She Devil

2012 the end of time or a Fresh start for WordPress Plugins from A to Z Episode #55

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She DevilJohn’s & Marcus Rant: What to rant about?


Welcome to 2012 the end of time or so it would seem according to the talk heating up on the web.. I have actually been monitoring the terms Mayan Calendar for a couple of years with google alerts as I have an interest in that ancient civilization. It had been real quite up until about a month ago and just this last week they started coming in like crazy (pun intended)…

I discovered what is missing in that new admin menu is quick links to items such as add new plugin, and the master list for posts and pages. And I realized that I had to throw out Akismet and Hello Dolly again.. very irritating.

And now has WordPress.org been slow the last few days guess everyone is updating..

Shout Outs:

A belated happy new year and welcome to the Year of the Dragon….
And this is out to you Manny for your patience in waiting for the podcast and all our other fans who thought we had disappeared.

Marcus says hello to Russ Hayes who will be talked about a bit more on an upcoming show with a premium plugin he will be releasing. Check out more of Russ’ work at gpscraper.com .

Marcus just launched a great new site for his company at http://increasevisibility.com

List of interesting sites that run on WordPress:


World of WordPress News and other interesting WordPress related posts:

WordCamp Victoria is happening on Jan 14 at U-Vic join me there.. http://www.wordcampvictoria.ca

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

5 Reasons a Free Blog Could Ruin Your Online Marketing

WordPress.com Storage Limits Increase For No Additional Cost  

Should WordPress.Com Be Blocked In India For Copyright Violations?

The Black PyramidList of Plugins:


—–Johns Plugins——-

Display Posts Shortcode 1.7

What they say:
The Display Posts Shortcode was written to allow users to easily display listings of posts without knowing PHP or editing template files.
Add the shortcode in a post or page, and use the arguments to query based on tag, category, post type, and many other possibilities (see the Arguments). I've also added some extra options to display something more than just the title: include_date, include_excerpt, and image_size.

What we say:
I found this to be a very simple plugin that solved my need to display post excerpts on a static page using short code so I would not have to mess around creating a unique template for just one page.

Rating 4 dragons

Gravity Forms Directory & Addons


What they say:
Turn Gravity Forms into a Directory plugin
Gravity Forms is already the easiest form plugin…now, the Gravity Forms Directory & Addons plugin turns Gravity Forms into a great directory.

  • Completely shortcode based, using the [directory] shortcode
  • Includes built-in searching
  • Allow logged-in users to edit their directory listings
  • Choose to show entries to only the users who created them
  • Sort by column
What we say:
I found this to be a great plugin for showing off you specialized links much better than the blogroll. It is not entirely intuitive to use though it is pretty simple once you understand it. You simply create yourself a form with whatever fields you want then you place that on one page for collecting the info. Then you place the form as a directory on another page and then adjust your columns and voila it works.
Rating 3 Dragons due to issues around setting it up and getting going.

Ultra Hide Comment Box


What they say:
This simple plugin lets you choose which category(s) you want to accept comments on. It has a simple admin interface that is very easy to use. You simple check the category that you don't want to see comments on and the comment box will not appear on any posts in that category.

What we say:
I was in need of a simple way to stop comments on only certain categories for a site I am developing and this one fit the bill. Simple straight forward install it activate it and choose which categories to not show comments on its great..

Rating 5 Dragons for its simplicity.

To the east it rises——Marcus Plugins———-

Extra Shortcodes
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/extra-shortcodes/

Description: Provides additional shortcodes for internal data functions.

Example Shortcodes:

  • [bloginfo show=”name”] – bloginfo params;
  • [site_title] – Title of the site;
  • [site_desc] – Description of the site;
  • [site_url] – http://site.url;
  • [wp_version] – 3.3.1 (WordPress version);
  • [date format=”Y-m-d”] – php date format params;
  • [time format=”H:i:s”] – php time format params;
  • [year] – 2012, [year plus=”3″] – 2015, [year minus=”2″] – 2010;
  • [month] – 3 (in march), [month plus=”3″] – 6, [month minus=”2″] – 1, [month plus=”11″] – 12 (12 is maximum and it is not looped by default), [month plus=”11″ loop=”1″] – 2 (14, but with loop it becomes 2=14-12);
  • [month_name] – March;
  • [day] – 8, [day plus=”3″] – 11, [day minus=”2″] – 6, [day plus=”30″] – 31 (31 is maximum number of days for current month and it is not looped by default), [day plus=”30″ loop=”1″] – 7 (38, but with loop it becomes 7=38-31);
  • [weekday] – Friday;
  • [hours] – 17;
  • [minutes] – 35;
  • [seconds] – 59;

Marcus’ Take: This is a great set of parameters in which to dress up your posts, widgets and site theme. Often we need to add this enhanced functionality to business or client sites. This is an easy way to call specific data in posts and pages.

Rating: 3 out of 5

—
Timed Widget
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/timed-widget/

Description: A plugin for displaying different content on your site at different times of day.

The Timed Widget WordPress plugin provides a widget which can display different content at different times of day. For example, suppose you have a WordPress site for your radio station, and you want to display a badge that changes as the different shows come on the air. The Timed Widget plugin provides a way to set up a schedule for your shows, and display different images at different times.

Marcus’ Take: This is a plugin that I’ve been looking for to turn a live help image on and off according to the time, whether the business is open or closed. This plugin works nicely for the job.

Rating: 4 out of 5

—
Google Add to Circle
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-add-to-circle/

Description: This plugin let the users to add your Google+ Page to their circle directly from your website.

Marcus’ Take: To use the Google Add to Circle just drag it to a sidebar and enter your Google+ Page url. This plugin generates a widget badge on your wordpress blog, that let the users to add your Google+ Page to their circle directly from your website. It has a badge customization, through which you may control the look of the widget/badge. This plugin will definitely help you to increase your fan base and followers on Google. I’m using this in a site that I just built and received 4 circle additions in just under a week of implementing. I’ve been waiting for a plugin like this for a while.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

—
Remove ‘Comments are Closed’
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/remove-comments-are-closed/

Description: On posts where comments are closed, the plugin will remove the text ‘Comments are closed.' The plugin supports any languages/text domains, and will remove the text from themes and plugins.

Marcus’ Take: This is one of those simple little plugins that just plain works. We all have those pesky “comments are closed” notes on our site, which often make it look like we’re unwilling to engage the viewer. This plugin removes the note altogether, assuring a nice clean site without the clutter of unneeded notification about comments.

5 out of 5

Some Terms here for plugins: Nothing special this week..


In closing here is what is coming in future podcasts:

WordCamp Special next week

An interview with Scott Cariss the creator of the File Monitor plugin coming soon, just as soon as I can connect with him.

scroll plugins or banner tickers

Commenting plugins

404 redirect plugins

Ad banners plugins

More Lazy Plugins


Repent NowHow to Contact Us:


John can be contacted at:

on my website @ http://www.johnoverall.com/ or you can follow me on Twitter @Ahkonsu or even like me on Facebook at  http://www.facebook.com/JohnOverallcom


Marcus can be contacted at:

Marcus Couch can be contacted at his website at marcuscouch.com, on twitter   @marcuscouch and on facebook at facebook.com/marcuscouch

Some of the music provided tonight is from Mevio's Music Alley. Check it out at ‘music.mevio.com http://music.mevio.com