Diving Into WordPress Plugins
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John's Intro:
It's Episode 574 and we have plugins for Admin Slugs, Yoast Post, Staging Live, Alt Magic, Egging, Rabbit Hole-ing… and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
…There's always more, but we all know he really just ad-lib's it…
Amber's Rant:
Welcome to Episode 574 – Diving Into WordPress Plugins – This is episode 34 of 2022, and we are working through the new layout of the show! Would love to hear some feedback from our Producers out there on what you think – good? bad? AWESOME?!?!? Let us know!
A Message from your AtoZ Plugin Worker Bee's – This is a Value for Value show, meaning any value you find here, offer that same value back – this can be telling someone about us, offering up 5 bucks or more (we will never turn down shiny, shiny treasure…) for a sugar boost, or spending some time helping out the show!
And don't skip the end of the show Dear Producers – This is where I throw oddball questions at my dad and see if any stump him; haven't managed yet, but one day… perhaps our listeners could help us out…
A special note to our New Listeners: Once upon a time, many many moons ago when I was still green as fresh spring grass – about 3 years ago – I myself knew less than you do now since you found this podcast on your own and I had not. Don't be shy to send in questions – there is always someone with the same question, and there is NO judgement here!
…When you see this in the notes, this means we didn't read this onto the show, and that the only way to find this information out is to read our Show Notes!
…You can send any questions/suggestions or notes saying hi over to me at amber@wppro.ca, or hit up our site wpppluginsatoz.com/contact – Be creative with the title so that the spammer eater doesn't eat your note though!
Let's start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:
Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth) — https://gregsgraphics.com
Feeling Inspired? Hit up our site at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/ and submit some artwork of your own!
…We can NEVER have too much art!
Or check out allll the artwork at: https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/
Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!!
…If I missed something, shoot me a link at amber@wppro.ca – it may show up on the next show!
News this week:
– (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-september-21-2022/) WordPress Vulnerability Report – September 21, 2022: There is a good list of plugins that have been fixed, and the list of plugins to pay attention to are: Disable WP User Login, Memberpress Downloads, Cryptocurrency Pricing list and Ticker, Search Logger, and WPGateway.
– (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-1-beta-1-released-and-ready-for-testing) WordPress 6.1 Beta 1 released and ready for testing: for those out there who like to test these things out, time to go check it out!
– (https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-contributors-call-on-theme-authors-to-test-using-block-based-template-parts-in-classic-themes) Gutenberg contributors call on Theme Authors to test using block-based template parts in Classic Themes: Due to the fact that there are still a lot of the WordPress Community still using Classic Editor, Gutenberg 14.1 will be introducing the ability for theme authors to use block-based template parts in Classic and Hybrid Themes. I think this is a great idea since I personally have been having trouble wrapping my head around the block base myself. I look forward to trying this out to see if it helps at all!
– (https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-6-9-released-high-performance-order-storage-targeted-for-7-1) WooCommerce 6.9 released, High-Performance order storage targets for 7.1: Meaning that the new cart and checkout blocks are part of the core now, and are compatible with more than a dozen payment gateways and shipping options. It seems that since the PHP before this update was not compatible, that this update will be compatible with the PHP8 that is coming out next month as well. This is a good thing to know as any kind of store owner in the internet.
– (https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-1-improves-navigation-block-adds-experimental-zoomed-out-view) Gutenberg 14.1 improves navigation block, adds experimental zoomed-out view: This should be interesting to test out! The menu selector has been removed from the navigation block toolbar in favour of placement in the inspector sidebar, to reduce crowding – among other things. Worth checking out!
– (https://wptavern.com/webp-by-default-pulled-from-upcoming-wordpress-6-1-release) WebP by Default has been pulled from upcoming WordPress 6.1 release: This is a relief to many I believe! WebP by Default has been pulled due to objections from lead developers. Instead, Matt Mullenweg wants to focus on development as a canonical plugin. I think that is a much better idea.
– (https://wptavern.com/siteground-launches-managed-edd-hosting) SiteGround launches managed EDD hosting: The first of its kind among WordPress hosts, the company has launched a new managed Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) hosting product. This is geared towards making life a little easier for small businesses and digital product creators – personally, I don't like the idea of someone managing my things for me, but I can understand the appeal.
– (https://wptavern.com/buddypress-plugin-usage-declining-remaining-contributors-discuss-path-forward) BuddyPress Plugin usage declining, remaining contributors discuss path forward: For those who use BuddyPress, you may have to think about replacing it. The usage has been going down, and the contributors discussing the progress are talking about how the new users are not replacing the users lost. I am not sure if they are going to manage to hold on.
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/janet-jackson-rhythm-nation-causes-laptops-to-crash-vibration-resonance) Why Janet Jackson made laptops crash: The newest and latest power of Janet Jackson – crashing old lap tops!
Microsoft chief software engineer Raymond Chen shared the story of what happens when older Windows XP laptops play the music video for Jackson's ‘Rhythm Nation': It comes down to the frequency. The frequency affected the laptop's hard drive. “It turns out that the song contained one of the natural resonant frequencies for the model of 5400 rpm laptop hard drives that they and other manufacturers used”
The problem has been solved by adding a custom filter in the audio pipeline, detecting and removing offending frequencies during audio playback.
They don't say in this article, but I wonder if it's called Janet's Filter…?
ClassicPress News:
…Our News Section really isn't complete without ClassicPress News…
ClassicPress has projects they are looking to have some support with. They have a page with these projects listed and who the contact is for the project. Check out the following page if you are using ClassicPress and are interested in helping them move forward! https://forums.classicpress.net/t/currently-active-projects/3630
They also have some petitions posted check them out!
…For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.
The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!
…Here you will find news on tech in general, and some random things I think are pretty nifty! If you come across something you think should be added, send me a link at amber@wppro.ca
– (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/domain-shadowing-becoming-more-popular-among-cybercriminals/) Domain shadowing becoming more popular among cybercriminals
– (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/twitter-failed-to-log-you-out-of-all-devices-after-password-resets/) Twitter failed to log you out of all devices after password resets
– (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lockbit-ransomware-builder-leaked-online-by-angry-developer-/) LockBit ransomware builder leaked online by “angry developer”
– (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/malwarebytes-mistakenly-blocks-google-youtube-for-malware/) Malwarebytes mistakenly blocks Google, YouTube for malware
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-stalks-instagram-influencers-to-expose-high-tech-surveillance) AI stalks influencers in the wild to expose horrors of the high-tech surveillance
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/oxford-physicists-enlist-atomic-clocks-in-the-hunt-for-dark-matter) Oxford physicists enlist and entangle atomic clocks in the hunt for dark matter
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/esa-stilfold-plan-bring-industrial-origami-to-outer-space) A Swedish startup is plotting to bring ‘industrial origami' to outer space
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/do-social-media-posts-impact-employability-jobbio) Do your social media posts impact your employability? Here's what Jobbio has to say…
– (https://thenextweb.com/news/janet-jackson-rhythm-nation-causes-laptops-to-crash-vibration-resonance) Why Janet Jackson made laptops crash
– (https://www.techradar.com/news/even-horse-racing-isnt-safe-from-ransomware-now) Even horse racing isn't safe from ransomware now!
…Some random entertainment in the World of WordPress!
…Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
…The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/
Let's have a peek at our Contests for this week…
Firstly we want to thank Simple Giveawaysfor being totally awesome and providing us with their Premium Version for our contests!
Secondly we want to thank Steve Goodtime & Brant Matthews for creating our amazing jingle we still use!!
We don't have a Contest going on right now – When Charlie had to leave us behind for bigger and better things he left some pretty big shoes to fill – and we just haven't had the time to do so this last year. Thank you Charlie for hanging around for so long and keeping our show's Contests on the up and up, making this show the best it could be!
If anyone out there thinks they might be able to fill the shoes Charlie left behind, please give us a shout and give it a go! You can always reach us through wppluginsatoz.com/contact or amber@wppro.ca.
Remember, this is YOUR show! We are just the Worker Bee's here – Don't be afraid to jump up and down and demand a turn at the wheel to help guide the show to where YOU want it to go!
That goes for all the Developers out there too – this is YOUR show! by supporting us with your Plugin donations you are helping to guide the show to where you want to see it go! A GIANT Thank You is owed to the Developers who have been supporting us this whole time, we honestly could not have even gotten this show started without you!
If any Developers out there listening right now are interested in adding to the show by donating a Premium License for our Contests, you can do so by going to WPPluginsAtoZ.com/PluginContest!
Now for the Good Stuff!
Off we go into the meat and potatoes of plugin depravity…..
WordPress Plugins
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John's Plugin
Admin Slug Column
https://wordpress.org/plugins/admin-slug-column/
The Lowdown:
Adds a column to wp-admin “All Posts” and “All Pages” views displaying the URL path and Slug for each one. This will also show the nested path if a page is a child post of a parent. If a post or page is not published we’ll do our best to determine the url path and display that slightly greyed out for quick reference as it’s technically not an official URL path or Slug yet. This should also work for custom post types of type page or post.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Alt Text Magic
https://wordpress.org/plugins/alttextmagic/
The Lowdown:
This is a nifty plugin – it's one of those plug and play ones. This plugin once activated will generate automatic Alt Text for all photo's uploaded to your site.
Each Alt Text automatically provided is completely editable; bonus, if you have any missing Alt Text in your photo's of the past, auto text will be uploaded there as well!
What this does for you is it makes your site more SEO friendly, and more accessible too!
Couple of drawbacks though:
1 – This is one of those plugins that requires you to create a free account with them and enter in your API code.
2 – You only get 10 free Alt Text's added a month unless you upgrade to Pro, which means that you will not be able to use the free version to fill your quota if you have a bit of a backlog.
Other than that, it works well and can be very useful for your site if you have a bit of a backlog of Alt Text to add.
Rating: 4 Dragons
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John's Plugin
Yoast Duplicate Post
The lowdown:Been a while since this one has been mentioned and it seems they have improved it with a few more settings that you can control on what is duplicated each time you sue it to duplicate a post. you can now copy or not the following additional items. author, password, date stsus, slug, children if any You can even prevent it copying any specific unique meta fields if you have them.
Rating 5 Dragons.
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Amber's Plugin
Easter Eggs
https://wordpress.org/plugins/easter-egg/
The Lowdown:
Who doesn't love hunting for Easter Eggs?? This plugin has been developed for those out there who enjoy creating Easter Egg Hunts on their site for their users. You will find the dashboard for setup under ‘Settings' in the left hand menu under ‘Easter Egg'.
In the free version, you will only get 3 Easter Eggs – no more, no less.
With these 3 eggs, you split up the coupon code into 3 parts, making it so that your users need to accept all 3 eggs in order to get the full coupon. In the Free version you can only have them pop up in the same place – I am not sure about the Pro Version as this is not explained.
You can set the time before the next Easter Egg from 3 seconds apart up to 10 seconds apart. You can choose whether or not there is a close button on the Easter Egg, and set your own image.
Once a user is on your site, a cookie is set so that the Easter Egg will only show up once to the user. This way you won't have people gobbling up all the coupons.
In the Pro Version you can link this to your Woo Commerce, though not with the free version.
Rating: 4 Dragons
We Interrupt this Meat and Potatoes of Plugin Depravity Edition to bring you our Donations Segment and to thank our Producers!
Remember, this is YOUR show! We're just the Worker Bee's here. Don't forget to restock the show's larders with some Time, Treasure, or Talent Donations! Need more info on how to do that? Check out our site wppluginsatoz.com – right up in the menu you will see each one under ‘Donations'!
Special thanks goes to:
Free-Lance Producers popping in and out:
Though always showing up at unexpected times, these Producers are surely part of the reason our name is getting out there! Thank you!
…If you have listened to even 10 minutes of this show, or shown up a single time to one of our live shows on YouTube, you are one of our many Free-Lance Producers! Although you guys are always popping in and out at unexpected times, we appreciate your support and periodic help with one thing or another – thank you!
Back Room Producers hanging-out in the Lounge:
Always about the place consuming all the coffee and donuts, these Producers earn it by helping out with our contests, artwork, site organization, notes, questions, suggestions, licenses, and by hiring us! Your Time and Talent Donations are equal to your Treasure Donations of under $50, and we would not be here without you – thank you!
…Back Room Producers, if you ever notice something that needs some work feel free to reach out to us and let us know – you can offer to take it up yourself, or just let us know and we will add it to our list.
War Room Producers:
With their donations of $50 or more these Producers receive a few extra perks – an official AtoZ Handle of their choice, a spotlight in that weeks show for a short speech, an official Executive Producership Credit, and seeing the ‘Magic' as it happens up in the War Room before we send the show out into the netherworld of the internets! Thank you for sticking by us and helping to keep the Back Room Producers stocked in coffee and donuts!
…**If you prefer to stay anonymous, please let us know at the beginning of your note to us regarding your donation! We are more than happy to keep you anonymous from the world – nobody is ever forced out of the tender embrace of the shadows on this show!**
…To receive your Official AtoZ Handle, think up an original name, and send it into us! Be sure to note down the show number and title of the show so that we know when to log it!
…Your spotlight can be an elevator pitch for your business, a note, or you can just skip it!
…The Producership Credit we offer is REAL! When you send your donation in to us of $50 or more, please be sure to note down the number and title of the show your donation shows up on, and we will back up your right to claim Producership!
…'seeing the Magic happen' refers to being part of the show – if you are interested in taking up a larger part in the show, reach out to us and let us know! We will be happy to discuss the options!
…War Room Producers, same as for the Back Room Producers, reach out to us if you notice something that needs work! Whether you are wanting to take up the job yourself or just inform us and leave it, we will add it to our list!
Thank you, now back to the Meat and Potatoes of Plugin Depravity Edition!
John's Plugin
Synchronize your staging site with your live site!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/staging-sync/
The Lowdown
With this plugin, you’ll be able to sync any new content changes that happen on the live site to your staging site while you are working on it.
Gone are the days where you have to copy over new blog posts and comments that happened on the live site while you were working on the staging site, from now on your staging site will always remain up to date making it faster and easier than ever to push your staging site live!
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Rabbit Hole
https://wordpress.org/plugins/rabbit-hole/
The Lowdown:
I'll be honest, it's the name that caught me. I love diving down rabbit holes – I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist as well as a major Alice in Wonderland fan!
This plugin adds the ability to control what should happen when an entity is being viewed on its own page – meaning if there is an image in a carousel that likes to show itself on its own page, this will fix that.
Once activated, you will find the dashboard under ‘Settings' in the left hand Menu as ‘Rabbit Hole'. From here you can set it up so that Posts, Media, Landing Pages, Templates, Events, or Pages can be configured.
There is an option to allow overriding of these settings set in the plugin by the individual creating the post/page/etc as well, so whatever you do here is not ‘absolute'. Others can work around it. There is also a way to set this for a single page/post/etc, making it so that you don't have to do a global setting.
You can set it to ‘display the page', ‘access deny', ‘page not found', or ‘redirect page' from the dashboard; I personally don't have any use for this plugin, though if it exists, I am sure it is useful to someone out there!
This plugin does have more features coming as well; ‘conditions' and ‘archives'. If you think you can find use for this, check this plugin out!
Also – it's free. 😉
Rating: 5 Dragons
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ClassicPress
We have sadly neglected ClassicPress… we are working to remedy this.
…A little about ClassicPress for those who aren't sure: ClassicPress is WordPress frozen at version 4.9. Once WordPress moved to 5, they added in a whole lot of new folders, and the experimental additions to the Core started in earnest. ClassicPress is literally the Classic version of WordPress. A few plugins have been made over the years for just ClassicPress, though all Plugins compatible with WordPress 4.9 should work for ClassicPress.
To any ClassicPress user listening right now: I challenge you – yes YOU – to write a review of your favourite, or least favourite ClassicPress plugin, and send it into us! You can do so by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/!
…And feel free to add more to this section by reaching out to me at amber@wppro.ca.
ClassicPress Resource Section:
This information is like Fruit Cake! It doesn't wither away and will still be good years down the road so it's great for learning! Go and check this section out in our Show Notes if you have an interest!
…We have thrown some ClassicPress Resources in here for you – and they appear to have stuck like well cooked pasta! Glad you made it to this part of the notes since we only mention it lightly on the show – If we missed something, let us know!
…Learn more about ClassicPress 1.4.0 RC2:
…https://forums.classicpress.net/t/classicpress-1-4-0-rc2-release-notes/3785?fbclid=IwAR3wGK5IW8ssJ-XC4k7IiZMBtSjUTVN2pexk6ATCRvuMN-Fn-McOy-XJJv8
…ClassicPress Tutorials on their site:
…https://www.classicpress.net/category/tutorials/
…ClassicPress's “Must Have” Plugins List:
…https://forums.classicpress.net/t/must-have-plugins-list/1163
…ClassicPress Repository!!
…https://directory.classicpress.net/plugins They now have 71 plugins (and counting!) available.
…WordPress Plugin Section compatible with ClassicPress:
…https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/classicpress/
Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:
…Send us your thoughts and opinions, but most of all send us your questions! No such thing as a stupid question people! I was new not too long ago, and I know how overwhelming it can be stepping into this world at this stage – I know for a fact that questions you have are the same questions others out there have!
Nope, nothing today; seems our homing pigeon got lost on the way back with our messages again…. *for when there is no-one
How to be part of your own production!
Interviews – get yourself out there using us as your tool!
…Looking for a way to get your name and work out there? Use us as a stepping stone! Hit us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview
Send in Plugin Reviews, or suggestions for Plugin reviews!
…Have a plugin you love? Or one you really think people should avoid? Reach out to us and get your words and opinion out into the world by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/
Send in questions and/or comments!
…Have a thought to share? Send it in! You can stay anonymous or belt your name out in all caps!
Stuff and reminders about Stuff:
Meetups:
Our Meet Up on September 10 was pretty awesome! We didn't have many who showed up, but it was a fun social gathering – and we got the opportunity to watch the smoke as it rolled in over us from the mainland and covered the sky; though not necessarily a good thing to endure, it was kind of fascinating to watch!
Keep an eye here for the next Meet Up!
Random:
Remember you can check out our Show Notes on our site wppluginsatoz.com! There is extra information to grab up there that we don't even speak out loud on the show!
Today's Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugins: Admin Slug Column – 4, Yoast Duplicate Post – 5, Synchronize your staging site with your live site! – 5
Amber's Plugins: Alt Text Magic – 4, Easter Egg – 4, Rabbit Hole – 5
Ways to support the show!
You can support us by Subscribing to our Newsletter, Donating, or reviewing us on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store.
Join us on our Facebook, and hit the *Like* button on our YouTube Channel!
…Just showing up to our YouTube Channel and joining us live every Thursday at 11am PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support! So is joining our FaceBook page and hitting *Share* on our posts every once in a while!
…Giving a review of us on any of the platforms listed above would be super helpful too!
Want to get ahold of us???
If you still do Snail Mail, you can send an actual, physical letter or item to this Brick and Mortar address:
…(Pssst! I love receiving things that are not bills! Especially art if you enjoy drawing – no matter what age!)
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
OR, you can email us!
Amber: amber@wppro.ca
John: john@wppro.ca
Q & A Time with Amber – Catch this info on our YouTube Channel
If you have questions you would like to have asked on the show, send them in to me at Amber@WPPro.ca – let's see if we can stump my dad!
- Instead of using an EMP, do you think you could just use particular frequencies (like Janet Jackson perhaps) to kill electronics?
- I remember back in the day of VHS a lot of movie rental places would have a few VHS that had been left on the cars dashboard in the summer, and they were all twisted up and melty; have you ever seen a computer part like this – could a computer even get like this without being in a proper fire?
Remember everyone, we will be coming back to the questions we just read out once we close out the show and the song ends! Stick around until the end to get the answers to these last questions!!!
You can only catch the next questions by listening to us on our YouTube Channel, so if you want to hear the answers and discussions, tune in!
Last Questions for Amber's Q&A Time:
- I recently discovered the history of first person shooters – how it was created by a few high school students doing a summer work/study program at NASA Ames Research Center by creating a maze game that they turned into a first person shooter game – they were also the first to link a couple of computers together to make it multi-player. How often do you think the most amazing things we use every day now have been created by a few high schoolers just trying to make a cool game to alleviate boredom?
- Because we all go off of digital time, how long do you think it would take humans to realize it if the AI decided to start taking away 1 minute throughout a 6 month period, thus making our days shorter?
One more time for the ways to contact us!
Our Brick and Mortar Address – just in case you decide to send along a gift!
(Especially art if you enjoy drawing – no matter what age!)
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
Fastest way to contact us:
John:
- My website: http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support: http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
