Illuminating The Best

John's Intro:

It's Episode 598 and we have plugins for Web Directory Creation, Finding New Plugins… 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 598 – Illuminating The Best – 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!

It's official – I have been a basement troll for too long. 2 hours in the sunshine this weekend and I got sun burnt! Gonna have to make a point of getting outside way more this year, I don't usually burn. Hoping everyone else is getting outside a bunch now that the good weather is picking up!

Some reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• Remember that the show 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: 

J Saliba

Going through the Art Vaults is awesome, but we would love some new art! You can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. You can also check out the art vaults yourself there too!

…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 – April 26, 2023 (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-april-26-2023/) – There are a lot of plugins that have been patched, so be sure to check over the list.

There are also a lot of plugins with vulnerabilities, the ones I most easily recognize are: simple share buttons adder, GDPR Compliance & Cookie Consent, Simple ToolTips, Mail Subscribe List, Layer Slider, Easy Ad Manager – there are 160 plugins to be aware of this week so be sure to glance over the list.

WP Features Notifications Project progresses towards MVP for standardizing admin notifications (https://wptavern.com/wp-feature-notifications-project-progresses-towards-mvp-for-standardizing-admin-notifications) – WP Notify is working at creating a better way to standardize notifications in the WordPress admin. They are looking to build a unified notification center that would replace the chaos caused by developers hooking into the admin notices, as this was not meant to be a notification system in the first place. This could be a great thing, and I hope it turns out well! If you are interested in the way it might look you, can go and check out the link in our show notes.

Kirki Plugin up for sale, development discontinued (https://wptavern.com/kirki-plugin-up-for-sale-development-discontinued) – Developer David Vongries has announced he is sunsetting his plugin Kirki Customizer Framework, discontinuing development and support. He is looking to sell the plugin, and will only be fixing critical bugs and compatibility errors brought on by WordPress Core changes. If this is something you use, be aware that there is no other support available until a new owner takes over.

Human Made to host AI for WordPress event on May 25, 2023 (https://wptavern.com/human-made-to-host-ai-for-wordpress-event-may-25-2023) – There is an online conference happening on May 25, though no time has yet been set where attendees can expect to see demos of Human Made's current AI projects and highlights of what others are doing in the space. The organizers plan to discuss the impacts that AI will have on the WordPress Industry and share predictions and insights. If this seems like something up your ally be sure to check out the show notes for the link!

Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins showcases 108 of the most popular Plugins (https://wptavern.com/periodic-table-of-wordpress-plugins-showcases-108-most-popular-plugins) – To celebrate WordPress's upcoming 20th anniversary WordPress core committer Pascal Birchler has created a periodic table layout of the most popular Plugins. This is the same layout he did 10 years ago as well, using the table and ranking them by number of active installations. You can find the table at plugintable.com.

Ollie Block Theme now in public Beta (https://wptavern.com/ollie-block-theme-now-in-public-beta) – If testing out Beta Themes and Plugins is your thing, this will be very exciting for you!  Ollie was bought by WP Engine in 2018, along with Atomic Blocks plugin. If you are interested in testing this out, you can check out our show notes to find the link.

CertifyWP launches WordPress management and design credential (https://wptavern.com/certifywp-launches-wordpress-management-and-design-credential) – If you are interested in this $150 3 course + exam credential that can go towards mastering front-end development, you can head over to our show notes to find the link and find out more about it.

Big Bite launches 2023 Enterprise WordPress survey (https://wptavern.com/big-bite-launches-2023-enterprise-wordpress-survey) – UK based enterprise WordPress agency Big Bite has launched a survey to gather data and insights on how the platform can best serve large scale brands. If this is something that interests you, you can find the link in our show notes.

German Creatives want EU to address ChatGPT copyright concerns (https://thenextweb.com/news/germany-creatives-chatgpt-copyright-concerns) – The worry here is not about claiming Copyright Laws in ChatGPT's favour, but instead the worry is regarding the training material being used for ChatGPT. The AI is learning a lot of material it has not been authorized to use, and this material is in many cases protected training material belonging to others. I think this is a good point being made.

The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!

EU launches project to bring quantum startups from lab to market (https://thenextweb.com/news/eu-launches-project-bring-quantum-startups-from-lab-to-market)

7 tips to negotiate your way into a remote job during the interview (https://thenextweb.com/news/7-ways-negotiate-remote-job-hired)

Exclusive: Swiss startup unveils ‘world-first' AI translation startup (https://thenextweb.com/news/interprefy-startup-unveils-worlds-first-advanced-automated-speech-translation-service-for-online-and-live-eventsinterprefy)

These 19 tech giants are on EU's naughty list (https://thenextweb.com/news/eu-names-19-big-tech-face-strictest-rules-digital-services-act)

Netflix minus 1M users in Spain over no-password-sharing policy (https://thenextweb.com/news/netflix-minus-1-million-users-spain-no-password-sharing-policy)

“Closed for business:” UK competition watchdog blocks Microsoft's acquisition of Activision (https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-competition-watchdog-blocks-microsofts-acquisition-activision)

Transatlantic chip wars? UK needs to up its policy game, leading startup says (https://thenextweb.com/news/transatlantic-chip-war-uk-needs-up-policy-game-leading-startup-says)

ChatGPT is back in Italy (https://thenextweb.com/news/chatgpt-back-in-italy)

 

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Dragon Rating Time!

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John's Plugin

Web 2.0 Directory

https://www.salephpscripts.com/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/web-directory-free/

The Lowdown:

If you have a need for a web directory or a classified ads plugin this is one to look at. The free version will get you started but if you really want everything you need go for the pro version.

This plugin will allow you to set any type of directory from car sales to misc. classifieds. You can create a restaurant directory and more.

You can charge for listings, offer free listing with limitations and then get them to upgrade to a better listing. It integrates with open maps and Google Maps for ease of finding listings.

A great example of how it has been used is https://BuyOrganicDirect.ca where we have create a directory of farm stands and more for people to find local products they can buy.

The hard part of this plugin is getting all the pages built the way you would like them to be. While you can import their sample content to get started I do not recommend doing that as it is not always the way you may want it to be. I suggest going though their documentation and learning how to use the short coded to build the layout you want.

They do have it integrated into Elementor now which does make it easier to put pages together.

If you go for the premium version, you can use Paypal to collect payments and it also integrates into WooCommerce if you already have a store in place.

One interesting thing I was looking for was the ability for people to submit a listing they do not own and allow the owners to claim them.

On the whole, once you wrap your head around this, it is pretty good plugin for building a directory.

Rating: 5 Dragons

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NEWER SEGMENT! WordPress Tips

This is a new segment we are wanting to bring forward, and we are looking for some feedback from our listeners. What would be most helpful and useful for you here?

Elementor Pro:

When you are working with Elementor Templates, I don't know about everyone else, but I prefer to look at the templates in a list form. Like what you see when you are looking at your posts or pages – but Elementor brings you to this page where you get a little snapshot of templates you have created. There is a way to go back to the list form – you scroll to the bottom, and click on ‘switch to table view'. That may seem like a no brainer to some, though I didn't notice that option there for a bit… You can also choose to ‘see all' in the table view, making it easier to scroll through to see what you've got going on.

Global Settings:

When you are in one of your templates, there are a couple of ways you can get to the ‘global settings' for your site and change them without ever leaving your template you are working on.
You can go to the little hamburger menu on the top left hand corner, then click ‘site settings'. This brings you to your global settings for your site. The global settings will look like a regular menu area for any section you are working on, and when you exit out of the global settings, your template will update to the global settings, and keep you on your template to continue working.

If you are working on your typography of a section, there is the little planet icon you can click on. Generally you just choose a global colour option, though if you click on the little gear on the upper right hand corner, this will take you to the global settings for colours or typography (whichever you are working on); from here, you can click the back arrow on the upper left hand corner, and change any global settings you want. When you save and exit out of the global settings, your template will update and you will still be on the editing page to continue your work.

You can reach the global settings for within Elementor from any post or page you have created with Elementor in the exact same way.

3 plugins for a new site:

I asked a question about what plugins would be great to start with on a new site and why – and thought I would share the three plugins I like to start with and why.

Black Hole for Bad Bots: This is a great one to get in early onto your site as it swallows up a lot of bad bots. It helps to reduce server resources, keeping them available for legit visitors.

Classic Editor: I like adding this because it helps to keep things the way I am used to seeing them. This keeps the old style Edit Post screen, so I don't have to go looking for and learning a new layout to create.

Codecorun: Other installation details: this is one that is good to get into your site early on as it will display the information of when a plugin has been added, who installed it, when it was deactivated and activated. This information can be invaluable for down the road troubleshooting.

…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/

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Amber's Plugin

New Plugins

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cubecolour-new-plugins/

The Lowdown:

New Plugins is a really useful plugin to have if you like the option to see what plugins are new, which ones are in beta, and which ones are featured all separately.

Once installed and activated, you go to your Plugins List, and click ‘add new'.

This is where you will see the plugin working – you will see the options for:

New, Featured, Popular, Recommended, Favorites, Beta Testing

The plugins are now separated into these categories for you, making it so much easier to browse!

Although it doesn't seem like much, I have found this plugin invaluable. This helps me to find the newest plugins, and makes it possible to look through the beta ones so that I can keep an eye out for them coming fully to life.

This plugin is free, and I have never had an issue with it not playing well with others.

They haven't updated it for a bit, hoping that they haven't lost interest in this plugin – it is a free plugin, so it may have just fallen down to the bottom of their to-do list for the time being.

For those out there who are thinking about trying this plugin out, I recommend you give them a little value back. The plugin is great, works well, and helps to keep things more organized for you to do what you need to do. Value for value is a great way to go!

Rating: 5 Dragons

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Onto Our Producer Know How and Donations Segment!

Join in and be part of your own production and support the show at the same time!

Reach out to John and get yourself Interviewed – use us as your tool to get out there!

… 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 your Plugin Reviews, or suggestions for a 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 your own Plugin License and add it to the contest – this is a great way to get your name and your work out there!

… 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/

Send in questions and/or comments – we always love hearing from our Producers!

… 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!

You can check us out on Facebook, or our YouTube Channel! Be sure to hit the ‘like' button and share share share!

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!

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!

Free-Lance Producers:

… Free-Lance Producers always show up when least expected, and often times when most needed! No donation required to become a Free-Lance Producer – you just are one if you're here!

… 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:

… Back Room Producers always seem to be about the place helping with our contests, artwork, site organization, notes, questions, suggestions, and even more! While they tend to hang out a lot in the back lounge and consume massive amounts of coffee and doughnuts, it's well earned through both hard work and their donations – never above $50 dollars and absolutely equal to their Time and Talent donations!

… 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. We always appreciate your help in organizing and changing of the coffee – thank you!

War Room Producers:

… War Room Producers receive a few extra perks with their donations of $50 or more – an official A to Z Handle of their choice, a spotlight in that weeks show for a short speech, and an official Executive Producership Credit! These credits are real and can be used in the real world to your advantage! Only draw back is that they sometimes gotta make fresh coffee when the Back Room Producers emptied the pot…

**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!**

… Official A to Z Handle means you will receive a specialized login to our site. We are working to update our site where we will have a Members Only section, and you will have access to a variety of things through your personalized handle for our site! To receive your Official A to Z Handle, think up an original name, and send it in to us along with the show number and the show name.

… Your spotlight can be an elevator pitch for your business, a note, or you can just skip it – just be sure to let us know your choice and we will adhere appropriately.

… 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 appeared on, and we will back up your right to claim Producership!

… You don't ACTUALLY have to make the Back Room Producers coffee, but you might want to make yourself a fresh one. 😉 Especially if you are planning on pointing out things going wrong on the site… we got a long list and will likely try and convince you to help us out a little!

… 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 ever-growing list!

Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:

You can send in your 2 cents and have it read out here on the show!

Amber and John,

Great show, I have learnt a lot.  Wondering, how do I decide what order to install my chosen plugins in for both ease of use and safety? I  value your opinions and suggestions.

Thanks again,
Sonia

… 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!

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/
Next WordPress Victoria Meetup is on May 4th! (May the 4th be with you!) This is an online meeting, be sure to check it out if this is your kinda thing!  https://www.meetup.com/yyjwordpress/

WordCamp Barcelona 2023 (https://central.wordcamp.org/wordcamps/wordcamp-barcelona-3/) – Next Word Camp is in Barcelona from May 5 – 6!

Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!

And remember, the show notes found at wppluginsatoz.com has 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:

Web 2.0 Directory by salephpscripts.com

• This plugin will allow you to set any type of directory
• From car sale to misc. to classifieds.
• Create a restaurant directory and more.

Amber's Plugin: 

New Plugins by Michael Atkins

• Separates your plugins into tabs
• Gives you the section of just New plugins
• Gives you a section for just Beta plugins

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!

• Have you ever made a plugin? If so, what was it for?

• Over the years, how has code changed that you have noticed? Is it easier or harder to work with?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• If you were just getting into this world now, where do you think you would start first, and why?

• What initially drew you to computers, and where did you find yourself focusing at first? How did it lead to where you are now?