Category: WordPress Plugins

SDAC Recommends: WP Plugin: Top Level Categories

If you have ever wondered how to clean up WordPress URLs by removing the /category/ from your URLs, check out the plugin: Top Level Categories. After you activate it, you can access your web pages that were once only reachable by: /category/web-design/ by now using just /web-design/.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: Cool Player

After looking for a media player for WordPress sites and blogs, I have finally come to the conclusion that Cool Player is a great plugin to take a look at. A number of my clients need the ability to play a number of media files, and with an impressive list of supported media types, I recommend looking at Cool Player:

This version supports those types of files: rm, rmvb, ra, rv, ram, smil, smi, rtsp, rpm, asf, wm, wma, wmv, wax, wvx, ogg, ape, avi, mid, midi, wav, mms, m3u, asx, mov, qt, mqv, m4v, m4a, m4b, mpeg, mpg, m1s, m1v, m1a, m75, m15, mp2, mpm, mpv, mpa, flc, fli, cel, aiff, aif, aifc, cdda, bwf, rts, 3gp, 3gpp, 3g2, 3gp2, au, snd, ulw, smf, kar, qcp, sdv, gsm, amr, caf, amc, mp4, sdp, pdf, fdf, xfdf, xdp, xfd, gif, jpg, jpeg, bmp, png, xpm, dir, dxr, dcr, cst, cct, cxt, w3d, fgd, swa, swf, spl, mp3, flv, rtmp, rbs, xml, rss, xspf, atom.

My Page Order WordPress Plugin Modifcation

I have been working with a client recently that was using the My Page Order plugin for the WordPress CMS I set up. They had several “draft” pages they used for templates and did not want them to show up in the My Page Order Admin interface. After looking at the SQL code, I added in a piece that would only show published (live) pages.
To make the same change in your code, open up the plugin file (mypageorder.php), go to line 47 and change the following line:

$results=$wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_parent = $parentID and post_type = 'page' ORDER BY menu_order ASC");

to:

$results=$wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_parent = $parentID and post_type = 'page' and post_status='publish' ORDER BY menu_order ASC");

Now, only the pages you really want to order will appear in the menu.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: My Page Order

If you need to display pages dynamically within WordPress, and want to order them (and their sub pages), check out the My Page Order WordPress plugin. This plugins allows the WordPress administrator to manage the page order from within the WordPress admin area without hard coding anything in your template.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: WordPress Reports

After you put all your time and effort into creating your WordPress blog or WordPress web site, it is important to keep an eye on where your visitors are entering and exiting your site, what they are viewing (and not viewing), where they are being referred from, and how many people are reading your RSS feeds. Fortunately – if you sign up for the free Google Analytics and/or Feedburner services, you can easily view your site’s statistics using the WordPress Reports within your WordPress Admin. Definitely check this plugin out if you are at all serious about increasing your web site traffic.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: Fold Page List

If you are using WordPress pages with your WordPress based web site and are looking to make your web site more dynamic – check out Fold Page List plugin. This plugin will allow you to dynamically create drop down menus for your site without any hassle. The developers of this plugin are helpful and are open to suggestions. (The last release addressed a feature I requested)

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: Update Manager

A number of bugs can easily be solved by making sure you have the latest version of a particular plugin. If you are like most people, you do not have time to go to each and every plugin’s web site and confirm you have the latest version, but the Update Manager plugin will. The plugin is relatively new and somewhat in beta, but it has already saved me countless hours – and hopefully will do the same for you.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: iGSyntax Hiliter

After looking for a good code highlighting plugin, I can finally recommend iGSyntax Hiliter. This plugin allows you to “highlight” multiple languages within your WordPress web site.

PHP example:

 

CSS Example:

 .clear {clear:both;}

The plugin is easy to install and use, and if you still needs more information, a manual is provided.

SDAC Recommends: WordPress Plugin: WP Newsletter

I have been working with WordPress for multiple years now and I decided I needed to start reviewing some of my favorite plugins – as I receive a number of requests about what plugins I use/prefer. I am going to start with a newcomer: WP Newsletter. This plugin works great for WordPress sites allows you to:

  • create a customized newsletter for your readers or customers using the same theme based layout as you use for creating WordPress themes
  • offer a newsletter archive within WordPress
  • seamless integration with the WordPress Admin
  • use custom Newsletter WordPress template for easy integration into existing WordPress web site or blog
  • customize welcome email for new subscribers that can be modified within the WordPress Admin

The plugin developer is very responsive and open to new ideas and adding functionality to his plugin. There are also many other general newsletter functions you would expect and want

If you need a newsletter plugin for WordPess, check it out!