WordPress 2.5rc2 is available
Along with the announcement that Release Candidate 2 for WordPressMatt posted a little screencast on the Wordpress.org development blog
It’s a teaser to see the new Media Gallery in action. I can’t wait to see some plugin developers extend the built in functionality.
I have been using the code that i have grabbed off svn. I would say that I only have a couple of gripes. First, the plugin list colors are too subtle it’s a bit hard to tell what is active and what is not. I have not had any real difficulty with my plugins so far.
Getting ready for 2.5
Since this site is focused on writing plugin reviews it seems prudent to take a step back until WordPress 2.5 is released (slated for today) My plan, for awhile at least, will be to test the plugins that I review on both 2.3.3 and 2.5. With that said, I will be back as soon as my 2.5 testing site is live and I am able to begin testing plugins for compatibility along with the review information. I will plan to kick things off with a series of reviews of WordPress 2.5 itself. It will be interesting to dig in and see what has changed and how it will affect the way we blog!
Review: Amazon Machine Tags
Plugin:
Amazon Machine Tags (version 1.1.2)
WordPress Extend Page
Test Date: March 8, 2008
WP Version: 2.3.3
Plugin Description: Adds the ability to insert product information from Amazon.com into your posts and sidebar using markup tags.
Installation: Activate from plugins page
Minimum Configuration: An Amazon Web Services API key is required in order to use this plugin. A writable cache directory must be created and a snippet of code must be inserted in the sidebar of your theme in order to display the default tags in your sidebar.
Compatible with plugin updater: Yes
Administration: There are options to enter tracking ids for several regional amazon websites. There is also an option to “donate” your unused regions to the plugin author. Since I have only a US affiliate link, for example, I would check the box and all the links to the Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and UK versions of Amazon.com get updated with the plugin author’s ID. Installing an additional plugin such as “IP to Country” the linking to the appropriate website happens automatically. For the purposes of this test sticking to the United States seems fine. You have the option of inserting default tags in the sidebar of every page - at the point where you inserted the code snippet in the sidebar file for your theme.
Usage: Two options for inserting product image links. 1. Add markup tag to a post. 2. Add default tags to the options page for the plugin.
Widgets: No Widget - instructions suggest inserting code into sidebar template file
Test Notes: I started by accidentally trying to insert my Amazon Associates tracking ID in the Amazon Web services key field. Once I realized that this plugin is using the Amazon API I was able to go grab my AWS key and move on to the next step of entering the tracking ID in the right location. There are separate spots in the options page for each of the regional Amazon sites. I added the code snippet into my sidebar and used the default tags spot in the plugins options page to, successfully, insert a product into my sidebar. I then created a post with the markup for an additional product. It displayed nicely, some customization of formatting might be necessary for a production site. This seems to involve updating some files in the plugin itself. To test the necessity of the change to my theme I removed the code from the sidebar. This did remove the sidebar products but had no effect on the product called from my post. So, changing the theme is only needed if you would like products to display in your sidebar.
Final Thoughts: This was not the easiest plugin to configure, but also not the most difficult. I was able to use my existing Amazon Web Services key but the need to change a theme file threw me off a bit. I admit to being fond of widgets or at least the option to use them over editing files. I didn’t really catch the idea behind this plugin initially. But after setting all the configs and making the required change to my template I may have changed my mind. Using the Amazon API makes this a transparent. There are no context links, no fancy pop-ups, and no java script. Either you tagged the item or you did not. This plugin is definitely aimed at links to books but any amazon.com item will work. Changing the default “Further Reading” heading in the sidebar might be necessary if you do not want to use this plugin in the sidebar. The default layouts are contained in XSLT files. Changing these files would add steps to upgrading the plugin in the future.
Potential Improvements: A widget would be very helpful for this plugin. This would alleviate the need to change template files. A button or tag for the post editor would also be useful. The ability to change some of the formatting would be very helpful. Especially the “Further Reading” heading for those inserting products that are not books.
Review: Amazon Showcase Wordpress Widget
Plugin:
Amazon Showcase Wordpress Widget (version 1.3)
WordPress Extend Page
Test Date: March 8, 2008
WP Version: 2.3.3
Plugin Description: Widget to display images with links to product pages on Amazon.com
Installation: Activate from plugins page
Minimum Configuration: Add widget to sidebar and add at least one ASIN number
Compatible with plugin updater: Yes
Administration: Setup widget from the Widgets page. Entering an Amazon Associates tracking id is optional.
Usage: Up to 10 widgets of this type can be added to your sidebars.
Test Notes: I created a widget with both large and small images but no text.
There is no text generated, only images that link to the products. The information displayed in the widget can be modified to include a title and an author. With some HTML knowledge it is possible to create a nice list of products. Without knowledge of HTML you will get images that link to the Amazon.com product pages.
Final Thoughts: This plugin can create a very clean, customized list of products. It does not do any dynamic updating of products beyond potential changes to the images and links associated with an ASIN. The product images are retrieved directly from Amazon.com. This widget is a good option if you don’t like the look/feel of the default product widgets that the Amazon.com widgets produce.
Review: Amazonify
Plugin:
Amazonify (version 0.8)
WordPress Extend Page
Test Date: March 8, 2008
WP Version: 2.3.3
Plugin Description: Insert amazon product widgets and links into posts using markup tags.
Installation: Activate from plugins page
Minimum Configuration: Enter Amazon Associates tracking ID in order to earn affilate credit. It is possible to use this plugin without a tracking ID entered but the text popup did not seem to work and it seems that using an affiliate id would be the main point of using this plugin.
Compatible with plugin updater: yes
Administration: Only initial configuration of plugin.
Usage: Must use markup tag, as outlined in the plugin’s option page, in order to insert the code for amazon product widgets and text links. Contextual links “should” occur without the bloggers intervention.
Widgets: No integrated widget
Test Notes: Installation was quick and easy. There are very few options to configure. I entered my Amazon associates tracking ID, checked off the boxes for inserting contextual ads and for product preview scripts. Some basic examples of how to insert products into a post are displayed on the options page for the plugin. Here is a shot of the admin options page before completing any configurations:
I created a post using the most basic markup tag example. Here is a screen shot of the post:
A text link with the product preview scripting option turned on produced a product popup on hovering over the text. This plugin does not work for widgets. There are quite a few ad types available on Amazon that do not work with this plugin. I have not been successful at generating a contextual link. I did create a post with the exact title of a book but it has not linked it’self - yet. Turning scripting off in my browser only had the effect of treating the amazon link as a regular link without the popup effect.
Final Thoughts: If you are not afraid of a few markup tags then this seems to be a great plugin. All you need to know is the ASIN number from the amazon site and you are set to go.
Potential Improvements: A button for the visual editor or a tag for the code editor would be useful.
Review: All in One Adsense and YPN
Plugin Name: All in One Adsense and YPN
WordPress.org Plugin Page
Plugin Homepage
Test Date: March 7, 2008
WP Version: 2.3.3
Plugin Version: 1.6
Plugin Info: Inserts Adsense and YPN code into posts and pages.
Installation: Activate from plugins page
Minimum Configuration: Enter Adsense ID, And choose at least 1 ad format.
Administration: Many aspects of ad display can be customized from the configuration screen including placement location, number of ads to show, color, etc.
Usage: Simple yet full featured
Widgets: No integrated widget
Screenshots:
Test Notes- I started by entering only my Adsense ID, a Channel ID and chose one ad size from the checkbox list. The resulting page showed adsense ads scattered randomly across my posts. Inserted in strange places. I found that the script default for placement is “center” which means “center of the post.” The ads did not display ads in feeds. Limited to a single ad format size. It is possible to set ad location and to omit ads from in a post using a markup tag.
Not tested using YPN.
WordPress as a review site
My ultimate goal for WPPluginReview.info is to create a directory of in-depth plugin reviews as well as documenting the process of researching, selecting, and configuring plugins for specific instances. With this in mind the following review and rating related plugins, which seem to be worth taking a look at:
Allows the writer to assign a star rating from the write/manage page using a tag . There are also more advanced uses for this plugin that will be worth further investigation.
Allows readers to rate posts using a basic star system.
Allows readers to rate posts on predefined criteria when commenting. Uses the existing commenting system as a way for readers to post reviews.
Adds a button to the WYSIWIG editor that creates a form that simply populates the post area. I can think of some other uses for modifications of this plugin.
My initial feeling is that a combination of the above plugins would be ideal. A quick list of other plugins that might be worth a look:
-
Bibliofly Not a review or rating plugin but might have some functial overlaps
- SBReview A fork of Dan Grossman’s plugin - Looks very promising!
- WP Review Stuff
- Starred Review
- VoteItUp
Visitors, Subscribers, & Statistics
There is no fun in putting the work into creating and maintaining a blog or website and then have no idea who might (or might not) be viewing your content.
The following series of posts will outline some plugins that are useful for keeping tabs on your readers and visitors.
Google Analytics Plugins
There are a ton of plugins available that allow code snippets to be added to your site from within the admin panel. Many third party sites provide code to be copied/pasted into your webiste to add some functionality. Statistics services are just one example of this and Google Analytics is no exception.
Aside from these general code insertion plugins there are plenty more plugins that will allow you to add the code specifically for Google Analytics to your site from the admin panel. Some have more customization options than others but they pretty much all do the same thing. Here’s a quick (far from exhaustive) list.
One Google Analytics plugin seemed to stick out from the rest and I’m going to give it a try. The idea is that by downloading and storing a local, cached copy of the analytics script page load time is reduced. Faster loading pages is definitely a plus. Any tracking script can slow a site down. The danger with this plugin, I suppose, is that Google could make changes that would render this plugin obsolete. Any of the above, non-local, plugins above could quickly replace this one if necessary.
The admin page for this plugin is detailed but the only required item is the Analytics account ID, which can be found in the code that Google provides when you set up a site to be tracked.
One other plugin that I have found convenient is the
Google Analytics and Feedburner Reports plugin for WordPress from tantannoodles. It simply adds some basic reports for these two specific services right into the WordPress admin area. Perfect for instant gratification.
Manage posts in a series
As I began researching my first topic for this site it became apparent that I really needed a way to link a series of posts in a usable way. A quick search at the WP.org plugin directory yielded two options.
The second option appears to be broken since WP 2.3 so I will be using the In Series Plugin for the moment.
The In-Series plugin adds an options page which allows customization to the way the series links are formated. The default structure adds a table of contents to the top of each post that is designated as a part of a series. There are also navigation links at the bottom of each post to move to the previous and next post.
The process of creating a series or adding a new post to an existing series can be done directly from the “Write Post” screen. An option is added to the right sidebar. A drop-down option is available to choose from existing Series and a text box is available to create a new series. There is also a radio option to set the post as either the starting or ending post in the series.
The process of setting the order of posts within a series is a bit clumsy and requires editing the post. Inserting the post to the middle of a series does not appear to be possible. Once the post is saved you can set the point in the series to insert it from the edit screen by choosing the post that will come before the current post in the series and saving.
Overall this plugin will fit my needs nicely and should allow me to organize my plugin testing and research in a much more user friendly way. A new version, which adds a few more options for customization, is in beta. Full plugin information can be found at the Plugin’s Site