WordPress…! Plugins…! Hello…? Hello…? Can anybody hear us out there…?
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WordPress…! Plugins…! Hello…? Hello…? Can anybody hear us out there…?
It's Episode 528 – We have plugins for Duplicating, Redirection, Scroller Magic, Understanding the Stars, Pumpkin Spicing, Halloween … and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
Redirect Redirection, Stars-At-Night, Halloween Countdown, Yoast Duplicate Post, Magic Scroller, Pumpkin Spice Admin, … and ClassicPress options on Episode 527.
John's Intro:
Moving into a new Era.
With great appreciation for the No Agenda Show for their inspiration of ideas and the occasional stolen sound clip.
This is a value for value show and I look forward to everyone providing some value back.
Before I get started, you will want to hang around to the end of the show for our Q & A segment with Amber…. and to those listening on the podcast, you may want to check out the YouTube version which has some great discussions before the show starts…
Producer Credits:
Executive producer:
Nobody this week. Maybe next week!
Show Art:
Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com
All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com
Check out all the art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/
Ambers' Rant:
This is #35 of 52 episodes for 2021! And here on the Island, Autumn is officially here!! I can smell it in the air – cold has a very particular smell when it is rolling down from the mountains I find. Very different from the flat lands over in Alberta.
I am very much looking forward to Halloween, and so are my kids! They are already getting their costumes together. Just remember that you need to keep yourself warm in the coming cold, but don't overdo it to the point where you start overheating outside – sweating in the cold is one of the worst things you can do for yourself. Almost guaranteed to get you sick if you are spending a while out there in the cold when it's here fully.
Hopefully everyone is getting outside to enjoy the bit of the last sunshine before it goes away for about 6 months! Remember to turn off that media for about an hour every day! And don't try and ‘cheat' by just throwing on a TV show – trust me, you are still being ‘attacked' in the brain meats by TV shows and/or movies in much the same way as when you listen to the news. Throw on some music and dance around, listen to or read a book! Go listen to the sound of nature and see if you can hear the call of the little known ‘snipe bird'. It could happen…
Rinse and repeat as often as needed.
We have some news from the world of WordPress for you today as well as some great plugins.
News this week:
Theme Author Survey Results: Uploading via ZIP Files Preferred, SVN Access Forthcoming – This talks about how the most popular choice for uploading is through ZIP, and how there will be tickets upcoming for adding in the use of GitHub Action for automatic deployment over SVN. Interesting read if you are using GitHub already and would like this option.
Termly Responds to Feedback, Updates Its Cookie Consent Banner Limits – Back in August, Termly completed an overhaul of the WordPress extension, turning what was once a free offering, into what is can be referred to as a commercial SaaS product. Users were only able to have 100 visitors, than they had to pay at minimum $180 for the service. People didn't like that, so now Termly has changed it to 10,000 Unique Visitors. I'm not sure if people will be pleased by this either, but it's a start.
Extendify Patches Vulnerabilities in the Redux Framework Plugin – WordFence reported 2 vulnerabilities in Redux's new template-browsing feature; this was due to a lax permissions check on WP REST API endpoints the plugin uses. The patch has been put in place, and users are recommended to update ASAP. More detail in the article.
Google is working on rolling out the ability to send users to the publisher's own webpages in addition to AMP pages – This will be fantastic if they manage to get it working! Check out the article to see which organic key words will drive conversion, where they are in this, and what is to come!
Python is on the verge of another big step forward! – Python is close to being #1 on the Tiobe Index right now, and has almost surpassed C. Read the article for more in depth information on this!
Adobe adds payment services via PayPal to its Adobe Commerce Platform – Which is great news for people who prefer to use PayPal for paying for things! Check out the article for more in depth information.
The extras – for even more extra news, check out our Facebook, or Twitter page!
This is the extra news stuff that someone out there might find interesting. To read more, you can head on over to the show notes or newsletter and check it out! If you find something to add for next show, send me a link at amber@wppro.ca
WordPress opens applications for ‘In Person' WordCamps – Be aware that people will only be able to attend so long as the guidelines in your area are fully complied with regarding Covid. If getting back to WordCamps is an exciting possibility for you, then this article will be a great read!
Pipe Wrench Publication Releases New Native Land Search Plugin for WordPress – Essentially this plugin has native land mapped out the way it is believed to have been mapped out before the Europeans remapped it into what it is today. Very interesting thing to have; you can search your own address to see where it would have landed on the original layout of the land before Europeans mapped it.
Phishers impersonate US DOT to target contractors after Senate passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill – The phishers pretended to be part of the department project, and created a link where people could ‘bid' on getting a piece of the money from the bill. The way they went about this was very sneaky, taking CSS and HTML from the real USDOT website, thus making their site look legit. They even used a real government warning telling users to check that sites are legit US government sites before entering in personal information! Check out the article for more information. (Very sneaky, but I do have to take my hat off to them for the creativity and the balls on them for creating the site!)
FSDE Program: Insights Into Switching Between Block Themes – This is a great article by a woman who never switches themes unless in a test environment, and her thoughts on the process. Rather enlightening to read another persons experiences I find.
How to speed up hosting with Static Server Cache – This goes through and explains why caching is important, how it helps your site, and goes through some plugins you might want to try explaining the pro's and con's they have found with each of the plugins.
Tips Tuesday with MayAnna! – This week covers more Gutenberg, SEO testing, the outcome of Automattic acquiring the Social Image Generator plugin, and more!
From TNW's Big Spam NewsLetter comes a German Short Children's Video about Bread Man (<– this is the YouTube video with sub titles) with quite the story of being pushed online, cancelled, than trapped in cyberspace… Get's you thinking for sure!
From TNW's Neural NewsLetter comes a great story about Robots vs Dragons.
The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Support the show
This Show will not work without you, the producers, as it is a Value for Value model, meaning if you're getting any value out of it then give some value back and help the show out.
Start by subscribing to the newsletter for additional information and get out there round them up and rope them all in, belly up to the bar and enjoy. Spread the word about WP Plugins A to Z and catch it live every Thursday at noon PST on our YouTube Channel.
Show Producers
We'd like to acknowledge all the producers who have supported the show in the various ways over the last week.
This weeks show Art Work comes from:
Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com
Check out all the art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/
This week's Executive Producer/'s are:
Nobody this week. Maybe next week!
A big thank you to all the Producers who came in under $50 and to those who have set up weekly subscriptions they will remain anonymous and I thank you very much.
All these small subscriptions really help the show out.
A big thank you to those who have hired me because of the Podcast, thank you that is as good as donating to the show.
You can Support the Show by:
Yes, I am pimping out my daughter here, if you want to see her very pretty mug in the live stream it is now up to a $500 donation and until it happens that price will continue to go up… At the rate it is going she will never be live. Someone may want to start a Go Fund Me to make her mug live.
Donating money to help the show Donations of $50 and over are credited with an Executive Producer Credit in the Show Notes, and their note is read out on the show.
Submitting art work at the WP Plugins Art generator,
Submit articles news and information
Submit plugin suggestions for reviews
You can also create a monthly donation at Patreon
Or something I may not have thought of.
If you would like to send something to WP Plugins A to Z you can send to the following address:
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
Off we go into the meat and potatoes, Into the depths of plugin depravity…..
ClassicPress Options
ClassicPress is growing really well, but I just don't have the time to add reviews on ClassicPress myself. I am always open to reviews sent in by listeners; though unless there is a review sent into me on ClassicPress, I am not going to do more than mention that ClassicPress is a thing, and here are some resources. I hope some listeners out there find this information useful!
One thing I am looking forward to in the ClassicPress World is the expansion of the number of ClassicPress specific plugins and their own repository. There are a few plugins specifically for ClassicPress and all plugins for WordPress 4.9.9 work well on it. I do believe it has a future, I just have not time to help them in getting it out there.
ClassicPress News:
New Petitions Page
ClassicPress is built by the community for the community, and the community’s feedback is critical to the success of the project.
That is why they are inviting you to visit their new petitions site and vote on your favorite petitions!
https://www.classicpress.net/petitions-update-let-your-voice-be-heard/
1.3.0 is available now Party popper
Thank you to everyone who helped get this out the door! Check out the blog post for all the new updates:
https://www.classicpress.net/introducing-classicpress-1-3-0/
For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.
ClassicPress Resources:
“Must Have” Plugins List
https://forums.classicpress.net/t/must-have-plugins-list/1163
It seems ClassicPress now has it own repository you can check it here https://directory.classicpress.net/plugins they now have 72 plugins available.
CodePotent's plugin directory
https://codepotent.com/classicpress/plugins/
WordPress Plugins
Are you looking for some great newly released plugins check this link
https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/new/
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John's Plugin
Redirect Redirection
https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirect-redirection/
The Lowdown:
This is a redirection plugin with some really great enhancements. You can create the usual redirects but you also have to ability to create redirects base on on specific criteria.
Redirect HTTP codes can be 301, 302, 303, 304, 307 and 308.
Inclusion and exclusion rules: logged in/out users, specific user role, user’s referrer link, user’s agent, user’s cookie, user’s IP, server, and language.
Redirection rules: Simplified redirection rules as well as advanced RegEx matches – URLs that contain specific string to new or removed string, URLs that start with X, specific permalink structures, RegEx matches, and 404's. Setting redirection rules with several matching conditions is also possible.
This could be an excellent tool for when you do upgrades or clean up old content to redirect people to the new stuff.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Sent in by our Producer Greg Holdsworth from Greg's Graphics:
Yoast Duplicate Post
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-post/
The Lowdown:
Have you ever wanted to quickly make a copy of a page or post, without the risk of ruining the published original? Do you need an easy way to duplicate a page for a new service or product? Do you want to make a quick backup copy?
The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin lets you duplicate any post or page in WordPress – WITH ONE CLICK. It is always easier and faster to start from a copy!
The plugin has two modes, and adds two links to your post overview: “Clone” and “New Draft”. “Clone” makes a copy of that specific post or page. “New Draft” copies that post or page and immediately opens it in the WordPress editor.
There is a brand-new feature called “Rewrite & Republish”. It allows you to seamlessly edit your content offline, by creating a temporary draft. You can make whatever changes to your page or post, without taking the “original” offline.
This plugin can save you a TON of time. The best part? It is ABSOLUTELY FREE, with no “pro version” restrictions. It has over 4 million installations and a five-star rating.
And I give it a FIVE dragon rating (**roar**)
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John's Plugin
Stars-at-Night
https://wordpress.org/plugins/stars-at-night/
The Lowdown:
If you are already or are an aspiring amateur Astronomer this can be a great tool for you to figure out when the planets will be rising or locating stars in the sky and more.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Magic Scroller
https://wordpress.org/plugins/magic-scroller/
The Lowdown:
I was super excited by this plugin when I came across it, though the lack of description did make me think that it might not work…
And it does not appear to work.
You are supposed to be able to change the colour of your scroll bar, along with the background colour of your scrollbar, the hover colour, the scroll width, and the border radius of the scroll bar. You are supposed to be able to use Hex, rgb code, or even just plain old English words – and for sizing and border radius you are supposed to be able to use px or cm for sizing.
Unfortunately, I tried all the different codes and English words for the colouring, and the two kinds of sizing that are supposed to work on 2 different sites – and nothing. It does not appear to work. Too bad really, I would have loved to of given my site a hot pink scrolling bar with lime green hovering colour…
This is a new plugin, so hopefully whatever the issue is will be fixed – then I can turn the scroll bar hot pink randomly.
Until that point, this one unfortunately gets a 1.
Rating 1 Dragon
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John's Plugin
Halloween Countdown
https://wordpress.org/plugins/halloween-countdown/
The Lowdown:
Yes it is that time of year again when we start to think of the new year and the celebration of Samhain commonly known as Halloween. This is the real New Year celebration. It is actually a celebration of life and it is time to set up your countdown clock. This one is a simple one just activate and add the short-code nothing else to do.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Pumpkin Spice Admin
https://wordpress.org/plugins/pumpkin-spice-admin/
The Lowdown:
Autumn is my favourite time of year (not just because of Halloween!! Though that is a major part), and this plugin makes it A LOT of fun. ?
Plugin it in and let her rip!
This will ONLY effect your dashboard, NOT your front page area. It turns all your menu items on the left and along the top into pretty cursive, changes the colour of your menu and top area into the colour of cinnamon and caramel (at least that's the colours I see them as), and has these leaves slowly trickle down to the bottom of your page!
Except on the plugins page – for some reason the leaves stop right on top of your topmost plugin… and you can't get rid of them until you refresh. That was a little irritating, but it only does this on the plugins page, nowhere else on your dashboard that I was able to see. So unless you are updating your site or working in your plugins, you won't have any issues! Just pretty autumn leaves that float down once, and stay at the bottom of your page. You see just the top edges once they are down there, and it only happens once, not constantly.
Really fun little plugin for adding a bit of festivity to your work!!
Rating 5 Dragons
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Random links for plugins
WordPress plugins crafted from love and experience
https://codeat.co/
Listener Questions
If you have any you would like to have asked, please feel free to send them in! Remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question!
Enter The Contest to Win!!
Contests Powered by Simple Giveaways who kindly provides us with the premium version for our contests.
Steve Goodtime & Brant Matthews created a new jingle for us for contests.
I do want to thank Charlie for coming to the aid of the show and getting our contests all organized. I also want to thank all the developers again for supporting our show with their plugin donations! Please check them out.
Short note about participating in the contests folks. Remember we go to great efforts to get these licenses and look for more participation from you the producers.
Our contest is for:
Codeixer Deposits for WooCommerce Single Domain Lifetime License
Single Domain Lifetime License valued at $179
https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license/
Are you currently running an online store? If so, you may explore various methods that can support your conversions and sales. One of the best methods you can use is by providing partial payment options to all your customers.
Doing this will let your customers not having to pay the total product price while they buy. What’s more, it allows you to give an amount they need to pay upfront and then collect the rest of the amount at predefined intervals.
Enter for your chance to win a Single Domain Lifetime License valued at $179! It’s time to let your customers divide an order payment, leave a deposit, and pay the remaining balance later. (https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license/) The contest will run until September 30th!!
Let your friends know about the giveaway!
WP Plugins A to Z Giveaway to Starter Lifetime Licence for Advanced Database Cleaner Pro. https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license @codeixer #codeixer #WordPress… Click To Tweet Check out our contest page for all the details and to enter for your chance to win!!
The contest will run until September 30th!!
Visit http://WPPluginsAtoZ.com/contests for more info.
For all developers who would like to support the show. You can donate a premium license to be used in a future contest, please go to WPPluginsAtoZ.com/PluginContest
The plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugins: Redirect Redirection – 5, Stars-At-Night – 5, Halloween Countdown – 5
Amber's Plugins: (Greg covered) Yoast Duplicate Post – 5, (I covered) Magic Scroller – 1, Pumpkin Spice Admin – 5.
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Reminders / Commercial / Promotions:
Next Week:
No meetup planned at the moment but you can keep tabs on this at https://wppluginsatoz.com/meetup
If you're not getting enough of us, you can join us for the new Podcast and Live Stream of The Rogues Tavern **Shooting the Shit at The Rogues Tavern** Tuesday evening's at 8 pm PDT, check us out there TheRoguesTavern.com/live
Would you like to be on an interview show? Simply connect at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview
If you have suggestions on plugins you would like to have reviewed please submit them on the website at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/
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 and we will answer to the best of our ability!
- When you move, does your IP address change? Or does your IP follow your account with the company you get your Internet from?
- What about if you close your account and then open a new one?
- How is the Internet provided?
- Can you provide your own Internet?
When you update plugins, sometimes they break, causing what I refer to as ‘the white screen of terror'. Easiest way to fix it that I currently know of, is to go into cPanel, add on ‘brk' to the plugin, than go back and fix it in the site, removing ‘brk' whenever you have solved the issue.
- My question is: what do you do about a plugin that breaks when you do not have access to the cPanel, and the plugin breaks causing the white screen of terror to appear?
Closing out this Episode
Be sure and subscribe to our Newsletter.
Just some reminders:
You can support the show at wppluginsatoz.com/donate
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How to Contact Us:
John can be contacted at:
- on my website @ http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber can be contacted at:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
