Blogger Dude

jQuery is a beautiful thing. It powers most of the fancy plugins you find that add cool, interactive effects to your WordPress site. I’ve selected a few of my favorites from the newest jQuery-powered plugins to hit the repository. Grab a cup of coffee and check out some of the possibilities available for your WordPress site.

Flicker Photo Post

Flicker Photo Post gives you the ability to add Flickr images to your WordPress posts and even crop them as necessary. The search box is AJAX-powered so that you can easily find images by keyword. After you find what you’re looking for, simply click “Insert Into Post”.

WP Sponsor Flip Wall

WP Sponsor Flip Wall is an awesome plugin based on a popular tutorial for creating boxes that flip when clicked using jQuery and CSS. The plugin gives you an easy way to upload and crop the images as well as administer your sponsors. Check out the demo to see it in action.

Custom Post Type List Shortcode

Custom Post Type List Shortcode is a simply awesome plugin. It gives you a shortcode with which you can easily list all of the posts within a post type and sort by regular or custom fields. It comes with a ton of attributes that you can easily set in the shortcode to customize the display.

Random Post Slider

Random Post Slider gives you the ability to slide posts continually using jQuery cycle to Scroll Right, Scroll Left, Scroll Up, and Scroll Down. Check out the live demo on the plugin’s homepage.

LoadedPress Show More

The LoadPress Show More plugin converts [showmore], [more] shortcodes into an easy to use hidden / expanding content area. This is useful for hiding images, long quotes, or longer posts. Try out a demo on the plugin’s homepage.

Better Backgrounds

Better Backgrounds helps you to implement full-screen backgrounds on your WordPress site. The plugin gives you a random background image every visitor session, page refresh, or timed slideshow interval. Choose between a fixed full screen or a scrolling background.

ThumbSniper

ThumbSniper dynamically shows preview screenshots of hyperlinks as tooltips on your WordPress site. It utilizes the “qTip2″ jQuery plugin.

Gallery to Slideshow

Gallery to Slideshow is a very cool plugin that converts the WordPress built-in gallery into a responsive jQuery Blueberry slideShow. The best part is that it requires zero configuration from the user. Check out a live demo.

Slick Social Share Buttons

The Slick Social Share Buttons plugin adds a floating or slide out tab with Facebook, Twitter, Google +1, Linkedin, and StumbleUpon social media buttons.

Announcement Bar

The new Announcement Bar plugin gives you a fixed position header using HTML with jQuery to create a drop-down announcemnet bar that you can edit with Custom Post Types.

Simple Slideshow

The Simple Slideshow plugin is a very minimalist style slideshow that integrates well into any theme and is easy to configure. Use the shortcodes to add slideshows to your posts or pages.

Show Twitter Followers

Show Twitter Followers displays your followers in the sidebar of your WordPress site. There’s no need for a password and you can show up to 30 followers.

WP Moods

WP Moods is a unique new plugin that calculates your general mood with several criteria for which you determine the value. It lets you see a timeline of all of your moods and even display graphs of the evolution of one criterion.

Facebook Page Photo Gallery

Facebook Page Photo Gallery uses Fancybox to display a photo gallery from Facebook. Simply paste the ID of a Facebook album into the built-in shortcode and you’ll be displaying Facebook photos on your WordPress site.

Archives

The Archives plugin lets you add archive anywhere by dropping a shortcode into the post editor. You can choose from jQuery or HTML archives. The jQuery archives gives you a tabbed display, including Tag Cloud, Latest Posts, Categories and Monthly Archives.

jFlow Plus

jFlow Plus lets you create simple image sliders with text content that you can add to any post or page or place directly within your theme files. It plays nice and doesn’t interfere with any other galleries running on your site. View a live demo.

Disruptive Talk

Disruptive Talk is a phono widget which lets WordPress users call a phone number right from your site for free. The widget can call any landline phone number, sip address, or Tropo application.

Visual Form Builder

Visual Form Builder is a plugin that helps you to easily create forms in the WordPress dashboard using a simple, drag-and-drop interface. Forms include jQuery validation, a basic logic-based verification system, and entry tracking.

JS Appointment

JS Appointment is a simple appointment and event calendar plugin, ideally suited to businesses that run daily appointments, such as scheduling for doctors, hair stylists, beauty salons or restaurant reservations. View a live demo of the booking functionality in action and find out more information on the plugin’s homepage.

WD3K AJAX Sliding Contact Form

The WD3K AJAX Sliding Contact Form features a jQuery-powered sliding contact form in the left border of your WordPress site. It contains client side validation and AJAX-powered mailing, so no page refresh is required. The admin panel allows you to configure all form labels, including error messages and form status messages.

jQuery Slider

The jQuery Slider plugin is highly customizable. You can set its width, height, pagination and other parameters. Use it on a post or page via the built-in schortcode or in your theme’s template files using the php function included. Slides are be added as a slide post type from slides menu.

If you’re a plugin developer whose been using custom tables for storing information in WordPress the transition to custom post types may be daunting.

However, as WordCamp UK showed there’s no need to as it’s a really simple process, thanks to a demonstration by Kieran O’Shea.

It’s really simple, and here are the two steps;

1. Create your custom post type

Create, install and activate the following plugin:

/*
Plugin Name: Example Custom Post
Plugin URI: http://www.kieranoshea.com
Description: Allows the demonstration of custom posts
Author: Kieran O'Shea
Author URI: http://www.kieranoshea.com
Version: 1.0
*/
function create_post_type() {
  register_post_type( 'calendar_event',
    array(
      'labels' => array(
        'name' => __( 'Events' ),
        'singular_name' => __( 'Event' ),
        'add_new' => __('Add New'),
        'add_new_item' => __('Add New Event'),
        'edit_item' => __('Edit Event')
      ),
      '>public< span class="phpString">' => true,
      'has_archive' => true,
      'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'events')
    )
  );
}
add_action( 'init', 'create_post_type' );
function my_rewrite_flush() {
  create_post_type();
  flush_rewrite_rules();
}
register_activation_hook(__FILE__, 'my_rewrite_flush');

Note the last few lines, especially flush_rewrite_rules() which make sure your new post type can be viewed on your site.

2. Move your existing content to your new custom post type

Now all you need to do is loop through your database entries and add them as new posts for your new custom post type!

/*
A quick command line script to migrate a table of data to custom posts
*/
// Turn off errors as we're sort of outside wordpress
// and the browser and that can cause warnings
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
// Require the standard WordPress header
>require(dirname(__FILE__).'/wp-blog-header.php');
// Tell the user what we're about to do

echo 'Migrating table WP_CALENDAR to custom post type CALENDAR_EVENT
';
// We need some of the WordPress globals to proceed
>global $wpdb;
// Get all our events
$events = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM wp_calendar");
// How many are there?
echo sizeof($events).' events will be imported...
';
// Loop through 'em and load 'em to WordPress
>if (!empty($events))
  {
    foreach ($events as $event)
      {
        $ent['post_type']    = 'calendar_event';
        $ent['post_content'] = $event->event_desc;
        $ent['post_parent']  = 0;
        $ent['post_author']  = 1;
        $ent['post_status']  = 'publish';
        $ent['post_title']   = $event->event_title;
        $entid = wp_insert_post ($ent);
        if ($entid == 0) {
          echo 'Failed to migrate event "'.$event->event_title.'"
          ';
        } else {
          echo 'Migrated event "'.$event->event_title.'"
          '; }
      }
    }
// Tell the user we're all done
echo '
Done!
';

Now, you need to run that from the command line. So, grab yourself a tool like PuTTY for Windows or use the Mac Terminal and connect to your server to run the script.

Job done! You’ll see a new menu item in your dashboard with all your new custom posts.

Thankfully, Kieran has provided a mini site for WordCamp UK where you can see his full presentation and download the code above too.

I spoke to Kieran afterwards who provided a useful summary of his session:

This year at WordCamp Portsmouth, Michael Kimb Jones of WonderThemes, did a great round-up of plugins. When I showed up I thought there was a possibility that he would be talking about World of Warcraft Plugins, but once he got going I could breathe a sigh of relief.

The presentation was basically a round-up post, live. It was split into two halves – popular and well-known plugins, and then plugins that Kimb installed on a site and demoed for us.

Here’s a quick round-up of the plugins that he installed. A few of them got some “ooooh”s and “aaah”s from the audience.

CMS Page Tree View

If you’ve got hundreds of pages this plugin is a great way to keep them organise. Rather than having to trawl through your list of pages, CMS Page Tree View gives you a nice tree. You can use it to drag and drop pages to different places, view pages, edit pages and create pages. It’s a must for managing sites with lots of pages.

CollabPress

If you want to go so far as to move all of your processes onto WordPress then CollabPress could be the plugin for you. It’s a project management system that works straight from your WordPress dashboard. You can create projects, assign different users to them, schedule email reminders and track activity.

Contact Form 7

Everyone loves contact forms, and Contact Form 7 is loved by more than 4 million people. That’s a lot of downloads! I’m a Contact Form 7 user, mainly because it remains simple while having all of the flexibility that you need for most types of forms. There are also a number of plugins that people have created to extend Contact Form 7 even further.

Easy Table Creator

Tables can be a bit of a pain to insert into a post or page, and WordPress doesn’t make it that easy. This plugin adds an icon to your TinyMCE which lets you insert a table. What is particularly nice about it is that it is bundled with the jQuery tablesorter which lets your visitors sort your table live on your page.

Custom Post Type UI

Custom Post types are relatively easy to create but with this UI they become even easier so that even novices can create custom post types without having to get their hands dirty with code. The UI is easy to use, enabling you to create and administer custom post types and custom taxonomies.

EG Attachments

This is a great little plugin which is simple but solves a problem. Ever wanted a list of files that are attached to a page? A list of PDFs or documents for example. This plugin adds an icon to your WYSIWYG editor. Click it and it will insert a shortcode to show a list of files that have been attached to the page.

Front-End Editor

Anyone who deals with clients / family members that are uncomfortable using a computer will love this plugin. Once the plugin is installed and set up, logged in users can edit pages and posts from the front end. You can restrict it to just posts, or to all types of content including custom post type. You even get a handy WYSIWYG editor so you can format and insert files.

Regenerate Thumbnails

This is a handy plugin for regenerating thumbnails if you need to change their size. If you have changed thumbnail size in Settings -> Media you can regenerate all of the thumbnails across the site. It’s also handy if you have changed your theme and want to resize your thumbnails to match it.

Widgets on Pages

This plugin creates in-page widget areas. Create the widget area in the settings and insert it into the page using a shortcode. If you want a front page with lots of widget areas that you don’t want to use across the site this can be a great way to achieve it.

WordPress Reset

When I saw this plugin it scared me a little bit. Eek! Imagine the power of taking your site back to zero. Scary thought. But if you run a lot of test sites this is a great way to reset your WordPress database. It returns WordPress to its defaults, deleting all content. Use with care!

And the rest…

He also covered a number of popular plugins:

• Forms: Gravity Forms
• Social: BuddyPress, bbPress
• Comments: Disqus Comment System
• SEO: WordPress SEO, Google XML Sitemaps
• Caching: W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache
• E-Commerce: MarketPress, WP E-Commerce, Jigoshop
• All-in-one: JetPack

Like what you see? What plugins make you go WOW?

If you are a friend of the furries, a fanimal of animals and a do-gooder to boot, then you’ll probably want to help homeless critters in your community find good homes. You may even have taken stray animals into your own home until you could find their owners or get them adoptions with loving families.

The new WP ADA plugin makes it easy to create a WordPress site that will bring more people and pets together.

This plugin is the perfect option for small humane societies or adoption shelters eager to get an online database of available pets. It uses custom post types and the post editor has a special info form, specific to pet adoptions.

Pets are displayed as posts, but the plugin also comes with a couple of handy, configurable widgets for showing Lost and Found pets or pets for adoption.

The author discourages its use for pet shops, however, as the main purpose of this development is to assist in the adoption of sheltered animals. If you choose to use it for your pet shop, be warned; no support will be provided.

Check out some features of WP ADA:

• Auto-tag status in thumbnails – Through CSS, the status is displayed as a tag placed on every thumbnail.
• Change status, not permalinks – By using posts tags, you can change status any time, without changing the post permalink.
• Every pet is a fully featured post – You have feed, comments, can add images, videos, everything you need just like a normal post.
• Special information kept on every post – Data such size, breed, colors etc are kept individually on every post.
• Widgets for display – Just drop the ADA widgets for display a random available pet for adoption, search form, lost pet and pet color tagcloud.
• Works with any theme – Add the code for display the special data in pet posts or create a theme template file.
• Output uses style sheet – You don’t need to dive into codes for customize colors and fonts, change everything within the stylesheet.
• Export and Import – ADA Plugin uses post type, a WordPress feature, so you can export and import pets posts whenever you need.
• Contextual Help – Are you lost? Click the Help tab when editing or adding a post type for a quick guide.
• Fully localized – Help on adding new languages too!

If you have a heart for lost, abandoned or sheltered pets, or just want to donate your time to helping a local shelter find homes for animals, the WP ADA plugin might be the perfect option for your WordPress site. Install it today and start helping the furrry companions in your neck of the woods.

We all love custom post types. They’ve really opened up WordPress to all sorts of new possibilities. But sometimes they have a habit of acting funny and need to be slapped around a bit to play nice. I spoke to David, one of our Help and Support Pros, and he said that a common problem that crops up again and again on the WPMU DEV support forums is a 404 messsage appearing when using custom post types.

Before you start pulling out your hair these are the first things you should do:

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks

2. Change your permalinks to something different to what you have

3. Save

4. Change your permalinks back to your preferred setting

This flushes the rewrite rules and should provide a solution to your problem.

Remember that many plugins use custom post types so even if you think you aren’t using them you might just be.

Still stuck? Check out this post on WordImpressed for more.

The WordPress Custom Post Type Code Generator is a cool new resource created by the folks at Themergency.com. The generator makes use of the Gravity Forms plugin to help you easily create the code for registering a new custom post type on your WordPress site. Check it out:

The generator guides you through the process step by step, allowing you to change labels, check additional features, create custom fields, etc. At the very end it will output the code for you.

Find out more about how the code generator was made on the Themergency blog. Bookmark the WordPress Custom Post Type Code Generator for the next time you need to create your own custom post types.

WordPress generally displays your posts and pages in order of the date published. Rearranging their order can become quite tedious if you’re depending on changing dates and times.

The Post Types Order plugin provides a solution to this problem. It allows you to order post types objects (posts, pages, custom post types) using a drag and drop sortable Javascript capability.

After you install the plugin a re-order link will appear in each post type section and this is where you will go when you want to sort the order.

The Post Types Order plugin has received great reviews and a five star rating on WordPress.org. Download it today from the repository if you need a way to quickly reorder your posts and pages.