Archive for the ‘Function’ Category

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WordPress Database Extension

February 9th, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function
Extending the WordPress database is the first step in developing my menu bar.

In most WordPress extensions, a lot of data is hidden in the code.

The massive advantage of Pods is that we can easily store additional data, and manage it very efficiently.

In the first installment of this series, I introduced shrewdBar, explaining it was based on a WordPress plugin that creates a menu by outputting data in the form of a CSS LIst driven menu. This type of menu is quite common – you style a nested list to have hidden items that reveal themselves when the mouse hovers over them. The added attraction of this type of menu is that without the styling, you simply have a nested list of items that search engines can follow.

The CSS issues are for another time. What I need you to realize is that these menus are usually built in code, with a lot of hard-coded links. True, the original menubar, DashBar, on which shrewdBar is roughly based, does have some items that are extracted from WordPress database tables. In my first version of the menu bar, I extended this to extract messages and topics from the Simple:Press forum.

Pods allowed me to put all the menu items into WordPress database tables, and I explain in this article, how I achieved this.

shrewdBar Database

In its current release, I have limited the menu to two tiers, so we have a Pod for the top tier, that you see across the top of the page. Optionally, each of these top level records can have a variable number of child items.

The schematic is:

shrewdies_bar    link    shrewdies_bar_item
name (txt) name (txt)
slug (slug) slug (slug)
bartext (txt) itemtext (txt)
bartitle (txt) itemtitle (txt)
barurl (txt) itemurl (txt)
baritems (pick shrewdies_bar_item)  ¹——∞ itembar (pick shrewdies_bar)
bardisplay (code)
barhold (bool)

Pods automatically creates the name and slug fields when we create a new pod. name identifies the record, and I also use it as a sort order. slug is very useful in many Pods packages, and I’ll cover it in depth later, but it is not really required in the current version of shrewdBar.

The text, title and url fields are the menu links that are used to navigate to different pages. The pick fields are used to relate tables – in this case a one to many relationship.

The top level menu records have two additional fields. The boolean hold field allows menu items to be temporarily hidden, without deleting the record. This is not required for second level items, as it is a simple click to break or make the relationship to a top level menu. The display field allows us to enter PHP code which can programatically control the display giving us very powerful dynamic menus. I’ll be discussing this at length in the next installment.

shrewdBar Options

Like most plugins, shrewdBar needs options to control colors and positioning. Unlike most WordPress plugins, these options no longer have to live in the options table where they soon get lost. I put the shrewdBar options in its own table, which makes it very easy to manage. The options data could be managed using the standard Pods edit page, however I find it better to write a special page with information and instructions. I’ll be covering this in detail in a later installment.

In the next installment, I will explain how simple Pods procedures act on the data to produce the list output that forms the shrewdBar menu.

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WordPress Plugin That Isn’t

February 2nd, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function
This is about the WordPress plugin that isn’t a plugin!

It might become one. It started life as one.

But, for now, it is a Pods package, and this is the first part in a series that explains what a Pods package is, how it improves WordPress functionality, and how you can apply it to your own site.

Before we start, I was reminded earlier about the crucial importance of purpose as your first step. When you set out to add functionality to WordPress, you must be clear about why you are doing it. If you employ assistants, or ask for help on the forums here, or elsewhere, you must communicate that purpose clearly.

Xarzu told me earlier that she wanted to write WordPress plugins and asked if I could recommend a comprehensive list of hooks, actions and filters. I subsequently found she’d asked this in just about every forum on the Internet, irrespective of it’s subject matter. That kind of spam is best ignored, but it does serve as a prime example of what goes wrong when you do not have a clear purpose.

Firstly, I noticed that Xarzu had received lots of positive help, despite the poor question. People want to help, but if the goals are not clear, if the question is too vague, if there is lack of purpose, then that help is often wasted. So before you even think of adding any functionality to WordPress, think long and hard about the purpose of your plugin, and who the typical user is.

My latest project started when I tried the Splix theme, and found the built-in menu bar. It certainly helped me use WordPress as an application, and is a welcome feature of WordPress.com sites. It struck me that as you add functionality to your website, e.g. with forums, polls, news etc, your website becomes an application for your visitors. So I started my WordPress menu bar plugin project.

The purpose of the plugin is to improve navigation efficiency for 3 groups of users:
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WordPress Plugins – Developer’s Dream

February 1st, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function
I searched for WordPress Plugins that would help me apply structure to my own efforts.

A scary journey, but now the nightmare is over.

Now I can dream happily of a bright WordPress development future.

But, there is no time to dream. Not even time to hack together a pretty picture to decorate this article. I’m fired up for developing, but there is just enough time to let you know what the plan is.

When I finally decided on the SCB framework, I sat down to plan how to integrate my menu system, a hack of DashBar, into that structure. It looked like a project that might also suit Pods, as I would need somewhere to store menu item links.

What’s the first thing I notice in SCB? Routines to handle WordPress options and table data. But can’t I just use Pods for that?

Yes, I can!

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Pods WordPress Plugin

January 30th, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function
The Pods WordPress plugin is driving me crazy.

Mad with admiration one minute, mad with frustration the next.

It’s like breaking your leg when you jump around to celebrate a lottery win. Fantastic find – frustrating failings.

Let me say first, that so far, I believe the potential of this plugin is tremendous. I’m just letting off a bit of steam here because the excitement of finding a truly great WordPress plugin is making me emotional about the rough edges. I am certain those rough edges can be easily smoothed. The proof of the pudding will come in a day or so, when I complete my replacement toolbar.

The developers describe it as:

WordPress evolved.
Pods is a CMS framework for WordPress.
It’s a plugin that sits on top of WordPress, allowing you to add and display your own content types.

I see it as a Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool that could change the way we look at plugins.

Why am I so pleased with this gem?

For months, I have been looking for an easy way to work with extra data tagged onto WordPress. With a background in relational database planning and management, it is frustrating to have to workround things like usermeta & WordPress options. Also, I like simple but comprehensive forms to manage linked data, and it is daunting to have to code a relational database application to integrate with WordPress.

I can see that it can be done. Simple:Press forum is a prime example of integrating a rich database application into WordPress, but it has a scary amount of code and complex field relationships, with little in the way of generic routines that can be adapted for other applications.

Other tools I have seen, only allow simple flat file manipulation, and would need a lot of adapting to tackle relationships. Enter Pods – an easy way to add relational tables as separate applications, or linked into WordPress users or posts. Amazing potential, and amazingly easy to use.

So what are the problems?

Not much if you are familiar with coding, and do not mind getting your hands dirty.

  • The user guide is very poor in examples, and I suspect some of it is out of date, as the plugin is still on a steep development curve.
  • The forum, and the guide, have been radically pruned recently, so just as you think you have found an answer to something – click – 404 not found!
  • Pods has a great way of attaching code to fields called helpers, but the names of these have been changed in the latest release, so many of the example packages do not work. However, it is very easy to find and replace on these, so very easy to fix – I’m just surprised it should be necessary.

So that’s a very brief introduction to Pods. I’ll go and finish the toolbar, then go through some code over the next few posts to show you just how easy it is to build an application. Early days yet, but I think this might be the answer to my nightmare about the lack of good, well-structured example plugins.

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WordPress Theme Functions

January 9th, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | 1 Comment | Filed in Form, Function
Functions and options bring flexibility to WordPress themes, but can they also over-complicate?

Flexibility is second only to speed in terms of theme importance.

There are risks when theme functionality goes too far, so you need to know where to draw the line.

Your WordPress theme is the face of your website – your front of house, if you like. Just like the real world, front of house has to present your features and benefits in your best light, and it has to direct visitors efficiently by providing comprehensive, consistent, accessible navigation.

Recent trends are to added customization options, and increase functionality. Feature that used to rely on plugins, especially custom RSS feeds and header/footer code, are now options in many themes.

Disappointed Digression
This Analytics problem highlights why my plea for keeping functionality out of themes is more than me being tetchy. A good Google Analytics plugin would recognize the need to track external links and include the necessary code. I believe at least one does this, but I will review them later. Managing the code is much more than just pasting the basic script into a box, and I believe it should be left out of themes.
If theme authors want to emphasize the importance of Google Analytics (or anything else) they can easily incorporate some Admin warnings without bloating the code for all users.

I was reminded of this today when I checked my Google Analytics, and realized the external tracking code[1] was missing. I always used to add this type of code manually to footer.php. It is very easy to do, but you must remember to change it whenever you change the theme.

To avoid disruption whenever I changed theme, I started using plugins to manage Google Analytics code, and other footer additions. Today, I realized that I can easily go to the theme options for this, and dispense with a plugin. That is tempting, as reducing plugins usually means a faster website. However, I’m not convinced that the theme option is the right place for this.

If I change my theme, I lose functionality. This cannot be right. If it was a WordPress standard, then I might accept that using an out-of-date theme could cause loss of functions. However, there is no standard here, so even if the new theme allows footer code to be added, I still have to remember to copy and paste it to the new theme.

I do wish theme authors would focus on polished presentation and nifty navigation. Give me CSS options and layout options, but please leave the functionality to the plugin authors. Better still, just move your functionality to your own plugin or integrate the features from a popular plugin that performs the same purpose.

WordPress Theme Functions: Next Steps

As we are all stuck with an undisciplined way of adding code to footers, unless WordPress produces a standard, we must ensure that we manage change properly. Footer code is easiest when managed with a plugin. If you want to save a little loading speed, use the theme options or theme editor, but be sure to have a proper change procedure for applying new themes. Such a change procedure covers preparing for and checking all theme dependent functionality, and I will write more on this later.

WordPress Theme Functions: References

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Simple:Press Forum Simplified

January 1st, 2010 by Keith from shrewdies | 1 Comment | Filed in Function
I’ve simplified the Simple:Press forum today – by deleting it!

A drastic measure, but a timely one.

Don’t be misled – it is a fantastic plugin. In fact more than a plugin, it is a very special application. But sometimes, you have to take a hard decision to ensure you efficiently fulfil your purpose.

Community websites are the best way to explore, expand, and exploit your web business opportunities. A forum emphasizes that sense of community, so am I mad to get rid of it?

To understand, you need to be clear about the purpose of your forum, and clear about your alternatives.

I chose the forum route because I was unhappy with the limitations of commenting. My research told me that Simple:Press Forum was the best option for a WordPress site. However, I did not want to stop WordPress comments as they are popular with many people.

Moderating comments and a forum becomes tedious as conversations become fragmented and spam control is totally different. Keeping web pages “on-topic” with a clear keyword driven focus is as important to visitors as it is to search engines, and having two separate conversation streams makes that focus difficult.

Though the Simple:Press forum offers excellent member management, none of my sites is a true membership site. I encourage contributors to maintain good debates, but membership really equates simply to access rights. In my case, these are simple – visitors either contribute, or they read.

Despite it’s name, Simple:Press is quite complicated. Both from it’s extensive feature list, and ‘under the hood’ it is far from simple.

I realized I could get what I need by enhancing WordPress comments, plus a few other tweaks. I will describe these in more detail later.

For now, it’s goodbye Simple:Press. Nice knowing ya, and when I need a membership site, I know where to look.

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WordPress Plugins – Beginners Nightmare

December 22nd, 2009 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function

WordPress plugins are vital for efficiently functioning websites.

WordPress Plugins Structure Nightmare

WordPress Plugins Structure Nightmare

Given their importance, I would expect much more effort going into helping new plugin developers get to grips with plugin structure.
 

The WordPress development team resist adding features to the core if they are not universal requirements and can be dealt with by plugins. This is a good thing, and they have recently announced plans to develop “canonical” (i.e. official) plugins to “address the most popular functionality requests with superlative execution”[1].

Significantly, these will be “the best possible example of coding standards”[1]. But just what are these coding standards that are deemed so important?

The first thing I want to do when I write a plugin is adopt a structure that:

  • Is the most efficient in terms of performance (i.e. no redundant code, especially admin code loaded for all users)
  • Uses core WordPress functions and methods instead of home-grown alternatives.
  • Uses latest functionality and best practice, avoiding deprecated functions and methods.
  • Is familiar to the majority of plugin developers.

It’s the last point that induces the biggest nightmare. Official coding standards[2] focus heavily on inline documentation and formatting[3][4]. This is all very well, but we need good examples that clearly show best practice in how to organize code in modules. Which bits are best in separate modules, and how should they be organized in sub-folders?

It speaks volumes to me that (more…)

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WordPress Comment Control

December 12th, 2009 by Keith from shrewdies | 1 Comment | Filed in Function
WordPress comment control is vital if you want to get the best contributions from your visitors.

The standard WordPress commenting features are very basic. I realize that does not stop thousands of great blogs getting exceptional comments from visitors. However, anything that can help encourage commenting, and make comment management easier, is A Good Thing.

 

Wordpress Comment Control

I have found a WordPress plugin that does both these things very well, but why is this so important?

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WordPress Plugin Control

December 4th, 2009 by Keith from shrewdies | Comments Off | Filed in Function

My dreams for WordPress plugin control have been realized

After months of planning an installation script (OK – occasionally thinking about planning one!), I have found the ideal plugin to control WordPress Plugins

 

WordPress Plugin Control
If you have setup more than a couple of WordPress installations, or you want to offer an easy way for newcomers to install their own WordPress, you will know how tedious it can become repeating the installation of a list of “must-have” plugins.

Now the only “must-have” plugin is Plugin Central from Vladimir Prelovac. Install that, and anything else you want is only a couple of clicks away.

At last, I have an easy way to save time when I setup my own new WordPress blogs.

More importantly, the web traffic tool that I am currently developing needs some simple instructions for setting up a new WordPress blog. I planned to develop my own plugin to install from a list of recommended plugins, but now I do not have to. I also found an unexpected bonus, as you will see below.
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WordPress MU File Editor Revealed

October 18th, 2009 by Keith from shrewdies | 1 Comment | Filed in Function
Many “authorities” will tell you there is no WordPress MU file editor, and give you complicated workrounds to let you edit plugins and themes directly.

This is no longer true.

The latest version of multiuser WordPress has the standard file editor – it just needs to be enabled.

First, a couple of warnings:

  1. Editing themes and plugins directly can render your site unusable. It is vital that you have a backup of the file you are changing, AND file access to your webserver to revert to your backup if needed.
  2. The change will affect all your users who are using the plugin or theme that you are changing

So, there are very good reasons why you should not make ad-hoc changes to plugins and themes. However, if you feel that bypassing version control is occasionally worth the risk, here is how to unveil your hidden file editor.

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