Wordpress plugins - Rebelic

Dropping support for older versions

Timan Rebel — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:44:46 +0000

I was reading an article by OZH about ‘Top 10 Most Common Coding Mistakes in WordPress Plugins‘ and besides that I’m doing some stuff terribly wrong, I also stumbled upon the follow paragraph:

Compatibility maintained with deprecated versions of WordPress

I’ve seen code comments mentioning stuff like “// we’re doing this for people using WP 2.5″. This one is more a personal choice, but I think maintaining compatibility with older versions is a terrible idea.

Terrible for you: fixing bugs and implementing new features is quite a task already, don’t add to the burden with more deprecated code.

Terrible for the users: it’s nice that your plugin is going to run fine on their obsolete, insecure and already hacked blog, but it really does not motivate them to upgrade, which is vital.

I know I’ve dropped backward compat with my plugins a long time ago, and always code for the latest release available. It makes life so much easier :)

I totally agree that it is a big mistake running an outdated blog and will drop support for all older versions of Wordpress immediately. Sorry folks running version 2.5, please upload the latest version and do the upgrade! Or let me do it for you ;)

Plug into a smarter web with f»dforward

Timan Rebel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:40:37 +0000

f»dforward is a widget based recommendation network that increases readership of blogs by more interested and relevant readers. f»dforward lets you connect with new blogs based on similar content and incorporates social elements like the “follow me” tools of Twitter, where they will follow content around the web instead of following conversations. f»dforward lets you grow your own blog network in a natural way by bringing you related and recommended articles connected to what you just published. f»dforward lets the blogger see who has been reading and makes recommendations visible and viral for their readers. In addition, f»dforward can help publishers improve reach and revenue through the analysis of what people are reading on and off their sites, which helps publishers like Het Parool and ILSE Media to create better content and make better connections with it.

More information about f»dforward can be found on getfeedforward.com.

Of course there is also a Wordpress plugin available to ease the integration. See the f»dforward recommendation network page for more info about the plugin.

Use Prezi presentations in your posts or pages

Timan Rebel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:37:47 +0000

Prezi offers a new way of using presentation software. Prezi presentations are slide-less and make use of moving and zooming into an infinate workspace. Unfortunatly they are a bit hard to embed. You could of course use an iframe tag, but everytime you edit your post or page, that iframe tag gets filtered out.

So I’ve written a small plugin to embed Prezi into your posts and pages. Just put [ prezi] and [ /prezi] (without the spaces) around your Prezi URL and your done! The plugin also adds a custom button to the Visual Editor so you don’t have to remember these codes and just insert your URL.

More info is available on the Prezi Shortcude plugin page.

Wordpress flavor: buddypress, Wordpress MU, Wordpress plugins

Achieve higher registration rates on your blog with RPX

Timan Rebel — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:02:30 +0000

JanRain RPX is a hosted service that makes it simple to enable OpenID (Google, MySpace, MS Live, Yahoo!, AOL, ….) , Facebook Connect and even Twitter Connect on your blog. Visitors don’t have to register on your blog and remember another username and password, but are still able to use all the features on your blog. At the same time, you as the blog owner receive valuable information about your users. Profile information, email addresses, avatars and even friends lists can be passed on to your blog when someone logs in through RPX.

RPX offers a single API and works as a proxy between your website and the identity providers, and is transparent to the end user. Adding RPX to your website doesn’t require any changes to your database and is the ideal solution for Wordpress. With their Wordpress plugin it’s really just plug and play.

Why RPX?

Because there are several protocols in use by different Identity Providers. OpenID is not compatible with Facebook Connect (proprietary protocol) and Twitter Connect (OAuth) for example. Besides the differences in protocols for identifying, there are also different protocols for the retreival of profile data, media and friends. The Open Stack way with OpenID, Oauth and PortableContacts is just one way to achieve this. Facebook Connect is another, but there are even more protocols out there.

That’s why most websites and blogs choose one of those protocols and stick with it. Only some provide them all. RPX takes away the hurdle of implementing all the different protocols and makes sure that if one of the providers implements something new, you don’t have to. You have access to all current and future Identity Providers through a single Restful API.

Besides offering an API, JanRain also created RPX libraries for all common programming languages and are offering a plugin for Wordpress. Install the plugin, select which Identity Providers you want to accept and you are ready to go. The free version offers you login and 6 providers, the paid versions are offering profile data, avatar, email address and contact list import. The Pro version offers synchronisation, so your userbase is always up to date even when your users don’t login. The pro version gives you also the option to post status updates to Twitter and Facebook.

If you want to provide remote login on your website through Twitter, Facebook or OpenID, you should really take a look at RPX. Not convinced? Take a test run by logging in below and leaving a comment ;-)

Plugin: rpx
Wordpress flavor: buddypress, Wordpress MU, Wordpress plugins

Twitter your new posts with Twitter Publisher

Timan Rebel — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:44:21 +0000

With the Twitter Publisher plugin you can send automated tweets out when you publish a new post. It will add Google Campaign variables to the URL using the new URL shortener Awe.sm or Bit.ly. For larger blogs, with multiple authors, you can include the author’s Twitter name in the tweet and individual author’s can send Tweets from their account at the same time the main account is sending them.

You can download the plugin at Wordpress.org.

Plugin: Twitter Publisher
Wordpress flavor: Wordpress MU, Wordpress plugins

Add Google Campaign variables to your RSS feeds

Timan Rebel — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:39:17 +0000

Always wanted to know where your traffic really came from? Did it come from Twitter? Or maybe from your RSS feeds? It’s now possible to track your incoming traffic with Google Analytics by using one of my plugins.

Add Google Campaign variables to your RSS feeds with my RSSLinktagger plugin.

Plugin: RSS Link Tagger
Wordpress flavor: Wordpress MU, Wordpress plugins

New version of Tweetburner twitter-tools available (v0.4)

Timan Rebel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:16:18 +0000

I’ve just created a new version of the modified Twitter-tools plugin (originally made by Alex King). The two changes are; the removal of the update notification (which will upgrade the plugin to the newest version of Twitter-tools instead of my modified version) and the option to include utm query parameters, used by Google Analytics to track non-adwords advertising campaigns. Besides clicks measured by Tweetburner, you can now also use Google Analytics to tracks visitors coming from Twitter. (This will work for Tweetburner and Tinyurl).

Enjoy! You can find the updated version here.

For more information about this plugin, please visit my Tweetburner.com plugin page.

Wordpress plugin for tweeting posts to Twitter with Tweetburner.com

Timan Rebel — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:50:41 +0000

(Op zoek naar de Nederlandse versie van dit artikel?)

This plugin is a modified version of the Twitter-tools plugin, written by Alex King. Twitter Tools is a plugin that creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. One of those features is tweeting you’re blogposts to Twitter. The URL’s of your blog posts are translated to TinyURL’s by Twitter, to stay within 140 characters. This modified plugin uses Tweetburner.com to shorten the URL’s.

Tweetburner.com?

Tweetburner.com lets you track what happens with the links you share on Twitter, and shortens it on the way too. For example http://trebel.nl/blog/2008/03/28/wordpress-plugin-voor-tweetburnercom/is translated into http://twurl.nl/ybetg8 and they offer personal statistics for tracking the clicks and shares of your ‘twurls’.

Further features Twitter-tools

Besides tweeting your blog post, Twitter Tools also offers:

Archive your Twitter tweets (downloaded every 15 minutes)
Create a blog post from each of your tweets
Create a daily digest post of your tweets
Create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post
Post a tweet from your sidebar
Post a tweet from the WP Admin screens
Pass your tweets along to another service (via API hook)

Installation

Download the plugin archive and expand it.
Put the file into your wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Go to the Plugins page in your WordPress Administration area and click ‘Activate’ for Twitter Tools.
Go to the Twitter Tools Options page (Options > Twitter Tools) to set your Twitter account information and preferences.

For more information about installing and configuring the Twitter Tools plugin, please visit their site

Download plugin v0.3 (beta)

New features

In a short while, I will be developing my own version of a ‘Tweeting to Twitter by using Tweetburner’ plugin. A couple of intended features are:

A Twitter account per author, instead of one twitter account for your installation
En-/Disable tweeting per category
Importing Tweetburner statistic’s (Tweetburner is thinking of integrating this into their API)

If there is anything missing that you would like to see in a new version of my plugin, please let me know by leaving a comment!

Wordpress plugin voor Twitter/Tweetburner.com (zonder curl)

Timan Rebel — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:10:18 +0000

(Looking for the English version of this article?)

In de originele versie van mijn gemodificeerde twitter-tools plugin was het nog noodzakelijk om CURL geinstalleerd te hebben staan. Op verzoek van de jongens van Tweetburner, die de plugin zelf ook gebruiken, heb ik de plugin aangepast om gebruik te laten maken van de functionaliteiten die Wordpress zelf biedt om verbinding te maken met API’s en is er geen afhankelijkheid meer van CURL.

Wat doet de plugin

De plugin is een aangepaste versie van Twitter-Tools. Twitter-tools zorgt voor een volledige integratie van je Wordpress blog en je Twitter account. Eén van de features is het aankondigen van een nieuwe blogpost op Twitter (voorbeeld). URL’s die worden meegegeven worden door Twitter zelf omgezet naar TinyURL’s, om binnen de 140 tekens te blijven. Mijn aangepaste plugin gebruikt Tweetburner.com voor het inkorten van deze URL’s

Tweetburner.com?

Tweetburner.com biedt, net als vele andere, een URL inkortdienst aan. Van http://trebel.nl/blog/2008/03/28/wordpress-plugin-voor-tweetburnercom/ maken ze http://twurl.nl/ybetg8, wat erg handig is in bijvoorbeeld Twitter, waar je maar 140 characters tot je beschikking hebt. Tweetburner.com doet echter meer; ze bieden ook persoonlijke statistieken aan over wat er met jouw ‘twurl’ gebeurt. Het is namelijk veel leuker als je ook weet hoe vaak er bijvoorbeeld wordt geklikt op een URL die jij post in Twitter, of welke URL’s wel worden bekeken en welke niet.

Verdere features Twitter-tools

De website van twitter tools is niet geheel duidelijk in wat er allemaal mogelijk is met de plugin. Daarom een korte opsomming:

Kondig nieuwe blogposts aan op Twitter
Toon geplaatste Tweets op je weblog, dmv Sidebar widget
Archiveer je Tweets (worden elke 15 minuten gedownload)
Creëer een blogpost van elke Tweet die je op Twitter post
Creëer een dagelijkse digest van de Tweet die je op die dag hebt gepost
Plaats een Tweet vanuit je sidebar of Wordpress admin
Plaats Tweets door naar andere services (dmv een API-hook)

De term “volledige integratie” is dus niet ver van de waarheid. Maar volgens mij gebruiken de meesten hem, net als ik, ‘gewoon’ om nieuwe blogposts kenbaar te maken op Twitter.

Downloaden

De plugin is te downloaden op onderstaande locatie. Plaats het bestand in de zip file in de wp-content/plugins directory van je Wordpress installatie en activeer hem via het Plugins menu. Via de Settings pagina is er vervolgens een en ander in te stellen.

Download plugin v0.3 (beta)
Disclaimer: Gebruik op eigen risico, bla bla bla.

Wordpress plugin voor Tweetburner.com

Timan Rebel — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:03:06 +0000

Sommigen van jullie hebben mij vanmiddag al zien testen en vroegen al wanneer de Tweetburner.com plugin te download zou zijn. Wel, bij deze! Hij is nog erg beta, dat wil zeggen; hij werkt op mijn Wordpress 2.3 installatie, maar geen idee of hij bij jullie ook werkt.

Voor de mensen die nog niet weten wat Tweetburner.com is: “[They] allow you to keep track of what happens to the links in tweets shared with you, by you, by your friends and every other twitterer.” Voor de mensen die tinyurl.com al wel kennen; het is vergelijkbaar, maar dan beter ;)

De plugin is een aangepaste versie van de Twitter-plugin Twitter-tools, met 2 extra’s: Je kunt vanuit het menu kiezen voor Tinyurl.com of Tweetburner.com en je kunt de prefix van de tweet aanpassen. (Zelf vind ik ‘New blog post: ‘ niet zo mooi). Oh voorlopig is het trouwens ook nog verplicht om CURL geinstalleerd te hebben op je server, dit moet ik ook nog even aanpassen, zodat hij gebruikt gaat maken van Snoopy (wat Wordpress ook gebruikt voor het verbinden naar API’s).

De aankomende tijd zal er nog wel eea veranderen en zal deze changes ook doorgeven aan Alex King, misschien stopt hij hem dan wel in de officiele release. Voor de rest is deze plugin eigenlijk veel te uitgebreid voor waarvoor de meeste hem gebruiken: Nieuwe blog posts op Twitter announcen en zal ik binnenkort nog eens kijken naar een kleine simpele plugin die enkel de aankondigingen naar Twitter verstuurd en niets meer.

Maar voor nu, veel plezier! Tips, bugs en opmerkingen zijn altijd welkom.

Download plugin (beta):

Handleiding: downloaden en plaatsen in de wp-content/plugins directory en daarna via Plugins menu activeren.