Going Nuts for WordPress Plugins
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Going Nuts for WordPress Plugins
John's Intro:
It's Episode 622 and we have plugins for Conditional Displays, Logging in with IP's.. and WordPress News. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
– ‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …'
Amber's Rant:
Welcome to Episode 622 – Going Nuts for WordPress Plugins – We've got a couple of great in-depth plugins to cover for you, some recent news in both the WordPress World and the Tech World in general, and some awesome WordPress Tips!
Hoping everyone is keeping well out there and looking forward to the warm weather! I know I am!
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- Reminder that our show is now every other week, and that it starts at 12:30 PM Pacific Time, with a pre-stream starting around 12:15 PM Pacific Time. Pre-stream is where we twiddle with the dials and knobs and really just warm up our voices, so join in for some entertainment value!
- Our show notes for each episode can be found at wppluginsatoz.com – the newest show notes will be up within 24 hours and on our front page!
- Don't forget that this is a value for value show, and that you are a big part of it's creation! You are our producers, and we need you to help us produce! Get out there and hit some like buttons, share an episode or two, and let people know that you help to produce the longest running WordPress Plugins podcast!
That's it for reminders, don't forget to stick around until the end of the show for some possibly life altering advice!
...When you see this in the notes, it means we didn't read this on the show. 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:
Artist:
Sir Rogue of the Tavern – Barron of the Cowichan Valley
https://theroguesoasis.com/
I think that may be the most adorable thing I have to date!
We would love some new art from our Producers out there! If you are so inclined, you can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. If you need some inspiration, you can always go to our site wppluginsatoz.com and check out our Art Vaults – you will find the link for it on the left hand side.
…We can NEVER have too much art!
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:
WordPress Vulnerability Report – February 14, 2024
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-february-14-2024/) – In this report, there are 143 plugins, 117 of them with patches and 26 unpatched as of yet. The ones I most easily recognize are: TinyMCE and TinyMCE Advanced Professsional Formats and Styles, WP Contact Form, Elementor Website Builder – More than Just a Page Builder, Essential Addons for Elementor – Best Elementor Templates, Widgets, Kits & WooCommerce Builders, Royal Elementor Addons and Templates, and Event Manager, Events Calendar, Events Tickets for WooCommerce – Eventin. There are more, be sure to check out the list yourself.
WordPress Vulnerability Report from PatchStack
(https://patchstack.com/database/) – This is a great link we are keeping here, it gives the most recent issues that have cropped up and the severity of them. Most recent at the time of writing this was 3 days ago that I can see immediately, and it is a plugin.
It's Alive!
(https://wptavern.com/its-alive) – So the WP Tavern is finally back, there have been 7 people hired for the next two weeks, and over the next two weeks these 7 shall compete with one another to see which 2 of them get the jobs – allegedly the other 5 will get decent freelancing opportunities. That will be good, though not as good as the full time work.
I think my favourite bit about this article is the comment ‘Let the WP Tavern games begin!' left by Jos Velasco! Makes me think of Hunger Games…
Bricks 1.9.6.1 patches critical RCE vulnerability
(https://wptavern.com/eu-regulatory-success-prompts-open-source-cms-leaders-to-form-alliance) – RCE = Remote Code Execution flaw, which means it allows attackers to potentially gain unauthorized control over websites running on affected versions of Bricks. Bricks for those that do not know is a site builder not too different from Elementor I have read. If you are a user and have not updated yet, I would suggest you do so.
WordPress 6.5 Beta 1
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/wordpress-6-5-beta-1/) – If you are one of those who likes to be on the bleeding edge of WordPress releases, here is your chance! Beta1 for 6.5 has dropped! There is a little information here in the link for you, be sure to check it out!
WordPress user survey indicates rising frustration
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-user-survey-indicates-rising-frustration/508354/) – I haven't heard much about this on the nets, though I can understand the frustration of something slowing down and becoming laggy on you. That's why I don't like some builders – because as soon as you ‘turn them on' so to speak, everything starts lagging and trying to build with lagging programs is like trying to build Lego castles with Jenga bricks.
Now for anyone who's listened for a bit, I just can't wrap my mind around Gutenberg. I have tried, honestly – but I kept breaking things. I can make really simple beginner items in Gutenberg… but every time I tried to do anything more I just kept breaking it… it's not meant for brains as chaotic as my own is the current theory I am going with today.
This is definitely something to keep an eye on – it appears people are running away to places like Wix rather then try to figure out Gutenberg? At least that is how I am reading this breakdown of the survey.
What are your thoughts?
The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!
EU Regulatory success prompts open-source CMS Leaders to form alliance (https://wptavern.com/eu-regulatory-success-prompts-open-source-cms-leaders-to-form-alliance)
unleash your creativity with our ‘design your own theme' webinar (https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/02/12/february-webinars/)
I tested Meta's code Lama with 3 AI coding challenges that ChatGPT aced – and it wasn't good (https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-tested-metas-code-lama-with-3-ai-coding-challenges-that-chatgpt-aced-and-it-wasnt-good/)
As AI threatens jobs, universal income becomes a thing (https://gizmodo.com/universal-basic-income-has-been-tried-over-and-over-aga-1851255547)
Why no one knows quite when a descending satellite will hit Earth this week (https://thenextweb.com/news/ers-2-satellite-re-entry-prediction-uncertain)
3 ways businesses should prepare for the AI transformation (https://thenextweb.com/news/3-ways-businesses-should-prepare-ai-transformation)
AI chip tags can fight espionage from hostile states, report says (https://thenextweb.com/news/artificial-intelligence-safety-report-ai-chips-hardware)
Nuclear fusion world record a promising step toward limitless energy (https://thenextweb.com/news/nuclear-fusion-world-record)
Dragon Rating Time!
John's Plugin
Conditionally display featured image on singular posts and pages
https://wordpress.org/plugins/conditionally-display-featured-image-on-singular-pages/
The Lowdown:
This plugin lets you choose for each post or page, if the featured image should be shown in the single view. This can get handy, if you use the featured image to show a thumbnail on the archives or front page but you don’t want the featured image to be shown on every posts view itself.
The plugin adds a simple checkbox to the featured image panel (or meta box if you are using the classic editor), that lets you choose if the featured image will be shown in the singular view or not.
Rating 5 Dragons
WordPress Tips
We would love to hear some tid bit tips from some of our producers out there – what did you figure out by breaking something? Or what did you need to learn in order to help someone? You can send these tid bits into me at amber@wppro.ca
Making Sites
Don't be afraid to reach out for help – whether that is to the developers of the plugins or just other people you know who might be able to help you. If you can't figure the problem out on your own after a decent amount of time, it's time to call in reinforcements – and that does not mean you failed, it just means that you need help.
I mean it's the same all across the board, but often because this job is so on your own people tend to feel as though they ‘should' be able to figure something out on their own; that makes sense since that is what most of this job is – though honestly, how will you learn all the various tricks on how to ‘figure it out' unless you see some others at work? Gotta learn to think differently from yourself in order to get better at solving things.
Beginners Tips
Go break sh-omething. Create yourself a sandbox or a dev site, and then go break it. Break it good, break it so good that it may take you weeks to figure out how to fix it. Then go back to whatever you were having a hard time solving before, and try again – you will find it a lot easier to solve now that you have thoroughly broken something else.
Kinda like in welding, the weld won't go right, go melt something into a pile of molten metal, chuck a few scraps around – then go back to the weld you weren't getting before. It's a lot easier to get things done after that.
Honestly, it doesn't matter the trade, going around breaking things you are allowed to break when frustrated always helps.
Go break sh-omething.
…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/
Amber's Plugin
IP Based Login
https://wordpress.org/plugins/ip-based-login/
The Lowdown:
This is a plugin that was sent into us for review. It's a very interesting plugin! Gives you the ability to authorize someone the capability of logging in without a password via their IP address.
What this means is, you add a persons IP address into the plugin, and that person will be able to log into the site without having to enter in credentials at all.
The first thing that comes to mind for this is when you are working with other developers – this would solve the issue of trying to pass on the login information; just add in the IP and leave it there for however you want them to have access for. Remove their IP, and they can no longer login unless they have the password. Very useful!
This is a Freemium plugin, so I will be going through the free version today – however, since Brijesh Kothari was awesome enough to send along their Pro Version, I will be covering the Pro version in depth next week.
So first, once you download and activate the plugin you will find the settings for it in your left-hand menu under ‘IP Based Login' – although you can also click ‘settings' under the plugin itself on the plugin page.
On the plugin's dashboard, you will see ‘Global Settings', and ‘Add IP Range'. I notice that in the free version, you have the option to mark of the checkbox ‘Select the checkbox to destroy the session if the IP is changed. Note: This will affect only sessions created by IP Based Login' – I thought that was pretty cool, a decent failsafe. Although if you check that off, make sure you are the ONLY person who uses the login you are using – 'cause otherwise the other person using the same login as you might get you both kicked out while you are trying to work.
To add the IP info, you add the username of the person you want to give access to – there is an under username saying ‘Show the list of users in a drop down'; if you click on this, you can simply choose the username from a dropdown list that appears for you. Very useful that.
Now the next one is ‘Start IP – you can either have a range of IP's or just a singular IP. If you are using a range, you will need to make sure the checkbox for ‘Select the checkbox to set this range as active' is checked off.
Unfortunately in the free version only up to IPv4 is supported, though I don't think that will be an issue for most people. If you need support for up to IPv6, you will need to upgrade.
Also, if you want to add in a link for them to be redirected to once they are logged in, or only allow them a particular number of logins before the ability for them to login like this expires, you will need to get the pro version.
The free version gives you very simple capability to make it easier for giving access to particular people, no need for passwords.
I think this is very cool, although I think the ‘usage' option could have been left as part of the free version, that is just my opinion.
As mentioned before, I will be going into depth on the Premium version of IP Based Login next week, so be sure to check back!
Rating: 4 Dragon
Earn yourself a Producership Credit!
We have 3 levels of Producers that help to keep the show's larders stocked to bursting – Free-Lance Producers, Back-Room Producers, and War-Room Producers. There are special perks for Back-Room and War-Room Producers that you can learn about on our site wppluginsatoz.com. Click on Time, Treasure, or Talent Donations in our main menu to learn all the nitty gritty details on how you can add your 2 cents!
Join in and be part of your own production and support the show at the same time!
There are loads of ways to use us as your tool to get on out there like getting an interview, leaving a review for a plugin or donating your own plugin review, or your own plugin license! I recommend you give it a go and see how it helps – you can check out our show notes in this section to see all the ways to be part of your own production!
… 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
… 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/
… Is your plugin worth its salt in Dragons? If so, send it on into us and add it to the contests! You can do this by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/plugincontest/
… Have a thought to share? Send it in! You can stay anonymous or belt your name out in all caps! Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store. Doing this will also help you in producing the show for your own benefit too!
…You can support the show by Subscribing to our Newsletter, Donating, or reviewing us on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store. Doing this will also help you in producing the show for your own benefit too!
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… YouTube Channel and joining us live every Monday at 12:15 PM PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support – and since you're already on the net's, might as well check out the Facebook page and hit that ‘like' button and share it out!
… Just showing up to our YouTube Channel and joining us live every Monday at 12:15 PM PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support – and since you're already on the net's, might as well check out the Facebook page and hit that ‘like' button and share it out!
… Don't forget – if you leave a review of us on any platform, that will help the show get noticed too; and if you happen to add your name to the show via questions or that awesome spotlight offered with a War Room Producership, that will get YOUR name out there too!
Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:
… 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!
Reach out through email to amber@wppro.ca, or through the site at wppluginsatoz.com/contact/!
Miscellaneous Announcements from us and Producers:
Have an announcement like a meetup, or to announce you'll be on stage at a WordCamp? Let us know and we will add it here and help get your news out to the world!
WordCamp Kansai 2024 – February 23-24, 2024
WordCasmp Asia 2024 – March 7-9, 2024
Woman WordPress Day – March 8, 2024
Switzerland Community Day – March 23, 2024
WordCamp Torrelodones, Martch 23-24, 2024
To see the entire list you can follow the link here in the show notes, then click on ‘More WordCamps' right below the list of the next 5. https://central.wordcamp.org/
If you are interested in finding a WordPress Meetup somewhere around the world you can go check out the places here: https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/
For those that live in Victoria, unfortunately the YYJ WordPress Meetup group has been cancelled and no longer exists.
Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!
And remember, the show notes found at wppluginsatoz.com have a whole lot of extra information to grab up that we don't read on air so be sure to check them out!
How to reach us:
We have a real brick and mortar address where you can send in art and/or notes – you can find the address in our show notes!
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
We also have virtual addresses too!
John:
- My website: http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support: http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
Today's Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugin:
Conditionally display featured image on singular posts and pages By Cyrill Bolliger
- allows individual featured image shown in thumbnail in archive
- uses simple checkbox feature
- works in classic editor
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber's Plugin:
IP Based Login By Brijesh Kothari
- Easily grant specific access via IP
- Capability to grant access via range of IP
- No need for password for granting access
Rating: 4 Dragons
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!
- What is a ‘range' of IP's, and how does that work?
- How often do peoples IP addresses change?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- Can a persons IP address change while they are working online, or do they need to disconnect and reconnect in order to have it change on them?
- Is it possible to have your own, personal and private IP address that belongs to just you?
- If so, why don't more people do that?
- If not, is it impossible or just not done?
