Clearskys.net Blog

Vent - version 0.5

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Wow, that was a rapid rise through version numbers…

I’ve just made Vent version 0.5 available. It fixes a few niggles that made it past me late last night (and earlier today) but is a stable release now.

You can see the current version running on this blog (until WordCamp UK is over anyway), with the Next Event post at the top of the page and the Upcomming Events widget over on the right hand side. To view all of the events running this month you can use this URL : http://blog.clearskys.net/events/thismonth/

If you want to view the hCalendar microformats embedded within the page,I can recommend the Operator Firefox plugin, available from http://www.kaply.com/weblog/operator

The Operator plugin detects any embedded microformats and allows you to add or export them to a calendar application (such as Google or Yahoo).

The Installation instructions and download link for Vent can be found here.

Tags: plugin, vent, wordpress

Vent - version 0.1 released

Update: Now I have more time, I’ll add a few more detail to this post.

Vent is a plugin that allows you to use the scheduled posts functionality within WordPress to add and list events on your blog. It identifies a post as an event using a user-defined criteria so that the standard Scheduled posts functionality will still operate as before.

The plugin works with standard WordPress and can also be installed within WordPress MU for activation across all hosted blogs.

More details and installation, setup instructions can be found on the following page:

http://blog.clearskys.net/plugins/vent-events-system/

Download

Click below to download the latest version of this plugin.

Old Post is below

This is just a short note as I have to shoot out of the door in about 5 minutes.

I have just made available version 0.1 of the Vent system which is my entry into the Weblogtoolscollection.com competition.

More details and a download link can be found here.

Let me know what you think.

Tags: Events, plugin, vent, wordpress

Sponsoring a prize at the Weblog tools collection competition

Update: I may enter after all, so I’ve asked Mark to pull the prize for the time being so their isn’t a conflict of interest. If the plugin idea I have has legs, then I’ll post more details here after the weekend.

As I’m not entering this year, I thought that I would stick my grubby mit in my pocket and at least donate a prize to the Weblogtoolscollection.com Plugin competition.

As I can’t quite match the level of Matt or Automattic, I have decided to take a different approach.

I am offering a 2Gb iPod Shuffle to the plugin with the most intuitive, attractive or well thought-through administration panel or system.

I personally feel that the administration side of a system or plugin is just as (if not more) important as it’s “public” face. It is, after all, what the owner and main user of the blog will see and use day in and out.

Let’s see if it makes anyone come up with some ingenious solutions to an administration interface…

Tags: competition, plugin, prize, weblogtoolscollection, wordpress

Google AJAX Libraries API Plugin

Update: I have updated this plugin to version 0.8- this version has a more extendable listener and also allows the loading of separate scriptaculous libraries.

Earlier this week Google announced their Ajax Libraries API.

The AJAX Libraries API takes the pain out of developing mashups in JavaScript while using a collection of libraries. We take the pain out of hosting the libraries, correctly setting cache headers, staying up to date with the most recent bug fixes, etc.

The Google Ajax Libraries API Plugin (what a mouthfull) is designed to make it easy to use the Google hosted libraries without the need to mess with your theme and plugin code.

When activated, the plugin will “listen” to all of the scripts added (via the WordPress wp_enqueue_script function) to your pages header and automagically switch the locally hosted library to a Google hosted one. Deactivating the plugin will remove the “listener” and your site will return to using the local versions.

WordPress MU administrators should copy the plugin into their MU-Plugins directory for it to be enabled across all of your hosted blogs.

Version 0.8 of this plugin is available for download below.

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Tags: ajax, api, google, jquery, library, plugin, wordpress, wordpress mu

Making the move to PHP5

Following on from this post made late last year, I have decided to move forward with PHP5 based development where it is appropriate.

This doesn’t mean that all future versions of our plugins will require PHP5, but if a particular bit of functionality can be developed quicker using PHP5 only code, then that will be the way I will approach it.

Also, whilst I am on the subject of backward compatibility, as WordPress 2.5 brings with it a brand new design to the administration system, I will also be working to this design for the plugin administration pages (though for the time-being I’m stuck because WordPress MU still has the old look).

So far only the development versions of the Property plugin and MyDashboard 0.5 are PHP5 only

Tags: development, php5, plugin, wordpress

Plugin refactoring

Beginning today (well in a bit, I’m on a quick coffee break) I will be performing a complete audit on all of our property related plugin code (enquiries, bookings and property manager) and also moving everything from Google Code across to it’s new home at Assembla.

Since starting developing these plugins, I have increased their scope and functionality to the point, now, where they have started to overlap in more and more complex ways (development versions). Whilst this is fine, to a point, for a single person to maintain, I have increasingly found myself spending longer trying to work out where a particular bit of functionality should belong. So I dread to think what trouble there will be with more than one person to maintain the code base.

What does this mean?

As I don’t currently know of anyone who downloads the plugins using SVN, it will mean very little to everyone out there. Downloads of the existing versions will still function as before. The code held in the Google code SVN will be frozen as of today.

For myself, and the new team, it provides us with a lot of new toys such as an integrated Trac system, ticketing and project management. Which will, hopefully, mean the new development will move forward quicker and in a more structured fashion than my current “code when I have time” development method.

More announcements coming soon.

Tags: google code, plugin, property, svn, trac, wordpress

Author Message Plugin 0.1

I am pleased to announce the initial release of the Author Message plugin.

This plugin allows you to quickly and easily add an image and a short message or bio for the author of a post/page to the bottom of the post, without the need to modify your theme templates or stylesheet. It would be ideal for use on a multi-author blog with a Newspaper / Magazine style layout. Or, in fact, anywhere you would want to display a little bit of information about the author underneath their article.

The default style looks a little bit like the image below (and a lot like the message at the bottom of this post), though it is easily customisable in both look and layout from within the plugins options page.

Author Message uses the Gravatar system to display the author image based on the email address in their WordPress profile page and the About Yourself text as the message.

More details on this plugin and installation instructions can be found on this page. You can download the plugin using the link below.

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Tags: author, gravatar, message, plugin, profile, wordpress

Support is back online

I’ve finally got around to catching up on all the posts on the Support forum, so if anyone posted without a response there will either be an answer waiting for you or a request for more information.

Can I also kindly request that any errors or bugs you find in our software is reported directly into the Forum rather than as a comment on this blog. This will hopefully make the finding and direct answering of problems easier. You can also request an email update when an answer is made to your discussion by clicking on the “Subscribe to Discussion” link on the right hand side of the forum.

Tags: discussion, forum, plugin, support

My favourite functions - onpage

Being the generous and kind-hearted person that I am, I thought that I would share some of the little tips, tricks and functions that I use or have found useful whilst developing WordPress plugins.

Most of these functions or code snippets have made it into a number of my sites or plugins - a few of them are even in the core library I include with all my projects now. That doesn’t mean, however, that they are completely error free or of any use to anyone other than me.

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Tags: favourite, functions, onpage, plugin, wordpress

How to make a more stylish search widget

An effective search facility is the most important functionality for a website. Whilst WordPress performs the nitty-gritty of searching very well, I have always felt that the default search widget is very basic in both looks and functionality.

This tutorial will take you through the steps required to create a more stylish search widget for your blog and maybe teach you a few little tricks along the way. It is written as a very basic tutorial so the more experienced amongst you may find the going a little slow. If you aren’t interested in the tutorial and just want the plugin, then just scroll down to the bottom of the page to grab the completed code.

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Tags: advanced, plugin, search, wordpress