Riding the WordPress Plugins Wave

John's Intro:

It's Episode 600 and we have plugins for  Yearly Archiving, Searching AI… 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 600 – Riding the WordPress Plugins Wave – 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 seems that the world is really just talking about AI these days – so interesting! I keep wondering though – will AI ACTUALLY develop to the point where we can get an AI bot to do the laundry and cooking for us…? That would be awesome – though I have also thought about whether or not an AI bot's cooking would actually be as good as a humans. After all, how many of us actually follow the recipe exactly, and find that we like the way we made it more than what is written down? It is an interesting concept…

Hoping everyone is keeping themselves burn free in this beautiful human melting weather we are having!! Be sure to add some extra salt into your diet while it's this hot out – you can't hold onto the water without enough salt in your diet.

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: 

Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth)  — https://gregsgraphics.com

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 – May 10, 2023 (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-may-10-2023/) – There is quite a list this week – 42 vulnerabilities in plugins, and 5 Theme vulnerabilities.

Plugins: ones I most easily recognize are: Easy appointments, WP job portal, and UserAgen-spy.

Themes: Editorialmag, JupiterX, TheGem (Elementor), TheGem (WP Bakery). The Gem is listed 4 times, 2 times for Elementor and 2 times for WP Bakery. Be sure to have a look over these lists yourself, and work on getting those updates in order ASAP!

Essential Addons for Elementor patches critical privilege escalation vulnerability (https://wptavern.com/essential-addons-for-elementor-patches-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability) – Essential Addons for Elementor had an unauthenticated privilege escalation vulnerability in version 5.7.2, found on May 8, 2023. So far as it is known, the vulnerability has not been exploited, and they have managed to fix it as of May 11. Be sure to update!

Advanced Custom Fields Plugin patches reflected XSS Vulnerability (https://wptavern.com/advanced-custom-fields-plugin-patches-reflected-xss-vulnerability) – In laymen's terms, this vulnerability allows any unauthenticated user to steal sensitive information for privilege escalation on the WordPress site by tricking a privileged user to visit the crafted URL path. This vulnerability was discovered on May 4, and has not been exploited so far as they know. If you have not already, be sure to update to 6.1.6 to patch this ASAP.

WordPress Contributors discuss how Core can better enable AI Innovation (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-discuss-how-core-can-better-enable-ai-innovation) – WordPress contributors do not want the platform to get left behind as AI really starts taking off. Even though it is commonly thought that an AI-powered website creation could become a threat to its existence, WordPress is worried that if it doesn't ensure the platform is easily plugable for AI-powered extensions they will be left behind. There is a lot of discussion going on regarding the AI being added in, plugged in, etc, and there does seem to be some excitement around adding AI into the core. The hope is that WordPress professionals and AI open source will be able to work together to create bigger and better everything.

ACF launches new Annual Survey (https://wptavern.com/acf-launches-new-annual-survey)– WP Engine has launched an annual survey for Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), one of the plugins it acquired from Delicious Brains in 2022. There are more Users, features, and active installs. The survey is a lengthier one with an estimated 15 minutes to complete. The primary goal with this feedback from the WP community is to see what the users would like to see in ACF – I have high hopes that the new owners of ACF have indeed only improved rather than changed it up so much that it no longer resembles the original or even does the same things.

Themeum acquires Kirki Customizer Framework plugin (https://wptavern.com/themeum-acquires-kirki-customizer-framework-plugin) – Themeum is a WordPress Theme and plugin company that has now acquired the Kirki Customizer Framework plugin. In April 2023, the owner stated that he was sunsetting the plugin, though now as it has been taken over the users will not have to worry about it sunsetting on them. Hopefully the new owners will keep their word that they will not change the plugin overly much and keep it going in the same spirit it has been going since it started.

MasterWP launches 2023 WordCamp US travel program with $10K in grants for underrepresented speaker groups (https://wptavern.com/masterwp-launches-2023-wordcamp-us-travel-program-with-10k-in-grants-for-underrepresented-speaker-groups) – WordCamp US is being held August 23-25 in National Harbor. They have opened a call for speaker applications, and are giving financial considerations that might be keeping anyone from applying. There are scholarships and grants available to help cover travel expenses. If you are interested in learning about the scholarships and grants available, please be sure to check out our show notes and click on the link – there is a whole list of them here and likely one of them will be exactly what you need!

WordPress community team evolves WordCamp format to promote adoption, training, and networking for professionals (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-team-evolves-wordcamp-format-to-promote-adoption-training-and-networking-for-professionals) – In the past WordCamps have had a mostly predictable format of presenting inspirational talks; this year they are hoping to shift the focus to innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. Should be an interesting shift!

Generative Ai is immature: why abusing it is likely to end badly (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/generative-ai-is-immature-why-abusing-it-is-likely-to-end-badly-177849.html) – Really AI is like an electronic child… the more we abuse it, the more likely it is to turn out abusive. Perhaps not angry since AI does not at this point feel anything – though who is to say that it won't in the future have emotions? And if it DOES develop emotions, with all of this abuse… what kind of emotions will it develop? Also, if we keep abusing the thing, how is it going to think it is supposed to treat humans? This is a great article that goes through all of this and more.

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

WooCommerce 7.7.0 brings multi-channel marketing out of beta (https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-7-7-0-brings-multichannel-marketing-out-of-beta)

Microsoft makes Office smart (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/microsoft-makes-office-smart-178048.html)

Personal data harvesting and how to reduce your digital footprint (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/personal-data-harvesting-and-how-to-reduce-your-digital-footprint-178046.html)

Lenovo builds a workstation James Bond would love (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/lenovo-builds-a-workstation-james-bond-would-love-178003.html)

Are mainframes an indicator of banking reliability? (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/are-mainframes-an-indicator-of-banking-reliability-178260.html)

3 big generative AI problems yet to be addressed (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/3-big-generative-ai-problems-yet-to-be-addressed-178213.html)

Generative AI is here: Forrester offers tech execs tips on next steps (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/generative-ai-is-here-forrester-offers-tech-execs-tips-on-next-steps-178204.html)

Researchers instantly crack simple passwords with AI (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/researchers-instantly-crack-simple-passwords-with-ai-178233.html)

Clickbait news sites turn to AI for content (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/clickbait-news-sites-turn-to-ai-for-content-178249.html)

Fairphone unveils user-repairable wireless headphones (https://thenextweb.com/news/fairphone-user-repairable-wireless-headphones)

EU nears ban on predictive policing and facial recognition after AI act vote (https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-act-vote-pushes-eu-ban-on-predictive-policing-facial-recognition)

Sweden to pave world's first permanent e-road for EV charging while driving (https://thenextweb.com/news/sweden-worlds-first-permanent-e-road-for-ev-charging-while-driving)

Controversial AI tech deployed at King's coronation (https://thenextweb.com/news/kings-coronation-controversial-ai-tech-deployed-alongside-record-setting-5g-network)

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Dragon Rating Time!

John's Plugin

Annual Archive

https://wordpress.org/plugins/anual-archive/

The Lowdown:

The plugin you didn't know you needed until you do.

This is a useful plugin for when you have collected a lot of posts on your site over time or are intending to collect a lot of posts. It make for an excellent way for your site visitors to sort out when you had posted items.

With this you can not only create archives by Day, Week, Month and Year, with the short code Attributes you can also further create archives by Post and Alphabetically. If you have been doing this long enough you can even group the posts by Decade.

You can use the widget or for more control use a short code.

You can limit the results returned, adjust the number of items returned or even simply list custom posts types.

You can add before/after text to help further describe the results for your visitors.

Rating 5 Dragons

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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?

Making Sites

One of the places you can go to is ‘code snippits' to help you find bits of code to help with your CSS and other things. If you just Google it, you will find that you are able to find quite a bit! Worth checking out.

Don't skip either videos or written – it seems a lot of people tend to skip one or the other, and that can cause you to lose out on a lot of information. If you are like me, and just want to get to the part that you will find most help, just keep skipping forward until the person gets to the point in the videos. Makes it a little easier to find the information you are needing specifically and shaves a little time off the research. And for reading – well, eventually we all learn how to scan the words for what we are looking for.

Beginners Tips

One of the biggest things I found when I was starting out, is that I was able to get a lot more help when I simply admitted I didn't know something. Even if it felt like I SHOULD know it for some reason. If I just admitted I didn't know, I was able to get the help I needed to get me moving again. Don't be afraid to admit when you don't know something – you are not likely going to get too much flack from whomever you are working with – and you will gain respect alongside of the help because when you admit you don't know, people are always more willing to teach you.

Something I have noticed, is that Google is actually one of the best search engines to search up tech information of just about all kinds. If you use Duck Duck Go, or Bing, or one of those other guys – you might notice that your search results are a little sad. Try going to Google, most of the time I find what I am looking for there pretty fast.

…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

AI Search Bar

https://wordpress.org/plugins/open-ai-search-bar/

The Lowdown:

I thought this search bar may be more impressive than ones I have used in the past. What with the AI helping to connect all the dots and what not, so I decided to give it a go. This is a new plugin, fresh off the line!

Once downloaded and activated, you can find the dashboard in the left hand menu on its own as AI Search Bar. Click on that, and you will see ‘AI Search Bar' – this is where you put in the AIP key. If you are not sure how to do that, no worries – they give you the link you need to follow to take you directly there. Once you have put that in, you want to go back to the left hand menu and click on ‘Documentation'. Here you will find the instructions and the short code you need.

The way to use this is to put the short code into your Post, Page, or Template if you are using a theme that has the Template option.

Wherever you put the short code, you will have a search bar show up that has a blue outline, with a blue ‘search' button.

When I tested this out, it does seem to work as well as plugins like Ivory Search… if the search term does not ping anything, all you get to see if the page refresh. There is no notification that nothing was found, no offering of anything that MIGHT be connected – just nothing.

I put in search terms that should have pinged back more than one item – but it didn't. The search bar does work, though it does not have the richness that other search bar plugins have. It seems to only be able to pull up some, not all of the search results.

Admittedly this is not overly different from the WordPress Search bar, the WordPress search bar does not tend to pull up all of the results either.

I personally don't think this plugin is overly efficient, and has led me to the conclusion that AI just isn't quite ready to be a search bar yet. I would love to hear back from any listeners who have tried this out and may have gotten a different result – or if you have gotten the same result I would love to hear about that as well!

Rating: 2 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!

Hi Amber and John,

I have a domain name and want to do a section that has nothing to do with that domain name.  Is there a way, other than buying another domain name, to do a section of the website that is linked to my site with the URL not showing my actual domain name? So, if my main domain name is greatpeople.com but I want to make a section for my child to do his interest (i.e. video games) but I don't want the URL to say greatpeople.com is there a way to do that without buying another domain name?

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks for your time and keep up the good work.
James

… 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 June 1st! This is an online meeting, be sure to check it out if this is your kinda thing!  https://www.meetup.com/yyjwordpress/

There are 4 WordCamps happening around the world this month, you can check them out here: https://central.wordcamp.org/

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:

Annual Archive By Twinpictures

• Improves on default WordPress Archive ShortCode
• Improves the Sidebar Widget
• can be listed daily/weekly/monthly/annually

Rating: 5 Dragons

Amber's Plugin: 

AI Search Bar By Infinity Softech

• Premade search bar
• Uses one short code
• Easy to add into your site on page, post, or template

Rating: 2 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!

• Elementor has added a ‘built in AI' for help with coding and what not. How many themes and/or plugins do you think are going to start doing this?

• Do you think people are going to get better at coding with AI help, or do you think people are going to start forgetting how to do these kinds of things themselves?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• Working with the AI's in sites I have found to be a bit frustrating – finding the right kind of prompt for what I want has not been easy. Do you think the prompts will get easier over time?
• Do you think it would be possible for an AI to take over updating, building, creating and hosting a site all on its own or do you think that humans will still be needed for those parts?