify a new parameter ‘display_item_callback=’. This parameter will be a user defined function which allows you to control the output. The callback function will be called for each found element. Check the plugin file ‘mediatags_shortcodes.php’. There is a function used ‘default_item_callback()’ which is the default callback actually used by the plugin. Remember when using shortcodes in WordPress you MUST return every output. Do not echo information.

Lastly, when using the shortcode feature you may have a time when you need to specify the post_parent for the media_tags queried. Now you could add the post_parent ID directly to the shortcode settings. But then you would be hard-coding the ID for the given post. A better way is to just set the post_parent value to ‘this’. This will allow dynamic control over the shortcode processing.

[media-tags media_tags="alt-views,page-full,thumb" post_parent="this" before_list="<ul class='frank'>" after_list="</ul>"]

Download

As is customary the only place you should ever download released plugins is via the WordPress official plugin repository.
Download the new Media-Tags 2.0 plugin

For anyone downloading this beta please be aware this is a beta version and subject to change in the near future. Also since this is a beta it is recommended NOT to use this on a production system. User beware! If you do download the plugin and test if please using the comment form below to mention any issue you have with the new plugin. I can only test thing to a certain level with my own client sites.

This new beta has been tested on WordPress versions 2.7.1 and 2.8 only! At this time I’ve not tested the new Media-Tags Management interface on any lower version of WordPress.

Some highlighted features:

1. Moved the media tag storage to the WordPress Taxonomy system. The original version of the plugin used the WordPress media_meta data structure to store the comma separated list of Media Tags. The media_meta information is associated with the actual attachment. The problem is in order to access this information you need to have the post parent key. Since the serialized media_meta information is stored in such a way the search for items based on media tag value was mainly impossible. By using the built-in WordPress Taxonomy system queries against the media-tags is now much more flexible. When upgrading from a previous version of the media-tags plugin please deactivate then activate the plugin. During this activation step the existing media-tags are converted into the new Taxonomy. Note the old media tags are not removed from the postmeta table. This is in case something goes wrong and you need to downgrade the plugin.
2. New Media Tags Management interface. Because the storage of the media tags is now more integrated with the WordPress core Taxonomy system the next logic development step was to provide an interface where users could manage the media tags. I give you the Media Tags Management panel. When the plugin is activated there is a new menu option added to the Media section sub-menu.
3. New media-tags URL rewrite functionality. Again as a benefit of using the WordPress Taxonomy system I’ve setup a new /media-tags/ rewrite functionality. This means you can do something like http://www.somesite.com/media-tags/tagname. Or if the site is not using permalinks the URL will appears something like this http://www.somesite.com/?media-tag=tagname. This functionality is automatic.
4. Media-Tag templates. Now in your theme you can define a template file ‘mediatag.php’ to be called when displaying a media-tag archive. This works much like the WordPress category.php template. You can also define a media tag specific template file like mediatag-xx.php when ‘xx’ is the media tag term id
5. Replace legacy template function. In the original version of the media-tags plugin I provided the single hook into the plugin, get_media_by_tag(). This function is still supported. I’ve also added a new template function, get_attachments_by_media_tags().

   This new function accepts any more parameters like:

   • media_tags – comma seperated list of media_tag values.
   • media_types – comma seperated list of media_types values.
   • post_parent – This is now an optional parameter and will limit the selection of attachments to those from the post_parent Id. Possible future enhancement to this will be allowing a comma separated list of post ids.
   • numberposts, orderby, order offset – Standard list of WordPress options. See the get_posts() template function for details.
   • return_type
   • tags_compare – Possible values are: ‘OR’ (default) or ‘AND’. Used only when requests with more than one media_tag value. With the ‘OR’ option you want attachments associated with either media_tag. With ‘AND’ you want only attachments associate with both.
   • display_item_callback – This is a user defined callback function. If provided it let’s you control the display of the individual attachment item. This is handy for example when using the shortcode feature. More on shortcodes below.
6. Shortcodes for drop into content easy of use. This is a little something extra and requested by many as the need to have feature in the next version of the plugins. Quite simply I added the new shortcode ability to the plugin. How do you use it? Simply add the shortcode code [media-tags] to your page content. Just as with the new template function, get_attachments_by_media_tags() it can take many parameters like the following which will filter the display.
   [media-tags media_tags="alt-views,page-full,thumb" tags_compare="AND" orderby="menu_order" display_item_callback="some_function"]

   When using shortcode the return type will always be an unordered list. you will need to supply the <ul></ul> or <ol></ol> elements before and after the shortcode call. My reasoning here is to allow the user the ability to ID or CLASS the top-level list wrapper as needed. But I’m torn. Thoughts?

   Notice the last parameter ‘display_item_callback’. This is a user defined function that will be called for each element of the returned list. It is important to note that per the WordPress use of shortcodes the user defined function needs to return the value not echo it from within the function. I’ve provided an example of a callback function in the file mediatags_shortcode.php. This default function is actually used by the plugin when displaying shortcode items.

7. Event more template functions. In addition to the new get_attachments_by_media_tags() function I’ve also added a number of other template functions to be used in your theme.
   • is_mediatag() – Simpler to the WordPress is_category() or is_tag() template functions. If you are viewing a media-tags archive this will return true.
   • in_mediatag() – Similar to the WordPress in_category() function. Pass in a media-tag term id to check. If matching will return true.
   • mediatags_get_list() – Similar to the wp_list_categories() function will list all media-tags. Nice for the sidebar.
   • mediatags_get_link() – Pass in a media-tag term id and the link for that media-tag will be returned.
8. media-tag tag cloud. This is still under development and probably will not make it into the initial 2.0 release. This is to be template function and/or widget that will display the weighted media-tags used in your site.

Download media-tags 2.0 Beta A now!
Media-tags plugin version 2.0 Beta A

The “long” scooter is quite impressive. There is a seat in the front for steering and another one in the back for…riding. If I had the parts I would add another steering section in the rear sort of like the Fire Engine Ladder trucks. Might make it easier to round a normal street corner.

Have a look at the video below or view from the original page on LiveLeak.com

Also, if you’re a scooter owner and living in the general Austin area don’t forget to register for the First Full of Scooters Rally coming up May 1st.

What really pisses me off about this ‘measure’ is the uselessness of it all. This is just another of a long line or changes to the state laws to protect the citizens from themselves. It’s no wonder the national economy is in the shitter these days. Instead of the State and National lawmaker focusing on long-term goals to make out country stronger, they spent their time and good taxpayer money writing up crap like this.

Note: This post remains available to discuss the original 1.0 version of the Media Tags plugin. As of July 15 2009 version 2.0 of the Media Tags plugins has been released. Please refer to the update post http://www.codehooligans.com/2009/07/15/media-tags-20-released/ for information on changes to the use of the plugin.

Working on a client project recently I needed to extract 2 attachments uploaded from a post and display these along with the post title into the sidebar on another page. I’ve done this a few times before and always sad to say a little different. Probably the best solution is to name the ’special’ attachments using some defined naming convention like image_sidebar_1.jpg, image_sidebar_2.jpg, image_sidebar_x.jpg. This works but can get ugly if you even want the client to follow your instructions on the naming conventions.

I’ve figured out a better way. With my latest plugin you can now add tags to your media attachments. I write ‘media’ because this does not just apply to images. You can tag Word document, PDF documents basically anything you upload via the standard WordPress Media upload tool.

Here are some screenshots:

Usage

So now you can tag you media files. But how do you actually use the tags? How to you actually access attachments that have ‘x’ tag? Excellent question. And your answer is below.

As part of the plugin I also wrote a function to be used in your template. To follow the example I started this article with I need to display 2 of the 5 uploaded images in the sidebar. My first step was to upload the images and tag the two special images with ’sidebar’.

Now I use the function get_media_by_tag(). I pass the tag I want to access, in this case ’sidebar’ and the ID of the post parent. What is returned is an array of attachment items. This array is similar in fact to the return object when calling the WordPress get_posts which is partly what the function does.

Download the Media-Tags plugin via the WordPress.org plugin repository

Future plans

I’ve already starting thinking of some enhancements for the plugin. Which include a tag management screen and other utility functions. If you have any other needs post them here in the comments.